MICROCELLULAR WOOD FIBER REINFORCED POLYPROPYLENE COMPOSITES:A COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN INJECTION MOLDING AND EXTRUSION PROCESS

摘要

Microcellular processing techniques have been applied at a experimental level to both extrusion and injection molding plastics processing, using wood fiber as a reinforcing filler. The focus of the current research is the investigations of these processes using chemical foaming agents and comparative studies of physico-mechanical properties of materials. Results of using different chemical foaming agents (endothermic and exothermic), the variation of their content for producing wood fiber-polypropylene microfoamed composites and the effect of a coupling agent on the composites are presented. Microcells morphology, cell size, shape and distribution were investigated using scanning electron micrographs.