Determination of tensile forces to enhance the supply stability of reinforced fiber

The manufacturing process of long fiber thermoplastic is initiated by supplying reinforced fiber wound in a spool dispenser. If problems such as tangling or kinking occur in the apparatus used for supplying the reinforced fiber in the long-fiber thermoplastic direct process, the productivity of the long-fiber thermoplastic decreases. Therefore, it is important to enhance the supply stability of reinforced fiber. In general, the increase in supply stability can be achieved by maintaining a steady balloon shape that is controlled by the unwinding velocity or tensile force of the reinforced fiber. In this research, the range of suitable tensile force was determined under the assumption that the unwinding velocity remained constant. The reinforced fiber was assumed to be inextensible, homogeneous, and isotropic and to have uniform density. The transient-state unwinding equation of motion to analyze the unwinding motion of reinforced fiber can be derived by using Hamilton’s principle for an open system in which mass can change within a control volume. In the process of solving the transient-state unwinding equation of motion, the exact two-point boundary conditions are adopted for each time step.