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Composites: Part B
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compositesb
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history:
Received 26 April 2013
Received in revised form 25 June 2013
Accepted 12 August 2013
Available online 21 August 2013
Keywords:
A. Glass bers
B. Adhesion
E. Pultrusion
E. Thermoplastic resin
Rotational molding
a b s t r a c t
This work is aimed to study the use of pultruded proles for the selective reinforcement of linear low
density polyethylene (LLDPE) parts produced by rotational molding. A preliminary screening on different
types of pultruded proles was performed, highlighting the relevance of adhesion to LLDPE in order to
prevent debonding of the reinforcing pultruded proles. As expected, high density polyethylene (HDPE)
matrix pultruded tapes are characterized by a very high adhesion to rotomolded LLDPE. Therefore, HDPE
matrix pultruded tapes, fastened on the inner surface of the mold, are incorporated into LLDPE during
rotomolding. Plate bending tests performed on reinforced rotomolded plates and pressurization tests performed on the box shaped prototypes showed a signicant increase of the stiffness with a negligible
amount of reinforcement and increase of the weight of the component.
2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Rotational molding is a process for manufacturing hollow or
double-walled plastic products, in the absence of any external
pressure. Specic material requirements limit the polymers available for the fabrication of products by rotational molding. In particular, low melt viscosity is required in order to achieve an efcient
sintering of polymer powders and void-free products. Further, an
adequately high toughness is required in order to allow the extraction of components from molds [1]. Nowadays, only few classes of
thermoplastic polymers are processed by rotomolding, and most of
them are different grades of polyethylene, in particular linear low
density polyethylene (LLDPE). The mechanical properties of these
polymers are relatively poor, and rotomolded products nd applications in elds where mechanical requirements are not particularly critical. Therefore, in recent years, in order to improve the
mechanical properties or rotomolded parts, incorporation of
nanollers [2,3], particulate reinforcements [4,5] or short bers
[6,7] were considered. However, such approaches involve some
drawbacks, either in terms of mechanical properties, either in
terms of processability. In facts, incorporation of any type of ller
is always associated with an embrittlement of the material [8],
as well as with an increase of the viscosity of the polymer melt,
which in turn reduces the sinterability of the material, thus
increasing the fraction of voids [3,9]. Further, the presence of
powders of different size and weight must be carefully managed,
Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 0832297233.
E-mail address: antonio.greco@unisalento.it (A. Greco).
1359-8368/$ - see front matter 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesb.2013.08.047
158
1
For interpretation of color in Fig. 3, the reader is referred to the web version of
this article.
159
4.2 mm
LLDPE
0.2 mm
Pultruded tape
(a)
(b)
Fig. 3. (a) Photography of reinforced prototype processed by rotational molding and (b) scheme of the side view of each face of the prototype.
Double lap shear tests were used for evaluation of the average
adhesion strength between LLDPE and pultruded tapes, by measuring the maximum force during the tests:
sA
F max
bh
threaded nut
polyethylene
1
Flange disk
Cylindrical duct
for water inlet
2
3
npy
mpx
4
F
mpn1
mpn2
npg1
mpg2 7
6XX sen a sen b
cos
cos
cos
4
5
2 cos
6
p B x2 x1 y2 y1 m n mn m2 n2
a
a
b
b
a2
b2
2
ss
F max
pDL0
b
25
FMAX
y2
a
y1
force (N)
20
15
10
5
0
0
x1
x2
Fig. 4. Scheme of the sample geometry and loading device for plate bending tests.
displacement (mm)
Fig. 6. Forcedisplacement curve from pull-out tests.
8
>
yG;PUL - tLLDPE
>
2
>
>
>
tPUL
>
y
>
G;LLDPE
2
>
>
>
t PUL t LLDPE
>
>
yNA 1 2- n tLLDPE
>
ntPUL
>
<
h 3
i
bt LLDPE
ILLDPE 12 ALLDPE yG;LLDPE - yNA 2
>
>
>
h 3
i
>
>
btPUL
>
APUL yG;PUL - yNA 2
IPUL 12
>
>
>
>
X
>
>
>
>
: K Ei Ii EPUL IPUL ELLDPE ILLDPE
Table 1
Adhesion and friction stresses for thermoset and thermoplastic pultruded rods. In
parentheses the pre-heating temperature.
Rod
ss (MPa)
Poystal (170 C)
Jonam (150 C)
Jonam (160 C)
Jonam (170 C)
0.36 0.16
1.90 0.68
2.52 0.42
2.40 0.39
750
600
force (N)
450
300
150
0
0.0
0.3
0.6
0.9
1.2
1.5
displacement (mm)
Fig. 7. Forcedisplacement curve from double lap shear tests.
12
10
stress (MPa)
160
not reinforced
reinforced
8
6
4
2
0
0.000
0.005
0.010
0.015
strain (mm/mm)
Fig. 8. Stressstrain curves from exural tests on beams extracted from rotational
molding prototypes.
EEQ
K
t PUL 3
b tLLDPE12
1
b
s Sx;LLDPE
ELLDPE F
2K
where Sx,LLDPE is the static moment of the LLDPE area with respect to the neutral axis, F is the applied force, and K is given by
Eq. (4). Combining the geometric characteristic of the beam, for
an applied force of 600 N, which is the maximum force attained
during short beam tests, it is possible to estimate an interlaminar
shear stress equal to 6.4 MPa, in correspondence of tension failure.
This value is lower than the adhesion strength measured by double
lap shear tests, and explains the absence of any delamination during short beam shear test. It is worth observing that, in the case
that PP or thermoset matrix rods were used, the interlaminar shear
stress would exceed the adhesion stress measured by pullout tests
(Table 1), causing delamination.
The force displacement curve during plate bending tests on
sheets extracted from rotational molded prototypes are reported
in Fig. 9. From the slope of the force displacement curve, by
161
Es3
121 m2
For the three different simulated values (one single tape, two
tapes parallel to square edges, and two tapes on the square diagonal) the corresponding values of the glass spheres volume fraction
needed to reach the same stiffness, B, is reported in Table 2.
Assuming a LLDPE density of 935 kg/m3 and a glass density of
2540 kg/m3, the corresponding weight increase was obtained.
not reinforced
reinforced
force (N)
400
300
200
100
0
0
displacement (mm)
Fig. 9. Force displacement curves from plate bending tests on sheets extracted from
rotational molding prototypes.
1000
not reinforced
reinforced
inversion of Eq. (2), a exural stiffness of 3.96 0.15 Nm can be calculated for neat LLDPE plates. On the other hand, the exural stiffness for the reinforced plates was calculated as 5 0.15 Nm.
Therefore, a stiffening ratio SR = 1.26 was obtained.
The results of pressurization tests are reported in Fig. 10. Even
in this case, the higher stiffness of reinforced prototype is highlighted by the lower volume increase. The stiffening ratio (obtained
as the ratio between the volume increase measured using neat
LLDPE and reinforced LLDPE boxes) is 1.25, very close to the value
obtained by plate bending tests.
The structural mechanics problem of a reinforced plate
subjected to an uniformly applied pressure, was solved by nite
element (FEM) software (FlexPDE). For the same lay-up of the
reinforcement used for the production of the prototypes, comprising one single tape parallel to edges, a stiffness ratio between
reinforced and unreinforced plates of 1.22 was calculated. Nevertheless, it must be highlighted that more than one reinforcing
tape can be used at different positions. For example, by placing
two tapes parallel to the square edges, a stiffness equal to
5.3 Nm was estimated by FEM simulation. Two tapes placed on
the diagonals of the square face of the rotomolded box yielded
a stiffness of 5.8 Nm. Therefore, the use of two tapes in different
positions could lead to a stiffness ratio of 1.32 and 1.53,
respectively.
Such increase of the stiffness of the plate can be obtained by
adding a very low amount of glass bers (about 0.3% by volume
for one single tape, 0.6% for two tapes), with a negligible increase
of the weight of the component (0.5% and 1% respectively).
For comparison purposes, other approaches aimed to increase
the stiffness of the rotomolded box are analyzed:
800
600
400
200
0
0
10
pressure (bar)
Fig. 10. Volume change vs pressure from water pressurization tests.
Table 2
Comparison between different approaches for stiffening of rotational molded LLDPE.
One tape
Two tapes
parallel to
edges
Two tapes on
the diagonal
Pultruded tape
reinforcement
Glass spheres
reinforcement
Thickness
increase
SR
Weight increase
(%)
Vf
Weight
increase
(%)
Weight
increase
(%)
1.23
1.31
0.5
1
0.1
0.14
17
24
7
9.5
1.46
0.21
36
15
The values reported in Table 2 are much higher than those obtained by using pultruded tapes.
Following the second approach, the thickness of the prototype
should be increased by a factor of SR1/3, as reported in Table 2. In
this case, the weight increase would be almost equal to the thickness increase. Even in this case the weight increase, though lower
than the weight increase estimated for glass spheres reinforcement, is much higher than that calculated for the pultruded tapes
reinforcement.
Besides the increase of the weight of the components, both the
alternatives are characterized by severe processing limitations in
rotational molding. The drawbacks of adding glass spheres were already discussed in the introduction section. Instead, the increase of
wall thickness causes higher temperature gradients across wall
thickness [21], which in turn involves more severe degradation
phenomena on the outer surface of the part, in direct contact with
the mold.
4. Conclusions
A new design and processing route was developed for the production of reinforced LLDPE components processed by rotational
molding. A preliminary evaluation of the adhesion properties of
different types of pultruded proles to LLDPE was performed. Despite their lower modulus compared to thermosetting matrix proles, thermoplastic matrix proles are characterized by a higher
adhesion to LLDPE. Further, HDPE matrix tapes were characterized
by an improved adhesion to LLDPE compared to PP matrix rods.
Debonding was not observed between LLDPE and HDPE matrix
tapes even during short beam tests. As a consequence, HDPE matrix tapes were used for the reinforcement of LLDPE prototypes
processed by rotational molding. To this purpose, HDPE matrix
tapes were fastened on the inner surface of the mold, before running a standard rotational molding cycle. During processing, melting of LLDPE powders and of HDPE matrix is responsible of the
incorporation of the tape in the component walls.
162
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[12]
Acknowledgements
Mr. Francesco Montagna is acknowledged for the support to
experimental activity, and Dr. Andrea Salomi for his useful
suggestions.
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