• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.701-712
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• 2000

The continuous fiber reinforced composites of GF/PA were fabricated using a pultrusion resin impregnation apparatus and cut into pellets of 6 mm length. GF/PA pellets were then melt-mixed with PP resin to prepare new types of ternary composites, GF/PA/PP. Mechanical and rheological properties of such composites revealed to be better than conventional ternary composites due to the longer average glass fibers. Measurements also showed that the mechanical properties of the composites prepared by direct injection molding were higher than those of the composites prepared by injection molding followed by extrusion. To improve adhesions of fiber surfaces and polymer matrix, PP-MAH (maleic anhydride) has been introduced in the GF/PA/PP composites as a compatibilizer. It was found that PP-MAH did indeed improve surface adhesion between fibers and polymer matrix and that, as a result, various mechanical properties were markedly enhanced. Visualization of the phase structure in the samples was done by means of SEM. The surfaces of glass fibers in GF/PA/PP composites revealed that the fibers remained to be encapsulated by PA resin. However, pre-encapsulation did not persist in GF/PA/PP/PP-MAH composites due to the improvement of surface adhesion between fibers and polymer matrix, although resin sticking to the fiber was observed.