AN INVESTIGATION ON THE EFFECTS OF PROCESSING ON THE FIBER LENGTH AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF COMPRESSION MOULDED GLASS FIBER REINFORCED POLYPROPYLENE COMPOSITES

Yaacob, A.M.; Sapuan, S.M.; Zainudin, E. S.; Ahmad, M.; Dahlan, K. Z. M.

doi:10.21608/djs.2005.156245

AN INVESTIGATION ON THE EFFECTS OF PROCESSING ON THE FIBER LENGTH AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF COMPRESSION MOULDED GLASS FIBER REINFORCED POLYPROPYLENE COMPOSITES

Document Type : Research and Reference

Authors

¹ Advanced Material Laboratory, Institute of Advanced Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

² Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

³ Radiation Processing Technology Division, Malaysian Institute for Nuclear Technology Research (MINT), Bangi, 43000 Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia

10.21608/djs.2005.156245

Abstract

A study on tensile strength and modulus glass fibre reinforced polypropylene composite is presented in this paper. The composites are compounded in asingle screw extruder and the samples based on the polypropylene matrix are prepared using compression moulding process.
The study of critical fibre length is crucial in order to ensure the mechanical properties obtained for composites and the values are superior to that of virgin polymer. However, in this study, the results of tensile strength show decreasing trend compared to virgin polypropylene as the fibre content is increased. Low mechanical properties are obviously related to the absence of interface adhesion between fibe and polymer. The results of tensile moduli show increasing trend but the maximum values of tensile moduli are much lower to the typical value of glass fibre composites. This is possibly caused by fibre breakage below the critical length and the values of tensile moduli obtained are actually the value of virgin polypropylene.