Especially the automotive industry is very interested in cheap and easy processable light weight materials with high performance. Thermoplastic foams could be a material group for certain applications in cars. One of the most named disadvantages of thermoplastic foams is the decrease of strength caused to the weakened cross section of foamed thermoplastics. The presented results can show that strength and stiffness of foamed PP remain on a high level, putting natural fibers into the compound. 30% of hemp, flax or kenaf fibers are sufficient for a constant level; with 40% of flax fibers the niveau is even higher compared to compact PP and even 20 % of sisal fibers are sufficient looking at the specific tensile strength. These results could be reached using a suitable blowing agent. However, the modulus in flexure clearly rises. This is attributed to the fact that the skin zones are strengthened for the purposes of high moment of inerta of area. It can be supposed that even the torsion stiffness is increasing constructing structures with a closed compact peripheral zone of the foamed parts. As bending and torsion are important loads of automotive parts the described new natural fiber reinforced thermoplastic foams are a new suitable material group for a lot of e.g. automotive products. Further investigations are necessary to get more information about the structure - property - relations of these materials. Then it can be possible to carry out specific developments for specific applications.
Natural fiber reinforced thermoplastic foams - A new material group for lightweight structures
Mit Naturfasern verstärkte Thermoplastschaumstoffe - eine neue Werkstoffgruppe für Leichtbaukonstruktionen
2010
6 Seiten, 12 Bilder, 2 Tabellen, 5 Quellen
Conference paper
English
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