Influence of plasticisation during foam injection moulding on the melt viscosity and fibre length of long glass fibre-reinforced polypropylene

Abstract

The processing of long glass fibre-reinforced thermoplastics results in considerable fibre damage, particularly during plasticising. By using thermoplastic foam injection moulding (FIM) with a constant blowing agent atmosphere, fibre damage during plasticisation can be reduced. This can be attributed to the reduction of the melt viscosity on the one hand and the influence of the melting behaviour on the other. Therefore, the influence of the FIM and the process parameters on the fibre length and the fibre length distribution are analysed and compared with the influence of the process parameters on the melt viscosity.