ADVANCES IN URETHANE ACRYLATE RESIN TECHNOLOGY FOR HIGH-PERFORMANCE ADVANCED COMPOSITES APPLICATIONS

摘要

The use of high-performance composite materials using carbon fibre reinforcement is continuing to expand in many applications where the practical limits in cost or performance of glass reinforced composites necessitate a change in material choice. With composite performance and material/processing cost being a critical balance, a urethane acrylate resin system specifically designed for use with carbon reinforcement fibres has been developed, namely Crestapol 1250LV. The resin affords polyester and vinyl ester resin users an opportunity to embrace the performance of carbon fibres without the need for radical processing changes. Epoxy resin users can maintain good mechanical, temperature and quality performance whilst switching to a robust, room temperature processing resin, needing only short periods of moderate post cure temperatures to further improve performance. Results of a suite of laminate mechanical tests including inter-laminar shear, inter-laminar fracture toughness, 0° compression and flexural demonstrate the urethane-acrylate resin to be compatible with a common general purpose sized carbon fibre. The implication is that specialist fibre sizing is not necessary to achieve high composite performance and that the urethane-acrylate technology can successfully offer the cost benefits of out-of-autoclave, room temperature manufacture.