Studies on Long Glass Fibre Reinforced Polyamide-6 Composites

Abstract

long note reinforced thermoplastics (LFRT) is a recent development in newer technologies where thermoplastic material is directly compounded with glass fibre roving and then melded. There is tremendous scope of the L! Hi composite m the automotive 3nd other engineering applications. This studydeals with the development and analysis of injection molded long glass fibre reinforced poty6mide 6 composites. Glass fibre roving was impregnated with polyamide 6 in a single screw extruder using specially designed die. The impregnated strands were chopped into pellets of different lengths. The pellets were injection mofa'ed lo gel long fibre-reinforced polyaniide composite and its mechanical properties were analyzed. Interiacial shear strength between glass fibres and polyamide matrix was studied. Morpt)oiogical analysis was carried out to find out the fibre length distribution m the injection molded composite. As the fibre length increased, the tensile and Hexuralproperties iv" e improved up to 9mm initial glass fibre length followed by decrease in properties at higher initial glass fibre length. Impact strength increased with increase in glass fibre length. Trie average fibre length in the impregnated fibre composites was greater than the critical libra length. The frequency of the fibres v/as found lo be increased as the composite system traveled more distance Irom the gate while injection molding composite samples. The average fibre length alter injection molding of the LFRT composite with 9 mm initial fibre length was found to be more than the average fibre length of composites with 3 mm. 6 mm and 12 mm initial fibre length. Moreover, the average tibre length in ihe injection-molded composite is greater than the critical fibre length.