Influence of low-fracture-fiber mechanism on fiber/melt-flow behavior and tensile properties of ultra-long-glass-fiber-reinforced polypropylene composites injection molding

Po-Wei Huang; Hsin-Shu Peng; Sheng-Jye Hwang; Chao-Tsai Huang

doi:10.1515/polyeng-2020-0120

Article

Influence of low-fracture-fiber mechanism on fiber/melt-flow behavior and tensile properties of ultra-long-glass-fiber-reinforced polypropylene composites injection molding

Po-Wei Huang , Hsin-Shu Peng , Sheng-Jye Hwang and Chao-Tsai Huang

Published/Copyright: November 19, 2020

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From the journal Journal of Polymer Engineering Volume 41 Issue 2

Abstract

In this study, an injection molding machine with a low-fracture-fiber mechanism was designed with three stages: a plasticizing stage, an injection stage, and a packing stage. The fiber-fracture behavior is observed under the screw (plasticizing stage) of low-compression/shear ratio for the ultra-long fiber during the molding process. The molding material employed in this study was 25-mm-ultra-long-glass-fiber-reinforced polypropylene (PP/U-LGF). In addition, a thickness of 3 mm and a width of 12 mm spiral-flow-mold were constructed for studying the melt flow length and flow-length ratio through an experiment. The experimental results showed that the use of an injection molding machine with a three-stage mechanism decreased the fiber length when the screw speed was increased. On average, each fiber was shortened by 50% (>15 mm on average) from its original length of 25 mm. Longer glass fibers were more resistant to melt filling, and as the fiber length was reduced, the mixing between the melt and glass fibers was improved. Thus, the melt fluidity and fiber ratios were increased. In addition, the mixing/flow direction of the melt had an impact on the dispersion and arrangement of glass fibers, thus the tensile strength of PP/U-LGF increased.

Keywords: fiber-fracture behavior; injection molding machine; melt flow length ratio; tensile strength; ultra-long-glass-fiber-reinforced composites

Corresponding author: Hsin-Shu Peng, Mechanical and Computer Aided Engineering, Feng Chia University College of Engineering and Science, Taichung40724, Taiwan, E-mail: hspeng@fcu.edu.tw

Funding source: Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan, R.O.C.

Award Identifier / Grant number: MOST 107-2622-E-006 -024 -CC1

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Mr. Jia-Hao Chu for providing numerical simulation results of the fiber orientation. Besides that, the authors would also like to thank Chuan-Lih-Fa Machinery Works Co. Ltd. for the construction of an ultra-long/low-fracture-fiber injection molding machine.

Author contribution: All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.
Research funding: The authors would like to thank Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan, R.O.C. (project number: MOST 107-2622-E-006 -024 -CC1) for partly financing this research.
Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding this article.

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Received: 2020-05-30

Accepted: 2020-10-08

Published Online: 2020-11-19

Published in Print: 2021-02-23

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Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/polyeng-2020-0120

Keywords for this article

fiber-fracture behavior; injection molding machine; melt flow length ratio; tensile strength; ultra-long-glass-fiber-reinforced composites