New Thermoplastic Pultrusion Technology Improves Strength and Output

Dow Plastics has developed a new pultrusion process technology for the production of continuous fibre thermoplastic composites called FULCRUM.

According to Chris Edwards, marketing development manager for Dow, profiles pultruded with FULCRUM thermoplastic composites have many times the strength of any other thermoplastic seen before. “These profiles have extremely high mechanical properties and excellent toughness and damage tolerance,” says Edwards. “In addition, profiles can be processed at very high speeds, and are able to be post formed, and are also recyclable.”

Historically, Edwards notes, thermoplastic composites have lacked the mechanical properties of thermoset composites, primarily because of poor fibre impregnation and poor fibre adhesion. Edwards says the use of Dow’s engineering thermoplastics polyurethanes, ISOPLAST, in FULCRUM composite materials, provides a suitable thermoplastic matrix to overcome these limitations. The table below compares advantages of thermoplastic vs. thermoset composites

Thermoplastic Composite

Higher processing speed

Post processing

Lower environmental impact

Recycling

Higher damage tolerance

Higher transverse properties

Longer shelf life in matrix

Thermoset Composite

Better ignition resistance

Better corrosion resistance

Better creep resistance