Novel prepreg manufacturing process for oxide fiber composites

A novel pre-impregnated fiber-preform (prepreg) manufacturing process for Nextel™610/ Al2O3-ZrO2 oxide fiber composites (OFC) was developed, using glycerol containing slurries.. It provides a simple and cost-effective way of producing OFC and lead to mean flexural strengths of up to 392 MPa. The use of glycerol in the slurry lead to reproducible and storable prepregs. The correlations between slurries with different glycerol contents and varying values of relative humidity during conditioning were investigated. By subjecting prepregs containing 16 wt% or 26 wt% slurries to different drying conditions, their suitability for accelerated drying methods was investigated. The storability of prepregs was studied under various storing conditions for at least four weeks. Sorption and desorption behavior of these slurries were investigated by Dynamic Vapor Sorption (DVS).. A glycerol content of 26 wt% proved to be favorable, because it provides a reproducible and robust process and enables ready-for-use prepregs only 15 min after infiltration.