Glass fibre woven reinforcement

Figure 14.3 Glass fibre woven reinforcement, (a) Surface photograph (b) TexGen generated geometry of 2D reinforcements placed over one another having two sensors at the top and bottom.

The resin was an epoxy, Permaglass 22 FE from Fothergill and Harvey, the reinforcement was E-glass fibre woven fabric. 

The results described in this paper were all obtained from tests on E-glass reinforced composite materials produced by hand lay-up. This is the manufacturing route most frequently used for marine structures. For the majority of the tests reported here the E-glass fibres were either quasi-unidirectional (250 g/m with 1 g/m of polyester fibres bonded in the 90° direction to keep the UD fibres in place) or stitched quadrlaxial (0/45/907-45° 1034 g/m ) cloths. The same uniaxial ply is used in both cloths. The resin is based on DGEBA epoxy (SRI500) with an amine hardener (2505) from Sicomin, France. All epoxy specimens were post-cured at 90°C for 6 hours. Some results are also shown for a woven glass (0/90° 500 g/m ) reinforced isophthalic polyester for comparison, as this is the traditional marine... 

Many fluorinated polymers have excellent weathering resistance. Ethyl-ene/tetrafluoroethylene copolymers are particularly appropriate for film manufacture and developments have included examples reinforced with woven glass and perforated metal foil which can be used outdoors [41]. Fluorinated polymers reinforced with glass fibre are used for roofing applications. 

D Short, A W Stankus and J Summerscales, Woven glass-fibre reinforced polyester resin composites exposed to the marine environment . Proceedings 1st International Conference Testing, Evaluation and Quality Control of Composites, Guildford, September 1983. Butterworth Scientific, Guildford, 1983,... 

Marsden W, Boniface L, Ogin SL, Smith PA. Quantifying damage in woven glass fibre/ epoxy laminates. In Proceedings FRC 94, sixth international conference on fibre reinforced composites, Newcastle upon Tyne. Institute of Materials 1994. paper 31,31/1-31/9. 

P(3) The relevant standard is ISO 2113 Woven glass fibre rovings fabrics of E-glass fibre for the reinforcement of polyester resin systems. 

These factors dictate the type of reinforcement which can be used. Continuous filament mat and needle mat (both glass fibre) are most common, but woven roving and multi-axial (glass, carbon, etc.) can also be used. 

Engineering polymers, such as PP can be reinforced at the macroscopic level with a variety of higher modulus materials such as fibres, beads, and cement, to form heterogeneous composites [4,5]. Thus, reinforcing PP with glass fibres as a co-woven mat has many advantages. Alternatively, reinforcement can also take place at the molecular level. These researchers have reported on the benefits of simultaneous... 

In principle, all fibres available for FRP can also be used as reinforcement in prepregs, the most common ones being carbon and glass fibres. Polymeric fibres made from aramid or polyethylene are also quite coimnon, as are inorganic basalt fibres, or natural fibres like hemp or flax. Often, the fibres are directly impregnated to make unidirectional (UD) tapes. Alternatively, they can first be transformed into fabric products, such as woven fabrics or non-crimp fabrics (NCF), and then impregnated to create multi-directional prepregs. 

Fibrous reinforcements take diverse forms continuous bundles of fibres, woven fabrics, chopped fibres, and numerous others. But whatever the form in which they are used, they are initially manufactured as bundles of continuous filaments. Each filament normally has a round cross-section with diameter in the range 5-15 //m, and the bundle (known as a roving or a tow ) consists of a large number of filaments (1000-100(X)). The size of the bundle is sometimes specified by the number of filaments it contains, but more usually by its mass per unit length, or linear density. The standard unit of linear density is now the tex (1 tex = 1 g/km or 10 kg/m). Thus, a typical glass-fibre roving, containing, about 7000 filaments of diameter 13 ixm, is said to be of 2400 tex. 

An interesting new product from Japan s Kyocera Chemical Corporation is a flexible fibre-reinforced plastic circuit board which is manufactured from a non-woven cloth of glass fibres impregnated with epoxy resin and sandwiched between layers of copper foil. 

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