Influence of weldlines on tensile properties of hybrid acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) composites filled with short glass fibres (GF) and glass beads (GB)

The present study investigated the effect of weldlines on tensile strength and modulus of injection moulded ABS polymer reinforced with both short fibres (GF) and spherical glass beads (GB). It was observed that tensile strength and modulus of ABS/GF/GB hybrids increased with increasing the concentration total of glass in the hybrid as well as the concentration of glass fibres in the hybrid (χ _GF ). Results indicated that tensile strength and modulus of ABS/GF/GB hybrids obey the rule-of-mixtures. The presence of weldlines had a negative effect on tensile properties of ABS/GF/GB hybrids. Although tensile strength and modulus of ABS/GF/GB hybrids were reduced in the presence of weldlines, nonetheless both increased with increasing the total concentration of the glass particles and χ _GF . The observed linearity of weldline strength and modulus with χ _GF indicated that these properties like their unweld counterparts can be expressed by simple rule-of-mixtures. It was noted also that weldline integrity factor for tensile modulus and strength decreased with increasing χ _GF and the total concentration of the glass particles in the hybrids. Weldline integrity values indicated that hybrid tensile strength was more affected by the weldlines than hybrid modulus.