TDR Composite Cure Monitoring
Material Sensing & Instrumentation (MSI)
MSI Time-Domain-Reflectometry (TDR) Composite Cure Monitoring [1-4] provides a new approach to cure monitoring of advanced polymer composites. Using a high-speed pulse and inexpensive microwave sensor, our TDR system follows rotation of a polar resin molecule, providing real-time information on viscosity and percent cure. Operating in the microwave frequency range, TDR Cure Monitoring provides an alternative between high-frequency fiber-optic methods and low-frequency dielectric methods, combining optical-style precision and miniaturization with electrode-based simplicity and robustness.
