DefinePK

Abstract

This work is concerned with the fabrication of carbon fibre-reinforced epoxy composite panels with reduced flaws and defects induced by fabrication process. Sample preparation and mechanical testing of samples are conducted to ensure quality for their design and development. Many different methods can be used to fabricate composite samples. Inexpensive methods are preferred in academic setting to produce samples having qualities similar to the industrial fabrication processes. Fabricated samples are inspected and checked with an inspection report consisting of rejection notice. Despite repeatable fabrication process rejection rate of fabricated sample is relatively higher and little literature is available on corrective actions taken to reduce the number of repetitive errors and defects in the fabrication process. The present study proposed corrective actions to prevent and reduce recurrence rate of flaws and defects detrimental to safety and performance of the product by correcting the root cause. Instant problems, gathered quality data, information correlation to determine causes, trends, and solutions have been described. Samples preparations method using press-clave is described and validity of samples’ quality was checked using visual and ultrasonic C-scan damage detection techniques. On the basis of corrective actions the rejection rate reduced up to 50%. This suggests that the corrective measures and techniques described are adequate for the assessment of sample quality for both development and fabrication purposes.