Fibre-reinforced polymers industry

One of the significant classes of polyurethanes is resin, which is mainly used in the paint and coatings industry for binders, adhesives and fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) composite matrix. Polyurethane resins are highly functional polymers with a low molecular weight in their intermediate state and have been used for the above applications. Polyurethanes are preferred as binders... 

Natural fibre-reinforced polymers have created interest in the recent years in the automotive industry. Besides, other applications of natural fibre composites include door inner panel, seat back, roof inner panel, and so on. Natural fibres are being used in automotive industry due to the following reasons ... 

In the case of natural fibre reinforced polymer composites,in 1996 this material was used for making aeroplane seats and fuel tanks. The last decade has been used widely because of biodegradability and high specific properties. Currently, nanobiofibre composites are also provided for material revolution in technical application which is taking place in the automobile and packaging industrial. 

The construction industry is using various kinds of composite materials such as fibre reinforced plastics (FRP), polymer concrete, polymer-asphalt, fibre reinforced polymer concrete, and so on. 

A rather common application of fibre reinforced polymers is car repair. This poor mans technology is translated to the "high tech" area. The most important difference is found in the addition of the word "advanced". For also in the aircraft industry composites is a sticky business. Prepregs are draped in moulds by hand, moreover, they are cured in expensive autoclaves. 

Fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites are among the increasingly used composites in the industry. FRPs are composite materials made of a polymer matrix reinforced with fibres. The polymer matrix is either a thermosetting or a thermoplastic resin while the fibres are usually fibreglass. 

Fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites are composed of fibres and matrices, which are bonded through the interface to ensure that the composite system as a whole gives satisfactory performance. Part 1 deals with FRP composite matrix materials which provide the foundation for composite materials. Chapter 2 reviews the chemistry of phenolic resins together with their mechanical and thermal properties. Chapter 3 discusses polyester thermoset resins as matrix materials. An overview of the chemistry of vinylester resins, together with their mechanical and chemical properties, as well as their use as a matrix material in the construction industry, is provided in Chapter 4. The final chapter in Part 1 begins with a review of the epoxy resins commonly available on the market, and then focuses on the principal characteristics of epoxy resin composite systems and their practical applications. 

In the last two decades, there has been an increasing effort to migrate reinforced polymer composites into the construction industry for structural load-bearing applications where they have established themselves as a viable and competitive alternative for rehabilitation and retrofit of existing civil structures, as a replacement for steel in reinforced concrete and, to a lesser extent, for entirely new civil structures. There are many reasons to consider fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites in civil engineering applications. This section is intended to provide a brief summary of these reasons along with the issues that have slowed down a widespread acceptance of these composites in the construction sector. 

Cadei, J. M. C., et al. (2004). Strengthening metallic structures using externally bonded fibre-reinforced polymers (CIRIA Publication C595). London Construction Industry Research and Information Association (CIRIA). 

Numerous research has been conducted which reveal the application of this fiber source as reinforcing material in polymer composites. For instance, it has been used for reinforcement in urea formaldehyde resin-based composite which also suggested that Hibiscus sabdariffa fibre has immense scope in the fabrication of natural fibre reinforced polymer composites for vast number of industrial applications (Singha and Thakur 2008a). The graft copolymeiization of Hibiscus sabdariffa also have been found to be more moisture resistant and also showed better chemical and thermal resistance (Thakur et al. 2011a). 

In this work, we report the change of wetting and interfacial bonding of T800S carbon fibre recycled using a pyrolysis process. A low cost epoxy resin and a low cost vinyl ester resin were used for the assessment. These two low cost resins would be candidates for manufacturing recycled carbon fibre reinforced polymer composites for the automotive industry. 

The pressure containment capability of the clamp, comprising both short- and long-term (survival) performance, at room temperature (of approximately 20 °C), 65 °C and 80 °C is summarized in Table 12.1 (Djukic et al., 2014b, 2015). The intermediate temperature of 65 °C is used in accordance with the requirements of ISO 14692-2 (2002), which is a standard for glass fibre-reinforced polymer pipes used in the O G industry. 

With environmental awareness, natural fibre reinforced polymer composites have been expanding their application in sectors such as the automotive, construction, and packaging industries as a replacement for inorganic fibre reinforced polymer composites. Currently, glass fibre is one of the most widely used fibres to reinforce polymers, which can give superior mechanical properties. 

Epoxy resins find a large number of uses because of their remarkable chemical resistance and good adhesion. Epoxy resins are excellent structural adhesives. When properly cured, epoxy resins can yield very tough materials. They are used in industrial floorings, foams, potting materials for electrical insulations, etc. One of the principal constituents in many of the Fibre-reinforced plastics (FRP) is an epoxy polymer. 

Most carbon fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP) used and investigated to date are produced from preimpregnated continuous carbon fibre prepregs. Polymers reinforced with aligned short carbon fibres have certain advantages as materials for structural components, because they can easily be formed into complicated shapes with satisfactory mechanical properties. Woven fabrics produced from carbon fibres find increasing application in the aerospace and many other industries, because they are easy to handle, they have the ability to conform to complicated shapes and the in-plane properties are more isotropic than those of equivalent unidirectional materials. 

About 30% of all polymers produced each year are used in the civil engineering and building industries(23). Nevertheless, structural plastics such as fibre reinforced composites have so far received little attention by civil and structural engineers, despite some of their obvious advantages such as lightness, handleability and corrosion resistance. This may be due to reservations on credibility grounds or fire resistance properties, as well as to uncertainty on how to design structures with them. Whilst their mechanical properties are in fact fairly well understood, there are a number of... 

M.S. Islam, K.L. Pickering and N.J. Foreman, Influence of accelerated ageing on the physico-mechanical properties of alkah-treated industrial hemp fibre reinforced poly (lactic acid) (PLA) composites. Polym. Degrad. Stabil. 95, 59-65 (2010). 

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