Lay-up process
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A Lay-Up process is a moulding process for composite materials, in which the final product is obtained by overlapping a specific number of different layers, usually made of continuous polymeric or ceramic fibres and a thermoset polymeric liquid matrix. It can be divided into Dry Lay-up and Wet Lay-Up, depending on whether the layers are pre-impregnated or not. Dry Lay-up is a common process in the aerospace industry, due to the possibility of obtaining complex shapes with good mechanical properties, characteristics required in this field. On the contrary, as Wet Lay-Up does not allow uni-directional fabrics, which have better mechanical properties, it is mainly adopted for all other areas, which in general have lower requirements in terms of performance.[1][2]
The main stages of the Lay-Up process are cutting, lamination and polymerization. [citation needed] Even though some of the production steps can be automated, this process is mainly manual (hence often referred to as the Hand Lay-Up process), leading to laminates with high production costs and low production rates with respect to other techniques. [citation needed] Hence, nowadays, it is mainly suitable for small series production runs of 10 to 1000 parts.[2][3]