Graphite-Reinforced Plastics

Zheng et al. [84] and Choi and Kovac et al. [83] showed that graphite acted as a nucleating agent to induce the crystallization of high-density polyethylene and its composites. 

However, the overall crystallinity and melting temperature decreased with increasing filler content. Tensile and dynamic mechanical analysis measurements indicated that expanded graphite was a better hller than untreated graphite. The overall improvement in mechanical properties was not great, but the mechanical strength and stiffness of high-density polyethylene were improved by the addition of the fillers. 

The work of the British Standard Institute (BSI) committees is now mainly devoted to inputs and ballot vote/comments on the ISO and CEN work programs. Some work is required to monitor/revise existing BS standards, but the majority will be replaced ultimately by CEN standards, as discussed within the CEN work program. 

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Epoxy resin (used as an adhesive and in fibre reinforced plastics such as glass reinforced plastic and graphite-reinforced plastic), and... 

High performance composites may be laminates wherein veils of carbon fiber ate treated with an epoxy resin, stacked up to the desired final product thickness, and then laminated together under heat and pressure (see Composite materials Carbon and graphite fibers). Simply mixing together carbon or glass fibers and polymeric resins to form a reinforced plastic leads to a composite material, but this is not a laminate if not constmcted from discrete phes. 

Because people everywhere tend to take their fun seriously, they spend freely on sports and recreational activities. The broad range of properties available from plastics has made them part of all types of sports and recreational equipment for land, water, and airborne activities. Roller-skate wheels are now abrasion- and wear-resistant polyurethane, tennis rackets are molded from specially reinforced plastics (using glass, aramid, graphite, or other fibers), skis are laminated with plastics, and so on. 

By this time the industry required a more inclusive term to describe RPs, so composite was added. Thus the name in the plastics industry became Reinforced Plastic Composites. More recently they became known only as Composites. However composites identify many other combinations of basic materials (Table 6-18). The fiber reinforcements included higher modulus glasses, carbon, graphite, boron, aramid (strongest fiber in the world, five times as strong as steel on an equal-weight basis), whiskers, and others (Table 6-20 and Figs. 6-13 and 6-14). In... 

RPs that combine two different materials (plastic matrix and reinforcement) are a separate major and important segment in the plastic industry. They are also called plastic composites and composites. There are also self-reinforcing plastics such as liquid crystal polymers (Chapter 1) and others.301 It is a fact that RPs have not come near to realizing their great potential in a multitude of applications usually due to cost limitations that particularly involves the use of expensive fiber reinforcements (carbon, graphite, silica, etc.).1 Information on thermoplastic and thermoset plastic RPs are reviewed in Chapter 15. 

Fillers used in large quantities to reinforce plastics are alumina (aluminum oxide), calcium carbonate, calcium silicate, cellulose flock, cotton (different forms), short glass fiber, glass beads, glass spheres, graphite, iron oxide powder, mica, quartz, sisal, silicon carbide, dtanium oxide, and tungsten carbide. Choice of filler varies and depends to a great extent upon the requirements of the end item and method of fabrication. 

Limited at first to the inspection of metallic components, it was later demonstrated that high-frequency magnetic fields causing eddy current production could be applied to the testing of composites containing conductive fibers, or a certain amount of graphite [108.109], Eddy current testing has been successfully applied in the detection and characterization of defects in carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) panels, helicopter rotor blades, truck tires, and more [110-112]. 

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