Photo Credit: Victrex
In a step toward the production of large-scale aerospace components from thermoplastic composites, polymer solutions provider Victrex (Cleveleys, U.K.) and automation and tooling specialist Electroimpact (Mukilteo, Wash., U.S.) recently announced that they have achieved laydown speeds of 4,000 inches per minute (IPM) using Electroimpact’s automated fiber placement (AFP) technology and VICTREX AE 250 low-melt polyaryletherketone (LMPAEK) unidirectional (UD) tape.
The Electroimpact AFP processing technology has been enhanced with the deployment of a new laser heating system; VICTREX AE 250 UD tape is a high-performance thermoplastic composite prepreg tape that was designed by Victrex to have mechanical, physical and chemical resistance properties typical of the polyaryletherketone (PAEK) polymer family, such as PEEK, but with a 40°C lower crystalline melting temperature, at 305°C.