Crystallinity and mechanical properties of glass fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites by rapid press consolidation technique

Glass fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites were manufactured by Rapid Press Consolidation Technique (RPCT) as functions of temperature, pressure and time in pre-heating, consolidation and solidification sections during the manufacturing processing. It was found that the material property is greatly affected by pre-heating temperature under vacuum, mold temperature and molding pressure. Among them, the temperature in the mold was the most critical factor in determining the mechanical properties and the molded conditions of specimen. The crystallinity of PET matrix was also investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) measurements for various processing conditions. The level of crystallinity (X-C) depended strongly on the mold temperature, cooling rate and the type of composite. The difference in X-C is believed to be one important factor in characterizing the mechanical properties.