Bulk ultrahigh-modulus polyethylene

Owing to the difficulty of wetting polyethylene, its various high modulus fiber forms have not found favor as inexpensive room temperature reinforcement materials. To obviate this problem, attempts have been made to use, as matrix material for ultrahigh modulus polyethylene fibers, both low and high density modifications of bulk polyethylene. Here, a different approach has been adopted-namely, to exploit the non-crystalline surface layer characteristic of the fiber to bind fibers together to form a usable monolithic solid. (C) Elsevier Science Inc. 1996.