Sheet extrusion and thermoforming of discrete long glass fibre reinforced polypropylene
July 12th, 1999
Paper to the 5th International Conference on Manufacturing, Processing Composite Materials, Plymouth University, 12th-14th July 1999.
Published in the journal: Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing (incorporating Composites and Composites Manufacturing) ISSN 1359-835X, Volume 31, Issue 12, December 2000.
S F Bush with F G Torres
Abstract
The present paper summarises the main aspects and the developments in sheet extrusion and thermoforming of discrete long glass fibre (LGF) composites using the SAFIRE (Self Assembling Fibre Reinforcement) technology. During extrusion the long glass fibres are organised into coherent fibre mats which persist into the solid state, and are able to withstand the deformation process that takes place during thermoforming. A process analysis has been performed for extrusion and thermoforming indicating the main individual operations. Both processes have been studied with regard to their performance with the materials used in the studies, namely polypropylene homo and copolymer, with and without LGF reinforcement. Significant improvements in mechanical properties relative to the unreinforced materials have been found for the extruded sheets and the thermoformed products. Major improvements in processability relative to unreinforced PP have been found for the LGF materials. These are discussed in terms of the coherent fibre mat concept.