Recent trend of more complex geometry of FRC is causing increasing difficulties in composite manufacturing. A method to optimize the manufacturing process is to ensure and improve the quality of manufactured parts using cure monitoring based on capacitive sensors.
Left: Schematic of a capacitive sensor; Right: the fabricated sensors.
Because of the irregular 3D geometry of the composites, traditional flat sensor system is becoming unfavorable and non-practical for monitoring purpose. To accommodate the non-flat shape, the proposal is to interconnect non-deformable functional island, which contains the capacitive sensor for production monitoring, with meander-shaped deformable interconnections.
Left: Setup of a vacuum assisted resin infusion process;
Right: Deformable microsystem containing capacitive sensors is embedded.