Development of epoxy-glass-pre-impregnated rovings suitable for filament winding

The purpose of this programme was to develop pre-impregnated13; glass-epoxy rovings which are suitable for filament wound13; pressure vessels. Use of a pre-impregnated winding material is necessary in the fabrication of Aerospace structural components, for which predictable strength properties are important. Material properties such as resin content which adversely affect the strength of filament wound components, can be easily 'Controlled when a pre-impregnated winding material is used in the fabrication. Specially in winding large components, involving considerable fabrication time, use of wet winding technique results in variation of the mechanical properties of the component. This is due to the low viscosity resin systems normally employed in wet winding, which are prone to set at ambient x2022;temperatures, resulting in variation' of mechanical properties through out the wall thickness of the component. 13; On the other hand, pre-impregnated materials can be produced13; in ready-to-use packages controlling the material properties13; accurately. Moreover, as prepregs contain partially polymerised resin, significant polymerisation of the resin does not take place during fabrication 'of the component.13; Following are some of the important advantages which can13; be realised with the use of pre-impregnated material in filament winding