Electrical-heating molding process based on carbon fiber felt for fabricating glass fiber reinforced thermoplastic composite

Traditional molding processes are generally based on external source heating with long molding time and high energy loss. Herein, the method of electrical-heating molding on thermoplastic composite is proposed to shorten molding cycle and improve the utilization of energy. Wet papermaking technology was applied to fabricate short carbon fiber felt with areal density of 15g/m², thickness of 110 y m and square resistance of 7∼10Ω. Then the short carbon fiber felt with good uniformity was used as heating source to heat continuous glass fiber reinforced polypropylene (PP) for fabricating thermoplastic composite. The results show that electrical-heating molding process is rapid and effective. Short carbon fibers are well infiltrated by PP, and PP cannot flow into glass fiber bundles under low pressure.