Thermoplastic components are gaining more and more attention due to their advantages which include high specific strength, high toughness, and low manufacturing costs. Despite the fast development of such materials in engineering applications, the major challenge for the wider use of thermoplastic components is the diverse mechanical properties that are caused by uncertain factors during the molding process. In this paper, the effects of processing parameters on the mechanical properties of PEEK plates by hot compression molding are systematically investigated, including the temperature, pressure, and compression time. It was found that both temperature and time can sensitively change the mechanical properties; however, a pressure larger than 1.5 MPa showed a limited impact on the mechanical behaviors of PEEK plates. The optimal process parameters include a hot compression temperature of 400 °C, a compression time of 30 min, and a pressure of 2.5 MPa.
Keywords: PEEK; Young’s modulus; compression hot molding; elongation at break; thermoplastic.