Behaviour of Microfibrillar Composite Blends during Product Manufacturing

Microfibrillar composites (MFCs) have become attractive for various applications due to the relatively simple procedure for producing reinforced polymer-polymer composites. These composites can be used as precursors for subsequent plastics manufacturing processes, such as compression moulding, injection moulding and rotational moulding. In this study, polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene (PE) were used as matrices while polyethylne terephthalate (PET) and polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) were employed as reinforcements. Blends of PE/PET, PE/PEN, PP/PET and PP/PEN with MFC structure were prepared at the Centre for Advanced Composite Materials in Auckland, New Zealand. While the mechanical properties of a drawn blend are found to be secondary thermal processing, e.g. injection moulding, compression moulding and especially rotational moulding. Therefore, the goal of this study is to investigate the effects of thermal exposure. The prepared samples were tested mechanically and characterised morphologically. The results obtained show that the MFC concept has good application opportunities in the processing of polymer composites.