PREPERATION AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF WOVEN FABRIC REINFORCED ALL POLYPROPYLENE COMPOSITES

In the present work, all polypropylene composites were prepared by film stacking technique using terpolymer and copolymer matrixes and woven fabric reinforcement. Composite sheets were prepared by use of hot press at different processing temperatures of 5, 10 and 15 °C over the melting temperature (Tm) of the matrixes in constant pressure of 8 MPa. Consolidation quality of composites was studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and density measurements. Mechanical properties of composite sheets were subjected to tensile, flexural, and impact tests. The results showed that strength, stiffness and consolidation quality of composites increased by increasing the processing temperature while impact properties decreased. It was established that composite with terpolymer matrix demonstrated good strength, stiffness as well as consolidation properties in lower preparing temperature that indicate terpolymer matrix can expand the processing window in manufacturing of all polypropylene composites.