thermoplastic composites | Innovation
impacts, the blades, which have lower shear strength than metal, sacrifice themselves by breaking and releasing energy before transferring damaging forces to the motor’s lower unit. The blade design of Piranha’s Hydrothrust propeller is said to provide 400% more reverse thrust than standard propellers and twice as much as competing metal propellers. Piranha uses a Compl¯
et MT series long glass fibre
reinforced polyamide 6 composite from PlastiComp for all its propellers. PlastiComp says Compl¯
et MT
composites provide up to 40% more impact resistance than standard long fibre reinforced materials.
Above: Roving pre-warming with spreading of the individual fibers enables optimal fibre wetting in LFT production, says ProTec Polymer Processing
glass and carbon fibre together in a single composite pellet results in materials that bridge the price and performance gap between all-glass long fibre and all-carbon long fibre thermoplastic composites. “Carbon fibre’s higher cost is its main disadvantage
preventing its wider use. By offering long glass and carbon fibre combinations we are able to significantly lower carbon fibre’s cost to entry barrier without compromising its high performance benefits,” says Steve Bowen, president and CEO of PlastiComp. PlastiComp has already commercialised a polyamide 6,6 hybrid long glass and carbon fibre grade from its ini- tial product introduction last year into a sporting goods application. In this application, the inclusion of small amount of carbon fibre boosted the composite’s modulus to a level where a metal insert could be eliminated, allowing moulding of an all-composite component that wasn’t cost prohibitive. PlastiComp’s long glass fibre compounds are also helping a US motorboat propeller manufacturer cut maintenance costs. The damage caused to an outboard when a propeller strikes a submersed object can require a complete lower unit rebuild and result in a bill of several thousand dollars, according to Piranha Propel- lers, based at Jackson in California. It now manufactures replacement propellers with interchangeable blades made from long fibre composites. For its latest iteration, a propeller for houseboats and service barges that offers improved reverse thrust capabilities, Piranha turned to PlastiComp for a high performance LFT. Piranha’s propeller design consists of a centre hub
with three or four slots for inserting interchangeable blades of varying size and pitch. Easily changing a damaged or broken blade instead of the entire prop lowers ownership cost; interchangeability also allows tuning of propulsion thrust to meet the boats intended use, whether it be for speed or transporting loads. With a Piranha composite propeller, the blades flex and absorb the energy from minor impacts. At higher
28 INJECTION WORLD | January/February 2016
Material benefits Major materials companies are also upping their game in thermoplastic composites. Solvay, for example, with its acquisition late last year of compounder Epic Polymers, is looking to boost its position in high performance LFTs based on such polymers as polyph- thalamides, PPS, and polyaryleketones, as well as polyamide 66. Three German polymer majors - BASF, Covestro and Lanxess - all now offer thermoplastic continuous fibre reinforced composite laminates that can be used in injection moulding applications. Celanese too, which incorporates plastics businesses begun by Hoechst and later Ticona, has no fewer than three long fibre brands: Celstran, Compel and Factor. Covestro is the most recent entrant, having acquired Thermoplast Composite (TCG), which is located near Nuremburg in Germany, last year when it was still Bayer MaterialScience. TCG makes laminates not dissimilar from the Lanxess Tepex products, but while the latter favours composites based on polyamide Covestro is concentrating on polycarbonate-based types. Since late 2013, BASF has been offering the
Ultracom product and service package, which includes thermoplastic composite laminates and tapes, the compounds for over-moulding, and a comprehensive service component as the third part. “The basic idea is to provide an integrated development platform that starts at the concept phase, continues through design, simulation, processing and part testing, and ends in efficient volume production at the customer,” says a company spokesperson. Last year, BASF partnered with Floatility (which specialises in innovative urban mobility solutions) in the development of an ultra-lightweight and solar-powered electric scooter called the ‘e-floater.’ Weighing less than 12 kg and consisting of more than 80% composite and plastic materials from BASF, the scooter will, the company says, “give commuters the sensation of floating.” Andy Postlethwaite, senior vice president for performance materials with BASF in Asia Pacific, says
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PHOTO: PROTEC
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