Polymer-Fibre Composite Cages
September 13th, 2000
Paper to FRC 8th International Conference 13th-15th September, “Composites for the Millennium”
Published as ISBN 85573 5504
S F Bush with D R Blackburn, A J Neuendorf and J M Methven
Abstract
While much of fibre reinforcement of polymers has rightly concentrated on solid forms, there is a significant demand also for lightweight open structures of the wire-cage type. The paper will report results obtained from a variety of polymer-fibre compositions in wire form.
These wire-cage results draw on the laboratory’s extensively reported work on long-glass fibre reinforcement of thermoplastics and the pultrusion of both thermoplastics and thermosets. However, for the new wire-cage technology, the behaviour of the synthetic fibre and natural fibres in place of glass fibres has also been investigated. The results obtained show that for a number of significant applications these soft fibres are better than glass fibres in terms not only of their formability into wire structures, but also in terms of their elastic recovery from imposed stress or strain.
The development opens up a significant new field for polymer-fibre composites both as an alternative to existing metal wire structures in the food distribution and textile industries and as an alternative to certain solid structures more generally.