Paper to the International Conference on Manufacturing, Processing Composite Materials, Plymouth University, Professor of Polymer Engineering, UMIST, 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, 1421-1431.
S F Bush with F G Torres and J M Methven

Abstract

Three experimental techniques have been employed to assess the rheological behaviour of discrete long glass fibre reinforced polypropylene and propylene/ethylene copolymers. A Carri Med cone and plate rheogoniometer has been used to determine shear viscosity as a function of strain rate and time at temperatures relevant to the extrusion and injection moulding processes. A bubble inflation test (BIT) has been designed and used to characterise the behaviour of these composites under the extensional flow fields typical of blow moulding and thermoforming. Finally a squeeze load test (SLT), similar to those developed for sheet moulding compounds (SMC) and glass mat thermoplastics (GMT), has been used to explore the rheological behaviour of the long glass fibre (LGF) materials under compression moulding conditions, in particular to assess the relative importance of shear and extensional flow.