Fabrication and mechanical properties of aramid/nylon plain knitted composites

The presence of fibre/matrix interfaces strongly influences the overall mechanical properties of composites. In order to produce fully recyclable fiber reinforced composites with improved adhesion properties, polyethylene and polypropylene materials were previously used as single-polymer composite materials. In this paper, another breed of single-polymer composite material has been defined as the 'one-unity' composite. Polyamide materials were chosen and combined with aramid fibre in an attempt to achieve better interfacial bonding. Weft-knitting technique was used to produce textile reinforcements for aramid/nylon composite processing. Aramid/epoxy knitted composites were also fabricated to compare them with aramid/nylon thermoplastic composites. Mechanical properties of aramid/nylon and aramid/epoxy composites and their relationships to the fibre/matrix interfacial adhesion and interactions have been investigated. With the increase in processing time, tensile modulus and strength of aramid/nylon composites have increased and decreased, respectively. Furthermore, scanning electron microscopic observations clearly indicated that longer molding time has resulted in stronger adhesion property between fiber and matrix. Aramid/nylon knitted composites have revealed comparable strength property in the course direction, albeit they have inferior tensile strength in the wale direction when compared to that in aramid/epoxy composites. In aramid/nylon knitted composites, while tensile modulus exhibited an increasing trend, there were clear drops in tensile strengths with longer molding time. This indicates that there could be an optimum molding condition at which maximum tensile properties can be obtained. Aramid/nylon knitted composites exhibited relatively better interfacial bonding properties than Ararmd/epoxy composites, which suffered fibre/matrix debonding. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.