Development of rubber pressure moulding technique using polybutadiene rubber to fabricate fibre reinforced plastic components based on glass fibre and epoxy resin

摘要

A rubber pressure moulding technique is developed to prepare fibre reinforced plastic components (FRP) using glass fibre and epoxy resin. The technique is based on the matching die set, where the die is made of hard metal like steel and the punch fromflexible rubber-like materials. The use of flexible rubber punch helps to intensify and uniformly redistribute pressure (both operating pressure and developed hydrostatic pressure due to the flexible rubber punch) on the surface of the product. A splitsteel die and rubber punch were designed and fabricated to prepare the FRP components. The same split die was also used to cast the rubber punch. Polybutadiene rubber was used to prepare rubber punch in this investigation. Burn test, coin test, scanningelectron microscopy and mechanical tests like interlaminar fracture toughness, interlaminar shear test, tension test, etc. were carried out to know the fibre content, void content, presence of delamination, bonding between fibre and resin, microstructureand mechanical properties of the composite materials. These properties were also compared with FRP components made by the conventional technique to evaluate their performances in structural applications.