COMPOSITES OF ANIONIC (CO) POLYAMIDES (NYLON-6 NYLON-12) WITH SHORT GLASS E-FIBERS - PREPARATION AND PROPERTIES/

The recent high demand of thermoplastic composites has induced an exte nsive experimentation and utilization of polyamides as thermoplastic s heet composites. The hand layup technique was used for the preparation of the glass fiber polyamide composites studied here. The percentage crystallinity of the composites was determined with a variety of techn iques such as differential thermal analysis (DTA), wide-angle X-ray di ffraction (WAXD) patterns, and density measurements. Glass transitions (T(g)) and melting temperatures (T(m)) were determined with DTA and d ynamic mechanical thermal analyzer (DMTA) measurements. Finally, the m echanical properties (stress-strain curves and compression tests) were investigated and the results were correlated to the glass fiber conte nt, the void content, and the percentage of the comonomer unit (caprol actam and laurolactam) in the polyamide composite. (C) 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.