Environmentally friendly pultrusion

Irfan, Muhammad Shafiq (2013). Environmentally friendly pultrusion. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

This thesis reports on an environmentally-friendly pultrusion technique for the production of fibre-reinforced composites, termed as “clean pultrusion”. In this new manufacturing technique, the resin bath used in the conventional pultrusion was replaced with a custom-built resin impregnator. The resin impregnator was designed and built to impregnate the rovings using a combination of pin, injection and capillary-based impregnation. An integral aspect of the clean pultrusion process was spreading of the filaments in the rovings, via mechanical means, prior to impregnation. An automated fibre spreading rig was designed and built based on “tension-release” process. The rig-design was optimised using Taguchi method.
The physical, mechanical and thermo-mechanical properties of the composites pultruded using the clean and conventional techniques were compared. It was found that the composites manufactured using the clean pultrusion exhibited lower void and better mechanical properties. A life cycle assessment (LCA) was also performed to compare the environmental impact of the clean and conventional pultrusion processes. The LCA demonstrated conclusively that the clean pultrusion technique offers several environmental advantages over the conventional resin-bath pultrusion. The new pultrusion technique was demonstrated as being a viable method to pultrude composites without using a resin bath.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):