Mechanical characterization of polycarbonate reinforce with woven glass fiber.

This work presents the physical and mechanical characterization of a polycarbonate reinforced with 4 % woven glass fiber oriented at 0/90° and ± 45° produced by film injection and compression molding process. The mechanical characterization includes tensile testing with specimens possessing fiber orientation at 0/90° ± 45°and specimens without reinforcement, where the elastic modulus in principal directions, the maximum strength, shear modulus, and shear strength were obtained. Fiber alignment, volume fractions, and density were measure; these results showed an improvement of 141% in tensile strength for the specimens reinforced with 0/90ºglass fiber, as compared to the specimens without reinforcement. The film injection-compression process reduces fiber misalignment in a range of 1.16° to 2.13°, which corresponds to the first standard deviation. This result proves the potential for the fiber-woven polycarbonate as a useful material for thermoplastic polymers. The production of composites by film injection-compression molding presents the advantage of being manufactured with faster production cycles than thermosets.