In this study, the pultrusion forming behavior and mechanical properties of unidirectional carbon fiber reinforced polyether ether ketone (CF/PEEK) rods with irregular cross sections were investigated. A thermal pultrusion machine equipped with a compression mold featuring slide cores independently controlled by a servo press was developed to manufacture CF/PEEK rods with T-shaped cross sections. These rods, directly fabricated from CF/PEEK prepreg tape bundles, exhibited no voids or layer marks typically caused by the tape stacking process.Cross-sectional observations during pultrusion confirmed that the prepreg tape in the web region was extruded into the flange region, thus forming the T-shaped cross section. To examine the influence of fiber orientation on mechanical performance, three-point bending tests were conducted on the T-shaped CF/PEEK rods. During these tests, the rods exhibited overall torsional deformation around the loading nose. Failure initiated in either the flange or the web as the torsional deformation progressed. The thermal pultrusion process developed in this study enabled the efficient and continuous production of CF/PEEK rods with irregular cross sections, achieving both high mechanical performance and excellent formability.
EGUCHI et al. (Wed,) studied this question.