Title
Sheet extrusion and thermoforming of discrete long glass fibre reinforced polypropylene
Date Issued
01 January 2000
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
UMIST Poly. Eng. Research Laboratory
Abstract
The present paper summarizes 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 organized 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.
Start page
1289
End page
1294
Volume
31
Issue
12
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Ciencia de los polímeros
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-0034543464
Source
Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing
ISSN of the container
1359835X
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus