Effects of processing parameters on mechanical and thermal properties of glass mat reinforced nylon 6 composites

Nylon 6 (PA6)/Glass Mat (GM) composites and pure PA6 were prepared by compression molding technique and the effects of molding temperature, pressure application time and GM content on the final properties of the materials were investigated. At each temperature and pressure application time, the composite with one layer GM had higher tensile strength, tensile modulus but lower % elongation at break than neat PA6. Processing parameters did not significantly influence the tensile behavior of the pure PA6 and PA6/GM composites. The effect of GM content showed that tensile strength and modulus increased but the % elongation at break decreased with increasing GM content. Thermal properties of the neat PA6 and the composites providing sufficient melting point temperature and crystallinity were found to be unaffected with different process temperature, pressure application time and GM content.