Consolidation of Composites by Other Routes

A different method of creating UHMWPE fibre-reinforced UHMWPE composites was presented by Mosleh et al. [179]. In this method, dry UHMWPE powder was mechanically oscillated through a funnel onto subsequent layers of short (25 mm) chopped UHMWPE fibres, or pieces of continuous UHMWPE fabric. By repeating this process with many layers of short chopped UHMWPE fibres or UHMWPE fabric, a layered stmcture was reported to have been created. These fibre assemblies were then heated under pressure to consolidate the structures. The short UHMWPE fibre-reinforced composites had a fibre volume fraction between 25 and 75%, while the continuous UHMWPE fabric-reinforced composites had a fibre volume fraction of 60%. Investigations into the potential application of these homocomposites in an articulation surface for a knee joint prosthesis were also described, as were the challenges associated with measuring the tribological performance of such fibre-reinforced materials [180]. 

All of the studies described so far used macroscale reinforcements to create self-reinforced polymer composites. Duhovic et al. described the extrusion of PP/PET 

Gong et al. later presented a means to create self-reinforced polymer composites based on nylon 6 without the use of separate additional nylon 6 films [186]. The authors reported the polymerisation of s-caprolactam into nylon 6 in situ, i.e. directly polymerising nylon 6 around woven nylon 6 fabric, in a process similar to the resin infusion technique used for the infusion of conventimial composites (such as glass fibre-reinforced thermoset polymer matrices). 

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