DISCRETE GLASS FIBRE REINFORCED POLYMER COMPOSITES: Theory and Experiment compared for articles made by extrusion,injection moulding,blowmoulding and thermoforming
Stephen BUSH
UMIST Centre for Manufacture
England UK

Keywords: L.174, Discrete Glass Fibre , Session 1

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Ref 1 (in the Society’s Carl Klason (1999) memorial issue of International Polymer Processing) summarised the main experimental and theoretical results from a major long-term programme of research to produce and apply long glass fibre compounds to the extrusion of pipes, and the injection moulding of relatively complex shapes.

This work has been commercialised over the last 10 years under the trade name SAFIRE - the acronym for Self Assembling Fibre Reinforcement - which records the fact that a major part of the technology is concerned with the use of fibre management devices which cause fibres, above a certain length dependent on concentration, to form themselves into coherent mat structures within the melt as it flows towards the shaping die or moulds. These fibre management devices have been protected by international patents during the on-going commercial exploitation phase. The formation of these all-important mat structures is dependent on the number N of virtual touches experienced by one fibre in the presence of others. N is given as A c (l/d) where A depends on the flow field. This paper records new results obtained with this technology for blowmoulding and for thermoforming of extruded sheet.