Affordable Composites Using Renewable Materials

Abstract

Bio-based composite products are finding widespread applications due to their low cost and environmental acceptability. Development of new bio-based raw material and automated composite manufacturing is the focus of the present study. Pultrusion is the fastest and the most cost-effective composite manufacturing processes, and is well suited for high volume production for structural applications. with growing opportunities to use pultruded composites, the development of cost effective pultrudable resin system is of great interest. A novel soy-based epoxy resin namely epoxidized allyl soyate is synthesized at the University of Missouri-Rolla. This resin forms co-polymers with the base Shell Epon epoxy resin in varied proportions to yield a family of polymeric networks. Glass fiber reinforced composite specimens are manufactured using a Durapul 6000 Labstar Pultrusion machine. The lubricity of soy-based resin significantly reduces the pull force. Mechanical tests show that pultruded composites with soy-based co-resin systems possess comparable or improved structural performance characteristics such as flexural strength, modulus and impact resistance.

Department(s)

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Second Department

Chemistry

Sponsor(s)

United States. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Missouri Soybean Merchandising Council
National Science Foundation (U.S.)

Keywords and Phrases

Composite; Soy-Based Resin; Impact; Pultrusion

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

0921-5093

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2005 Elsevier, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Jan 2005

Link to Full Text

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