Microstructure and Properties of Glass Fiber-Reinforced Polyamide/Nylon Microcellular Foamed Composites

• Published in: Polymers Vol. 12; no. 10; p. 2368
• Main Authors: Wang, Xiulei, Wu, Gaojian, Xie, Pengcheng, Gao, Xiaodong, Yang, Weimin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 15.10.2020; MDPI
• Subjects: Aerospace industry; Blowing agents; Composite materials; Dielectric properties; Dielectric strength; Experiments; Fiber composites; Fiber reinforced polymers; glass fiber reinforced nylon; Glass fiber reinforced plastics; High strength; Impact strength; Injection molding; Lightweight; Mechanical properties; microcellular foaming; Microcellular foams; Morphology; Nylon; Permittivity; Plastic foam; Polyamide resins; Polymer matrix composites; Production costs; supercritical fluid; Supercritical fluids; Tensile strength; Weight loss; Beijing China; China
• ISSN: 2073-4360; 2073-4360
• DOI: 10.3390/polym12102368

The automobile and aerospace industries require lightweight and high-strength structural parts. Nylon-based microcellular foamed composites have the characteristics of high strength and the advantages of being lightweight as well as having a low production cost and high product dimensional accuracy. In this work, the glass fiber-reinforced nylon foams were prepared through microcellular injection molding with supercritical fluid as the blowing agent. The tensile strength and weight loss ratio of microcellular foaming composites with various injection rates, temperatures, and volumes were investigated through orthogonal experiments. Moreover, the correlations between dielectric constant and injection volume were also studied. The results showed that the “slow–fast” injection rate, increased temperature, and injection volume were beneficial to improving the tensile strength and strength/weight ratios. Meanwhile, the dielectric constant can be decreased by building the microcellular structure in nylon, which is associated with the weight loss ratio extent closely.