HYBRID YARNS FOR THERMOPLASTIC COMPOSITES: A SCOPE FOR TECHNICAL TEXTILE APPLICATIONS

摘要

With the increasing use of thermoplastic fiber composites made from continuous fibers, there is an increase in demand for development of new materials and the know-how of their processing technology. The fiber composite materials with thermoplastic polymer matrix are preferred as compared to thermoplastic polymers as former offer greater fracture toughness, higher elongation at fracture, and much faster automatic processing. A new hybrid yarn is being developed for production of fiber composites with thermoplastic matrix material. It is a commingled textured yarn consisting of structural fibers and thermoplastic fibers. In a subsequent heating and consolidation process the plastic fibers melt and become the matrix material in the formed fiber composite material. The hybrid yarn is so called post-preg material (opposite prepreg) since the fibers are impregnated with the matrix in a post-process. The hybrid yarn is " soft" and drapeable, and therefore very suitable for producing fiber preforms by almost any textile technology. The commingled hybrid yarn also helps the material scientists to meet new challenge by extending this technology to other forms of material for advance engineering structures. At present relatively little information exists about the commingled hybrid yarns. This work mainly emphasis on further studies on commingling behaviur and properties of hybrid yarn for composite applications.