Aramid Pulp for the Reinforcement of Thermoplastic Elastomers

Abstract

Aramid pulp offers excellent potential for effective reinforcement of thermoplastic elastomers such as polyamides because of its highly fibrillated fibre structure and correspondingly large surface area. However, the disadvantage of aramid pulp is that it is not free-flowing and so cannot be metered effectively. For that reason continuous metering in processes such as compounding is virtually impossible. However, research and development work at TITK has resulted in a way of processing aramid (AR) pulp to obtain prepregs which are suitable for metering. Results obtained by compounding meterable pulp with PA 6 and composite properties achieved by injection moulding are described below.