Debes Bhattacharyya

Plastic products used for packaging are often discarded after a single use resulting in an inexhaustible supply of waste polymeric materials. The stiffness and strength of polymeric materials have been known to improve with the addition of lignocellulosic fibres available in abundance in nature. Hence, composite materials containing natural fibres and waste plastics would result in the reduction of solid

This paper describes the development of a new processing technology for rotational moulding of wollastonite microfibre (WE) reinforced polyethylene (PE). Manufacturing wollastonite-polyethylene composites involved blending, compounding by extrusion, and granulating prior to rotational moulding. The properties of the resulting composites were characterised by tensile and impact strength measurements. The results show that tensile strength increases monotonically with the addition of wollastonite fibres, but impact strength is decreased. In addition, the processability is also decreased after adding more than 12 vol% WE because of increased viscosity. The effects of a coupling agent, maleated polyethylene (MAPE), on the mechanical performance and processability were also investigated. SEM analysis reveals good adhesion between the fibre reinforcements and polyethylene matrix at the fracture surface with the addition of MAPE. It is proposed that fillers with small particles with high a...

ABSTRACT In-situ poly (ethylene terephthalate) (PET) nanofibrils were created by drawing of melt blended polypropylene and PET. The drawn blend was used to prepare polymer-polymer nanofibrillar composites (NFCs), in order to compare the effect of different fibril orientations on the mechanical properties. The resulting composites showed excellent improvements in stiffness of 116% vs. the isotropic PP matrix for uniaxial NFCs, with the highest recorded modulus of 4.16 GPa for a uniaxial NFC sample, and 3.41 GPa for a crossply sample. Scanning electron microscopy observations confirmed that the nanofibrillar structure and excellent alignment was maintained. Comparisons were also drawn between the composites created in this study, and previous work on microfibrillar composites.

ABSTRACT Since the late 1980s a small number of research groups have been attracted with the idea of using induction heating technology for the processing of fibre reinforced polymer composites. Induction technology is suitable for the processing of thermoplastic and thermoset polymer materials but requires special susceptor additives (conductive materials) either in the form of structured fibres and fabric or particulate that can transform the electromagnetic energy into heat. This paper aims to summarize the principles of induction heating with respect to polymer composites processing taking a look first at material and equipment based process influences. State of the art applications and research activities are then reviewed, from thermoplastic composite welding, thermoset curing, selective material heating and fast mould heating technologies. Current simulation possibilities and available software tools have also been covered. Finally, some new ideas and possibilities for future developments in the field of polymer composites processing have been discussed.

As a consequence of the widening range of applications of metal-matrix composites (MMCs), the machining of these materials has become a very important subject for research. Aluminium-matrix composites are widely used for their favourable specific strength/stiffness and corrosion resistance properties. This paper describes a study of chip formation during the machining of a DURALCAN® aluminium-matrix composite (A359/SiC/20p). For good machinability,

In order to investigate the mechanical properties of particulate reinforced polyethylene when using rotational moulding process, different mathematical models are used to predict the tensile properties. A series of micro-sized particles at various volume fractions are used as fillers for Liner Medium Density Polyethylene (LMDPE) to verify those theoretical models. A comparison with the experimental results finds that the theoretical