Quality Assessment of Carbon Fiber Automotive Parts when Using Polyurethane Foam as Pattern Material

High density polyurethane foams have recently emerged in industry aiming to provide an innovative pattern material for the manufacture of fiber reinforced composite plastics. With the intent of understanding the constraints in the usage of such mold material for producing automotive carbon fiber parts, the present work enlightens a pre-treatment procedure to be considered including steps such as the application of sand papers, scaler, release agent and release paste wax taking into account even a study of the curing thermal cycle to produce quality parts with a negligible level of pitting taking into account the limitations inherent of the polyurethane that favor the presence of such defect.