TEAR RESISTANCE OF SPARSELY REINFORCED ELASTOMER SHEETS

A family of elastomer composites has been developed which has outstand ing tear resistance, and good tensile strength and elongation to failu re as measured in a standard tensile test. These composites constitute a family in that they all are sparsely reinforced by a fishnet-like w ebbing of reinforcement. The members of the family differ in that the reinforcements can be as flexible as soft polyurethane rod or as stiff as carbon fiber with 3000 strands per fiber. All these composites pro duce outstanding tear strength and an increase in the elongation to fa ilure in an ASTM Die-C type of tear test. The intersections of the pol yurethane rod reinforcements prove to be effective crack arrestors.