High Performance Thermoplastic Matrix Composites

Most high performance composites utilize thermosetting polymers as the matrix material. These low viscosity liquid prepolymers are easily impregnated into reinforcing fibers and then crosslinked to form a solid structure. Polymers which have a low viscosity at room temperature are ideally suited for low production runs because a wide variety of individualized shapes can be manufactured without a high degree of automation. As the demand for composites increases the need for high volume production techmques has developed. Thermoplastic polymers are more appropriately suited for automated produc tion than thermosets because they require only the application of heat and pressure to form parts. No chemical reaction is required with thermoplastic composites. Thermoplastic matrix composites are not appropriate for low volume production runs because the high temperatures and pressures required to process the composites utilizes equipment which is appropriate for large production runs. In addition to high volume processing advantages, thermoplastic matrix composites exhibit improved impact strength and chemical resis tance over most thermset based composites. The composites produced in this investigation had tensile strengths as high as 270 MPa, tensile moduli of 16.2 GPa, and notched Izod impact strengths of 11.1 J/cm.