Fiber alignment using electric fields in novel processing of aligned discontinuous fiber composites
- Johnson & Johnson Corporate Biomaterials Center, Somerville, NJ (United States)
- Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States)
Micro-mechanics models predict that the elastic properties of discontinuous fiber composites approach those of continuous fiber composites when the length of the reinforcements far exceeds the critical fiber length and when the fibers are aligned in the direction of the applied stress. Short fiber composites are typically limited to low performance applications due to the problems in processing long fibers at high volume fractions with controlled fiber orientation. To overcome this performance limitation, a novel approach has been developed where the advances in polymer powder processing of composites is coupled with the phenomenon of fiber alignment in electro-magnetic fields to process aligned discontinuous fiber composites. Starting with fibers of lengths greater than critical fiber length, the Aligned Discontinuous Fiber (ADF) composite process in its general form consists of three unit operations: controlling fiber alignment using electric fields in air; dry polymer powder impregnation of fibers; and compression molding of the flexible aligned discontinuous fiber mat into a composite. This dry, solvent free approach offers tremendous scope for fast fiber alignment in air, resulting in a rapid manufacturing technique for high performance, micro-structure controlled, short fiber composites with a high degree of automation. In this brief communication, the parameters that affect the orientation of fibers in electric fields in the ADF process are reported.
- OSTI ID:
- 603021
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-961108-; TRN: 98:001968-0108
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Annual meeting of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), Chicago, IL (United States), 10-15 Nov 1996; Other Information: PBD: 1996; Related Information: Is Part Of 1996 First joint topical conference on processing, structure and properties of polymeric materials; PB: 594 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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