Magnetic‐clamping structures for the consolidation of composite laminates

Abstract Vacuum bags are used in conjunction with autoclaves to generate the consolidation pressures and temperatures required to manufacture aerospace composites. As the scale of continuous fiber composite structures increases, autoclave processing becomes prohibitively expensive or infeasible. The objective of this study is to develop flexible magnetic clamping structures to increase the consolidation pressure during the conventional vacuum bagging of composite laminates, thereby obviating the need for an autoclave. The ferromagnetic rubber, which consists of rubber filled with iron particles, developed in this study provides a conformable and reusable vacuum bag that provides increased consolidation through attractive forces produced by electromagnets. Experiments and finite‐element modeling indicate that consolidation pressure in the range of 100 kPa can be generated by such a device with realistic power requirements. The effects of the magnetic clamping device process parameters on the consolidation pressure magnitude are modeled theoretically and are characterized experimentally. In addition, a method for the efficient design of the magnetic‐clamping device is developed. POLYM. COMPOS., 2012. © 2012 Society of Plastics Engineers