article · Journal of Composites Science
Polymer matrix composites are widely used in sectors such as aerospace and automotive manufacturing. This research investigates the reinforcement of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) polymer using short basalt fibres. Test specimens were produced via injection moulding across an elevated temperature range of 140 to 240 degrees Celsius using a technique designed to achieve uniform fibre distribution. Four composite blends were prepared with fibre contents of 5, 10, 15, and 20 weight percent. Mechanical and tribological tests evaluated tension, surface hardness, impact resistance, and sliding wear behaviour under various loads. Tensile strength improved up to a 5 weight percent fibre addition before declining at higher fractions. Surface hardness and wear resistance increased consistently with higher fibre content across all tested loads, although impact strength decreased with any addition of basalt fibres.
Thermoplastic components in vehicles and machinery often suffer from surface wear and mechanical degradation during operation. By demonstrating that adding basalt fibres to ABS polymer improves hardness and friction resistance, this study outlines specific trade-offs between wear durability, tensile load capacity, and impact resistance. This knowledge helps engineers choose optimal material formulations for specific mechanical environments.
This work is at an early-stage laboratory testing level, evaluated through standard mechanical and wear test rigs. If developed further, these composite formulations could be applied by manufacturers producing moulded automotive or aerospace components that demand elevated wear resistance and surface hardness. However, the abstract does not describe field trials, production-scale manufacturing, or a direct commercialisation pathway.
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Polymer matrix composites (PMC) have a competitive and dominant role in a lot of industries, like aerospace and automobiles. Short basalt fiber (SBF) is used to strengthen acrylonitrile–butadiene–styrene (ABS) polymers as a composite. The composite material is fabricated using injection molding with a new technique to obtain a uniform distribution for the ABS matrix at an elevated temperature range from 140 °C to 240 °C. Four types of specimen were produced according to the mechanically mixed amounts of SBF, which were (5, 10, 15, 20) wt %. The produced material was tested for tension, hardness and impact to measure the enhancement of the mechanical properties of the ABS only and the ABS reinforced by SBF composite. Wear tests were carried out using a pin on disc at a velocity of 57.5 m/s at three normal loads of 5, 10 and 15 kN. Tensile strength increased with up to 5 wt % of SBF, then decreased with an increasing amount of SBF reinforcement, while surface hardness increased with increasing SBF. The impact strength was found to degrade with the whole increment of SBF. Wear resistance increased with the increasing SBF reinforcement amount at all applied normal loads.
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DOI: 10.3390/jcs2020034
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