The lightweight development of transportation tools has led to a large number of composite materials being used. However, automotive parts require a large number of rapid production. It is difficult to use composite materials that traditionally use thermosetting resins, and thermosetting composites have a long curing time. High, has become a major bottleneck for the introduction of composite materials in the transportation tool industry.
Compared to thermosetting resins, thermoplastic composites have a number of inherent advantages: they can be quickly shaped and produced, prepregs can be stored for a long time without low temperatures, and thermoplastics can be repeatedly used to reduce the occurrence of defective products. Products can be recycled and reused. Etc. These advantages are most cost-effective for mass-produced parts. Thermoplastic composites impregnated with unidirectional continuous carbon fibers or woven fabrics have a long fiber length, a directional distribution, and the ability to design the structure needed for composites. Intensity, to meet the requirements of design applications, continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites, has developed into a global trend in replacing metal applications with new energy vehicles.
Nowadays, the main problem in the production process of thermoplastic continuous carbon fiber composites is that the surface treatment of commercialized carbon fibers is based on thermosetting resins, and the interface strength between such carbon fibers and thermoplastic resins is generally insufficient, and even impregnating is poor. Among them, the interface strength is insufficient in carbon fibers. Surface modification, or coating with sizing agent to overcome, or firing of carbon fiber, followed by electrochemical wet or dry plasma treatment to generate limited functional groups on the surface of the fiber, and then coating the sizing agent to increase the functionality The base is bonded to the resin substrate to enhance the interface strength and aid in impregnation.
Among many thermoplastic resin substrates, polypropylene (PP, polypropylene) is easily available, has good mechanical properties, weatherability, and excellent chemical resistance, and is widely used in vehicle materials. However, there is no functional group in the chemical structure of polypropylene. Become the biggest obstacle to the commercial production of continuous carbon fiber reinforced polypropylene composites.
Recently, the R&D team of PolyInnovative Materials Co., Ltd. has made new breakthroughs in thermoplastic carbon fiber sizing agents. New thermoplastic sizing formulations have been added with special coupling agents, one side can effectively produce with conventional carbon fiber surface. Chemical grafting, the other side can be a good bond with the polypropylene resin. With this new formula firmly bonded on both sides of the fiber and resin, composite effect of one plus one more than two composite effect.
Another major application of the new thermoplastic infiltrant is to provide good protection and processing properties for carbon fiber yarn bundles, for example: Fiber bundle properties and resistance to friction and hairiness become better. The lubricant developed by PolyInnovative Materials Co., Ltd. is appropriate. The ratio is added to the infiltrant formulation to enhance the protection of the carbon fiber and reduce the occurrence of silk breaks after the process is interrupted.
The research team also found that dipping directly into the new sizing agent can achieve the effect of enhancing the performance without removing the original fiber surface sizing agent. To verify this hypothesis, Juchuang and Cosson Composites Co. 3k T300 plain cloth impregnated with polypropylene resin, press plate for three-point bending test to test the effectiveness of the new infiltrant. The experimental results confirmed the good effect of the new thermoplastic infiltration agent. Figure 1 Electron microscopic magnification of the fracture surface, we can see the infiltration The agent forms a fairly good interface on the surface of the fiber. After the flexural test failure of the carbon fiber polypropylene composite, the resin still tightly covers the fiber.
This experimental result confirms that the unruptured carbon fiber fabrics directly soaked in the innovative infiltrant plate can be effectively increased by 146% in fracture stress strength compared to untreated test pieces.
'Aqueous carbon fiber infiltrant meets Corsense's environmental protection requirements, making us safer in processing. Thermoplastic carbon fiber material made by treating with infiltrant has good mechanical properties. It is used for light weight applications in automotive applications. More business opportunities. ' Dr.Szesu Soong, general manager of Corson Composites, mentioned.
'The water-based wetting agent we developed can effectively combine carbon fiber with polypropylene (PP) resin to increase the strength of the composite material.' Rick Chen, General Manager of PolyInnovative Materials, said, 'After the combination of carbon fibers reinforced with infiltrant and resin, We can not only adjust the processing performance of the fiber, but also improve the mechanical performance of the composite.
As the market demands increasingly higher strength and lighter weight for products, carbon fiber composites will undoubtedly be more widely used. The advantages of thermoplastic carbon fiber composite materials, especially rapid prototyping and environmentally friendly recycling, are bound to become application development. Trends. Carbon fiber products reinforced with new thermoplastic carbon fiber sizing agents can not only improve the performance of composite materials, but also can replace traditional materials and develop more possibilities for transportation, aviation, energy, medical and recreational sports and other fields.