Study on Processes and Properties of Continuous Woven Roving Reinforced Polyurethane Composites

Abstract

E-glass fiber woven roving reinforced polyurethane composites were manufactured by three different processes: hand lay-up, compression molding and vacuum infusion to assess the feasibility of all the processes. The results showed that all composites led to significant improvements in both flexural and tensile properties except elongation at break in comparison with the neat PU. Among the three processes, the best bending strength was exhibited by the hand lay-up process. This is attributed to higher PU mass fraction leads to a better fiber–matrix interfacial adhesion. Mechanical properties of the composite molded by vacuum infusion were superior to that produced by compression molding process. The SEM morphology revealed that vacuum infusion composite had more homogeneous micro- structure.