Stampable nylon sheets: Reinforcing with long glass fibers

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Abstract
Glass fiber reinforced thermoplastics have been utilized for many years in automotive and other high‐performance applications. One of the newest processing methods for these materials is “stamping”, a process in which a reinforced thermoplastics sheet is heated and rapidly formed into a shaped object between matched metal dies. Advantages of products produced by this method include the following: parts consolidation, excellent strength, low cycle times even for very large objects, low finishing and tooling costs, and utilization of existing metal forming equipment. An extremely broad range of physical properties can be provided by tailoring both composition and construction of the composite sheets to the end‐use requirements. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the material properties which can be achieved in stampable nylon‐6 sheets as compared to corresponding injection molded compositions. The prime differences in composition between glass fiber reinforced stampable sheets and reinforced injection molded parts is the length and distribution of the glass fiber reinforcement utilized in each process. After injection molding, glass fibers are on the order of 0.015 to 0.030 in. in length, while after stamping the fibers may be of infinite length. This difference in length, in combination with the uniform fiber distribution obtained during stamping, leads to important improvements in heat and impact resistance and uniformity of properties.

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