All-HC

Plastic components are increasingly being used instead of metal components in drives for systems and vehicles. This saves weight, which means less energy is required for the drive. It would be ideal if the plastic components could also be easily recycled. However, to make plastic components as robust as metal components, they usually have to be reinforced with particles or fibers: Plastic composites are used. However, these composites are difficult to recycle: This would require separating the plastic from the reinforcing particles or fibers, which is very time-consuming and sometimes not possible. This problem is eliminated if the plastic matrix and the reinforcing fibers are made of the same material. The materials investigated in this project are such “all-hydrocarbon composites” (All-HC): The plastic matrix consists of low and medium molecular weight polyethylene, the reinforcing phase of high molecular weight polyethylene, which is present in a fiber-like structure as a stretched polymer chain. The orientation of the high molecular weight portion of the blend usually takes place during processing: when a melt of the blend is pressed into a “slim” injection mold, the chains are stretched by elongation and shearing. Stretching and shearing of chains can also occur “in operation”, i.e. when an All-HC component is subjected to high mechanical loads. The aim of this project is to investigate the loads under which the reinforcing structures form and the loads at which damage to the material occurs.