A novel manufacturing method for aligned discontinuous fibre composites (High Performance-Discontinuous Fibre method)

The High Performance-Discontinuous Fibre (HiPerDiF) method is a new high speed process to produce discontinuous fibre architectures with high volume fraction. It allows the manufacture of tow or tape type prepregs with highly aligned reinforcements directly from short fibres rather than from pre-existing tows. This paper introduces the principle of this unique short fibre alignment method and describes the improved orientation head design for obtaining tape type preforms with high productivity. Using this HiPerDiF method, tensile specimens with 67% of the fibres aligned within the range of ±3° were successfully produced from tape type preforms with 3 mm long carbon fibres. Tensile modulus and strength in the fibre direction of specimens with a fibre volume fraction of 55% were 115 GPa and 1509 MPa, respectively, significantly higher than those of aligned short fibre composites made by conventional methods. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.