The effects of induction heating on the manufacturing process of carbon fibre reinforced thermoplastic composite materials

Advanced polymer-matrix composites are attracting increasing interest thanks to their unique features. Applications of polymer-matrix composites took place efficiently in military and civil aviation, automotive, wind power generation and many other industries due to their lightness, light density and high performance in additon to high strength and rigidity in comparison with low weigth ratio. In order to decrease the costs of aforementioned materials, new processing methods are required to shorten the manufacturing procedures. Induction heating becomes prominent among the researches within this context. In this thesis, the parameters essential to form mechanically high performance thermoplastic composite materials by induction heating method, which is faster and economically in comparison with other current technologies, in high temperatures, using the electrical conductivity of carbon reinforcement, will be investiagted. In this study, basic information and components related to induction heating method are explained, then fundamentals and intrinsic structure affecting the heating process are examined and the effects of the changes in the parameters of the method on the material are indicated. Later, it is presented that thermoplastic plates can be welded to eachother, modifications are made in the heating system and the coil design and finally the samples are welded to eachother by induction heating and the efficiency of the weld is examined. We assess that this study might be a resource to the researches to create new low-cost production processes of thermoplastic composites.