Paper number 1123

IMPROVEMENT OF RESIN IMPREGNATION INTO GLASS CLOTH BY SILANE TREATMENT IN RESIN TRANSFER MOLDING

Nobuo Ikuta, Tohru Morii, Seiwa Ohori, Minoru Yasueda

Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Shonan Institute of Technology
1-1-25, Tsujido-Nishikaigan, Fujisawa, Kanagawa 251-8511, Japan

Summary

An evaluation method was proposed for resin impregnation using resin transfer molding of unsaturated polyester matrix composites with silane-treated glass cloth. The determination of whitening of the composite was carried out as a parameter of incompleteness of resin impregnation. The change of whitening with silane concentration was compared with the bending modulus as a parameter of chemical reinforcement. The materials used were unsaturated polyester resin as a matrix and methacryloxypropyltrimethoxysilane as a silane coupling agent for glass cloth. Resin transfer molding produced 4 plies of glass cloth laminates by impregnating the resin. The silane-treated glass cloth repressed whitening above 0.026 w/w % of silane solution, while the chemical reinforcement due to silane gave no appearance below 0.2 w/w% from the bending test of the laminates. The large difference between the concentrations suggested that silane has a couple of functions, that is, chemical reinforcement and physico-chemical resin wettability.

Keywords

physico-chemical property, silane, resin impregnation, interfacial effect, resin transfer molding, whitening, bending modulus.