Effect of Consolidation Time in Hot Press Compression Molding of Continuous Carbon Fiber‐Reinforced Polyetheretherketone Composite

ABSTRACT Processing long fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites such as polyaryletherketones with carbon fibers (CF/PEEK) has found interest in the aerospace industry due to short‐time manufacturing and possible recyclability. Limiting defects during their manufacturing remains challenging. Obtaining low void content and high degree of crystallinity to obtain the desired mechanical properties requires careful control of the process parameters. In this work, hot press compression was performed to evaluate the effect of consolidation time on the CF/PEEK composite properties. For the purpose of comparison, vacuum‐bag‐only (VBO) was also carried out. The highest interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) is obtained by hot press at 87 MPa, 20% higher than with VBO. Moreover, the void content is equally low for laminates consolidated for 5 min at 390°C and 30 min at 400°C by hot press and VBO, respectively. Using VBO, the crystallinity is 40% lower than for the composites obtained by hot pressing. Thus, consolidation by hot press for only 5 min at 390°C allows saving production time and reaching higher mechanical properties than with VBO. These results constitute a meaningful guideline to choose the process parameters to target constant quality of thermoplastic composites for high‐demanding applications in aerospace parts.