Flexural and impact studies on stitched self-reinforced polypropylene composites
Journal of Thermoplastic Composite Materials
Published online on February 20, 2013
Abstract
Self-reinforced composite (SRC) has gained significant interest due to its lightweight and good recyclability. In the present work, SRCs were prepared from woven polypropylene tapes. The woven tapes were further stitched by lock stitch and its effects on flexural and impact properties of the composites were studied. Flexural and impact results show that stitching parameters such as stitches per inch, sewing yarn count and the direction of stitching have a significant effect on the improvement of mechanical properties compared with the control sample (unstitched sample) without stitching. The morphological studies were carried out using optical microscopy and failure mechanism was analysed.