Abstract: Electrophoretic drying process is an important part of the car body coating, so the carbon fiber composites as body parts need to consider the mechanical properties affected by electrophoretic drying process. In this paper, the mechanical properties of carbon fiber composites, cured at 120 ℃, before and after electrophoretic drying process were compared, and the failure modes and mechanism of splines were analyzed. The results show that the tensile strength of carbon fiber composites increased after electrophoretic drying, which is promoted by 13.44% and 21.12% in fiber direction and vertical fiber direction, respectively. In terms of compression performance, the strength in fiber direction was improved (21.2%), while the strength and modulus vertical fiber direction were significantly reduced (12.45%, 11.61%). In terms of shear performance, both longitudinal-transverse shear and interlaminar shear performance were reduced. Meanwhile, it was also found that the fibers showed de-bonding phenomenon, and the interfacial bonding strength between the resin matrix and the fiber was reduced after electrophoresis drying. In summary, it can be seen that in the design phase of carbon fiber composites, the vertical fiber direction property and interlaminar shear property need to be enhanced, so that the performance of the car body parts prepared by the carbon fiber composites system can reach the corresponding requirements after the electrophoresis drying process.

Key words: carbon fiber composites, electrophoretic drying, mechanical properties