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. |