PROCESSING AND OPTIMIZATION OF MECHANICAL AND MACHINING PARAMETERS OF HYBRID NANOCLAY GLASS FIBRE REINFORCED POLYESTER COMPOSITES

Abstract

newline quotNanocomposites are a new class of composites with at least one dimension of the dispersed newlineparticles in the nanometer range. Clay-polymer nanocomposites have attracted great interest, newlineboth in industry and in academia, because they often exhibit remarkable improvement in newlinematerial properties when compared to virgin polymer or conventional micro, and macrocomposites. newlineThe present work deals with the processing, and properties of clay glass fibre newlinereinforced polyester based nanocomposites. This also deals with the study of optimizing the newlinecutting parameters (Cutting speed and feed rate) to obtain maximum mechanical properties in newlinehybrid nanoclay-fibre reinforced polyester composites during drilling process. newlineGlass fibre based composites plays a vital role in day to day life starting from basic building newlinestructures to automobile and aerospace applications. In this work the effect of nanoclay newlineaddition to glass fibre reinforced polyester composites were studied. Nanoclay is added as newlinenano reinforcement in varying weight fraction (0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 wt. %) to unsaturated newlineisophthalic polyester resin and stirred well using mechanical stirrer. Woven glass fibre mat is newlinetaken as secondary reinforcement. To the nanoclay-polyester resin mix, catalyst and newlineaccelerator is added in definite volume fraction (1 %) stirred well. Then hybrid nanoclay and newlineglass fibre reinforced polyester composite (CGRP) is prepared by vacuum assisted resin newlineinfusion technique, cured in room temperature for 24 hours, followed by curing at high newlinetemperature (70and#730;C) for 3 hours. newlineX-ray diffraction analysis and transmission electron micrographs confirm the formation of newlinenanocomposites on addition of modified clay to polyester matrix.quot newline