A qualitative, process-parameter-based model for the release agent transfer during CFRP-part production: an approach to increase the initial bondability

Adhesive bonding shows a high potential to join carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP), if the adhesion between adhesive and part surface is verified. Unfortunately, this adhesion is often reduced in case of the mold-based part production and its unavoidable application of release agents. Due to the resulting presence of release agent residues on the surface of the cured CFRP-parts the adhesion is lowered. To increase the bondability and correlating production efficiency, the amount of release agent transfer should be as small as possible, to reduce the effort in terms of bonding pre-treatment. To achieve this goal, a theoretical, qualitative model about the influence of the relevant processing parameters for a thermoset CFRP-production was developed focusing the (diffusion-based) transfer reduction based on an adapted processing. Indicating the time in which the diffusion is possible, as the main criteria.