The Effect of the Parameters of T-RTM on the Properties of Polyamide 6 Prepared by in Situ Polymerization

With the rapid development of the automotive industry, there is also a significant need to improve the raw materials used. Therefore, the demand is increasing for polymer composites with a focus on mass reduction and recyclability. Thermoplastic polymers are preferred because of their recyclability. As the automotive industry requires mass production, they require a thermoplastic raw material that can impregnate the reinforcement in a short cycle time. The most suitable monomer for this purpose is caprolactam. It can be most efficiently processed with T-RTM (thermoplastic resin transfer molding) technology, during which polyamide 6 is produced from the low-viscosity monomer by anionic ring-opening (in situ) polymerization in a tempered mold with a sufficiently short cycle time. Manufacturing parameters, such as polymerization time and mold temperature, highly influence the morphological and mechanical properties of the product. In this paper, the properties of polyamide 6 produced by T-RTM are analyzed as a function of the production parameters. We determine the crystallinity and the residual monomer content of the samples and their effect on mechanical properties.

Study on Injection Molding of Single Polymer Composites

This article gives an overview of study on injection molding process of thermoplastic polymer SPCs. The thermoplastic polymer Polypropylene (PP) was selected as the experimental materials. Our study proves that advantages of the PP SPCs are friendly recyclability and excellent fire/matrix adhesion. PP SPCs samples had good interfacial compatibility and bonding properties. The one-component SPCs have better interfacial bonding than the multi-component SPCs. Injection molding is the most effective method with a large process window and short cycle time for processing a thermoplastic SPC. Injection molding could be developed to realize PP SPCs production.