IN-LINE COMPOUNDING AND MOLDING OF LONG-FIBER REINFORCED THERMOPLASTICS (D-LFT)-INSIGHT INTO A RAPID GROWING TECHNOLOGY

摘要

Long-Fiber reinforced Thermoplastics (LFT) encounter an increasing success in the molding of structural parts, especially in the automotive industry where LFT applications are experiencing tremendous growth. The following paper discusses the different LFT processing technologies - GMT, LFT-pellets and D-LFT - and exposes their distinctive trend for the near future. It also discusses the average fiber-length inside the parts involved by each technology and shows its distinctive influence on stiffness, tensile strength and impact strength. The paper focuses particularly on the Direct-processing of LFT (D-LFT) and shows how this technology can improve the economics although involving technological risks and high investment costs. This paper provides an impartial understanding of the different LFT technologies and highlights the cases in which benefits could be got from the D-LFT processing. In covering both D-LFT injection and compression molding, it also provides information that help the reader to decide which of them could be the most appropriate.