Next month

In next month’s issue we’ll be previewing the JEC Composites Show 2003, which takes place in Paris on 1-3 April. As always we’ll be highlighting some of the new products and developments to look out for. (A review of the show will be included in the June issue.) As well as JEC, we’ll be taking a look at adhesives for use in bonding composites, and the latest developments in the use of composites in the rail and mass transit industries. Also, look out for the launch of our 2004 Industry Awards competition and your opportunity to nominate a product that you think deserves recognition.Visit www.reinforcedplastics.com for the latest plastics industry news     

2009年法国JEC展会介绍

介绍T2009年JEC展会参展国家、参展企业、展会面积等概况；介绍了根据自动化技术、分包和生物复合材料的主题，国内外参展企业的展出产品情况；介绍了展会的专题研讨报告以及JEC创新奖的情况。阐述了每年一度的法国JEC复合材料展是世界复合材料第一展览盛会，是玻纤企业材料企业做大做强、与国际交流的重要平台。     

Preview: JEC Composites Show 2004

This year's JEC exhibition takes place from 30 March to 1 April at the Paris Expo in France. This preview is designed to highlight some of the developments visitors to the show can expect to see, and gives those of you not going to JEC this year a taste of the event.     

Inside this month

This month’s issue comes right after the Composites 2003 show in Anaheim last month, run by the ACMA (the US trade association formerly known as CFA). Trade shows are always an excellent way of gauging the current climate of an industry and this year’s North American event had a positive feel. Although lacking the Boatbuilding show which had been co-located with CFA for the past two years, and a feeling that visitor numbers were slightly lower than last year, most exhibitors seemed happy with the quality of visitors. Much of the talk of course revolved around current business conditions and discussion of when things will start to get better. This year has been another tough one for the composites industry and companies are looking to next year for things to pick up, but uncertainty still underpins everyone’s predictions. On a brighter note, the ACMA emerged at the show with a renewed vigour and plans for forthcoming activities (more on this on page 48).     

Survey of current status and future trends in reinforced plastics composites

The production of reinforced plastics has constantly increased since the Second World War. With a forecast growth rate of 8 to 12 percent annually over the next decade, composites are one of the fastest growing sectors of the plastics industry. Advanced composites will show the largest expansion, due to a strong increase in demands in aerospace and military markets. Penetration of advanced composites into big-volume markets has not occurred, but it is believed that advances in both materials and machinery will accelerate the mass-production of these materials. High-volume composites will see a less rapid growth rate but demands for these materials will continue to increase. Land transportation will remain the largest and will be also the fastest growing market for high-volume composites. Current status and future trends in the uses of various reinforcing fibers and matrix resins are presented. Hurdles to the expansion of reinforced plastics are also discussed.     

Abstracts of Papers Presented at the 2005 Pittsburgh Conference

To attend or not to attend, that is the question. The Pittsburgh Conference continues to pose this conundrum to conferees and exhibitors alike. This year''s conference was the first to be presented without a set of paper abstracts—a good thing some would say but this old codger always used the paper abstracts to select papers of interest to our readership and to seek a full publication. The exhibit took its usual format but it seemed that there were less manufacturers present. The information presented to the attendees was also lacking and many companies'' details were missing from the final program book, an omission no doubt on their behalf—my company was one of these—however I feel sure that past Pittcon organizers would have been more persistent in getting the required details for the audience. As is now the norm, many of the presentations take the form of posters displayed within the exhibition area. Without a driver to get the audience there, the traffic was slow, to say the least. Lecture presentations were also attended in a mixed fashion. So the Pittsburgh Conference show moves on, and again next year it will be held in Orlando from 12 March to 17 March 2006. No doubt I will be there making it a straight 31 in a row; in Pittsburgh Conference terms I am just a beginner with many of the attendees making more shows in a run than that. Selected abstracts dealing with topics of interest to the readers of this journal follow—hopefully many of these groups will be willing to publish their work either within this journal or elsewhere.     

Resin producers skip JEC 2004

Unsaturated polyester (UP) resin manufacturers represented by the APME/CEFIC uPES (Association of Plastics Manufacturers in Europe/the European Chemical Industry Council unsaturated polyester resins) group have taken the decision to exhibit every second year at the JEC Composites Show in Paris. This means that key players like Reichhold, DSM, Cray Valley, Ashland, Scott Bader and Lonza (the unsaturated polyester resins part) will be absent from next year's JEC and will next participate in 2005.     

RP Asia venue selected

The venue for Reinforced Plastics’ RP Asia 2004 trade show for the composites industry has been selected. The two-day conference and exhibition will be held at the Shangri-La Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand, on 1-2 September next year.     

先进复合材料的现状和趋势--第二十二届欧洲SAMPE国际会议与第三十六届JEC复合材料展览会评述

本文介绍了第二十二届欧洲SAMPE国际会议和第三十六届JEC复合材料展览会的概况，以及复合材料新应用、新材料、新工艺和新技术的研究发展趋势。     

I’m pleased to officially announce the dates of Reinforced Plastics’ next RP Asia trade show.

RP Asia 2004 will be held on 1-2 September in Bangkok, Thailand. This will be the fifth RP Asia conference and exhibition. We started up the event in 1997, when the Asian economies were showing exceptionally strong growth. Since then economic conditions have fluctuated considerably, but there’s still no doubt that with its large and growing population and increasing industrialisation this is the market for the future. The Reinforced Plastics team is committed to continuing to develop RP Asia into an event to meet the needs of composites industry and to promote the use of composites in the Asia Pacific region.     

Effects of vacancy defect reconstruction on the elastic properties of carbon nanotubes

Taking typical armchair (5,5) and (10,10) single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) as its study subjects, this study adopts the molecular dynamics method to investigate the vacancy defect reconstruction and elastic properties of these SWCNTs with different defect ratios. The results show that single vacancies and di-vacancies in SWCNTs have different reconstructions. A single vacancy reconstructs into a 5-1DB configuration when the temperature is about or higher than 2400 K, and a di-vacancy reconstructs into a 5-8-5 configuration when the temperature is about or higher than 2600 K. At room temperature, the Young’s moduli of armchair (5,5) and (10,10) SWCNTs with no defects are 948 and 901 GPa, respectively. When the vacancy defect achieves a certain ratio, there is a sudden slow down in the curves of the Young’s moduli versus the vacancy defect ratio and a platform phenomenon emerges. The reconstruction of vacancy defects can be carried out by way of not only temperature but also the defect ratios in SWCNTs because of the activity of dangling bonds and their spaces. Vacancy defects will bring about a decrease in the Young’s modulus, but their reconstruction will be an important factor in stabilizing the modulus.     

Development of stiff, strong, yet tough composites by the addition of solvent exfoliated graphene to polyurethane

We have prepared graphene dispersions, stabilised by polyurethane in tetrahydrofuran and dimethylformamide. These dispersions can be drop-cast to produce free-standing composite films. The graphene mass fraction is determined by the concentration of dispersed graphene and can be controllably varied from 0% to 90%. Raman spectroscopy and helium ion microscopy show the graphene to be well-dispersed and well-exfoliated in the composites, even at mass fractions of 55%. On addition of graphene, the Young’s modulus and stress at 3% strain increase by ×100, saturating at 1 GPa and 25 MPa, respectively, for mass fractions above 50 wt%. While the ultimate tensile strength does not vary significantly with graphene content, the strain at break and toughness degrade heavily on graphene addition. Both these properties fall by ×1000 as the graphene content is increased to 90 wt%. However, the rate of increase of Young’s modulus and stress at 3% strain with mass fraction is greater than the rate of decrease of ductility and toughness. This makes it possible to prepare composites with high modulus, stress at low strain and ultimate tensile strength as well as relatively high toughness and ductility. This could lead to new materials that are stiff, strong and tough.     

Small but strong: A review of the mechanical properties of carbon nanotube-polymer composites

The superlative mechanical properties of carbon nanotubes make them the filler material of choice for composite reinforcement. In this paper we review the progress to date in the field of mechanical reinforcement of polymers using nanotubes. Initially, the basics of fibre reinforced composites are introduced and the prerequisites for successful reinforcement discussed. The effectiveness of different processing methods is compared and the state of the art demonstrated. In addition we discuss the levels of reinforcement that have actually been achieved. While the focus will be on enhancement of Young’s modulus we will also discuss enhancement of strength and toughness. Finally we compare and tabulate these results. This leads to a discussion of the most promising processing methods for mechanical reinforcement and the outlook for the future.     

2008 JEC展会观感

介绍了2008年JEC展会面积、参加人员等概况,环境保护和回收利用的主题,布局,技术交流论坛和专题报告,评出奖项;"OVC"等玻纤企业发展重组动态,芬兰等欧洲玻纤企业的变化,东欧玻纤生产的发展,活跃的新建公司;新的更好性能的玻纤发展情况;并对复合材料发展提出建设性意见。     

Arsenic interactions during co-combustion processes based on thermodynamic equilibrium calculations

Arsenic emissions are currently considered to be one of foremost importance. Arsenic volatility is higher than most of trace elements, but its vaporization behaviour is strongly dependent on the atmosphere composition. In this sense, thermodynamic equilibrium calculations, using HSC-Chemistry 5.0 software, were performed to evaluate the influence of different compounds in the distribution and mode of occurrence of arsenic in co-combustion processes. The influence of different parameters influencing arsenic behaviour, such as temperature, pressure, trace element concentration and flue gas composition on equilibrium composition were also evaluated. Predicting arsenic species, based on combustion conditions and fuel composition, will be useful to choose the best available control technology to reduce arsenic emissions. Finally, the possible interactions between arsenic and different trace elements (TE), mercury, cadmium and antimony, relevant from an environmental point of view, have also been studied; these interactions are not usually considered in thermodynamic studies; however, TE’s interactions affects the behaviour of a single TE, not only as a result of the formation of new species, but also, because of the different reactivity of TEs towards different elements which may affect TE’s volatilization behaviours. From results obtained in this study it may be concluded that in most cases, arsenic is mainly captured in ashes as a result of the formation of thermally stable species both from interactions with bulk ash and TE’s interactions. Nevertheless, the presence of some compounds (silicon, chlorine and sulphur) may enhance arsenic volatilization.     

The incorporation of carbon nanofibres to enhance the interlayer adhesion of hot compacted single-polymer polypropylene composites

The current work is a major extension of two very different studies carried out previously to investigate factors that affect the peel strength of single-polymer composites produced by the Leeds hot compaction process. First, it was found that the peel strength was significantly increased by introducing interleaved films, of the same polymer, between the layers of woven oriented tapes that make up the composite. Secondly, it was shown that incorporation of carbon nanofibres (CNF) into the oriented tapes prior to hot compaction could also increase peel strength.In the present study we have investigated the amalgamation of these two approaches, in particular to see if there are synergistic advantages in the combination. Samples were produced with and without interleaved films, and with and without carbon nanofibres, located either in the oriented polypropylene tapes, in the interleaved film or in both. Maximum peel strength was achieved with the combination of the interleaved film and the incorporated nanofibres, but importantly this could be achieved with the CNF located only in the film. This has significant processing and performance advantages as the incorporation of CNF into the oriented tapes tends to limit the drawability of the polypropylene due to internal voiding around the particles.Scanning electron micrographs of the hot compacted composites show a strong correlation between the observed damage on the peel surfaces and the measured peel loads. It is shown that the peel load is dependent on the fraction of melted matrix at the interface and hence the interleaved films give additional matrix material at this point. It is also shown that the incorporation of CNF promotes fibrillation, and so increases the amount of energy absorbed during peeling.     

ADS acquires Volvo’s Mexican plant

CANADIAN company ADS Inc is acquiring the production assets of Volvo Buses of Mexico’s composites factory in Tultitlan, Mexico. The plant manufactures composite materials used in bus and medical applications and its main customers are Volvo and the medical division of General Electric (GE). It has sales of about $6 million per year.Visit www.reinforcedplastics.com for the latest plastics industry news     

High performance PEEK/carbon nanotube composites compatibilized with polysulfones-II. Mechanical and electrical properties

The mechanical and electrical properties of poly(ether ether ketone) (PEEK)/single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) composites with polysulfones as compatibilizers have been analyzed. Dynamic mechanical studies reveal that these composites exhibit considerably higher storage modulus and glass transition temperature than non-compatibilized samples. Tensile tests indicate a non-linear growth in the Young’s modulus and strength with increasing SWCNT loading, related to changes in the degree of crystallinity of the composites. The moduli of samples with very low CNT content exceed the predictions by the rule of mixtures, whilst at higher concentrations fall slightly below the theoretical values. The addition of the polysulfones increases the stiffness and toughness of the composites, attributed to an improved filler dispersion and stronger matrix-reinforcement interfacial adhesion. Fractography analyses suggest that these compatibilizers favor the ductile deformation of the matrix. The electrical and thermal conductivities of the composites decrease slightly in the presence of the polysulfones, albeit are well above the values of pure PEEK. Enhanced properties are found for samples including wrapped laser-grown SWCNTs. The overall mechanical performance of the compatibilized composites is suitable for use in lightweight structural applications, particularly for the aeronautic industry.     

The Influence of Interfacial Adhesion on the Predicted Young's Modulus of Mica-Reinforced Nylon-6

Particle-filled polymer composites have become attractive because of their wide applications and low cost. Various factors influence the mechanical properties of thermoplastic composites. Of these, the aspect ratio of the reinforcement, interfacial adhesion, and binder content are the most important. Other than these, the particle size and particle size distribution of the reinforcement also influence the mechanical properties. In this paper, injection molded mica composites were investigated, using nylon-6 as a binder. Many models are available to predict the Young's modulus of the composites. A theoretical model for Young's modulus by Lewis and Nielsen was used to predict the Young's modulus of the composites. Tetra isopropyl titanate (TYZOR® TPT) was used to modify the adhesion between the reinforcement and the binder by mixing it with the reinforcement prior to compounding. It was found that Young's modulus was greater than the predicted values.     

Effectiveness of carbon microcoils as a reinforcing material for a polymer matrix

Spring-shaped carbon microcoils (CMCs) were embedded in epoxy resins to form CMC/epoxy resin composites. The mechanical properties of the composites were examined and compared with those of conventional straight carbon fiber (CF) /epoxy resin composites. CMCs were found to be more effective than CFs as a reinforcing material for the epoxy resin having a low Young’s modulus (0.54 MPa). SEM images of the fractured cross-sections of the composite revealed that CMCs were not pulled out from the resin matrix but fractured with the matrix. This could be ascribed to the unique conformations of CMCs.