Experimental investigation of formability of commingled woven composite preform in stamping operation

This paper presents experimental investigation on stamping operation on woven composite preform made of commingled E-glass and Polypropylene (PP) filaments with strain measurement by in situ sensors. A series of stamping tests are reported, with which a previously proposed theoretical criterion of wrinkling is compared. The measured shear distribution and evolution shed new lights on the deformation behavior of the preform samples in a stamping operation. Finally, the stamping parameters are optimized according to the experimental and theoretical work. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.