GT70 - Abstract Preview
GT70
Symposium: S01 - General Session
Poster Presentation
 
 

Thermal characterization of unsaturated polyester resin to improve process parameters in pultrusion process

Donadio A. (1), Garofalo E. (1), Carlone P. (1), Barbaro G. (1), Palazzo G. S. (1), Incarnato L. (1)*

(1) Department of Industrial Engineering. University of Salerno - Fisciano - SA - Italy

Unsaturated polyester resins (UPR) are interesting materials for composite production due to their good processability as well as toughness, chemical and corrosion resistance. For structural application, a variety of fillers or fibres could be added in liquid state to improve resiliency and other properties like flame retardancy. UPR composite based materials are cheaper and easy to use compared to epoxy and vinyl ester resins. This work aimed to characterize thermal properties and curing kinetics of an UPR in order to understand how the variation of pultrusion temperature process influences curing degree and reaction kinetics. For this purpose, dynamical DSC measurements were carried out at different scanning rate on UPR samples mixed with a fast reaction curing agent in a 2% weight ratio. Analysis of thermograms showed that curing temperature range is highly dependent of heating rate. Moreover, isothermal curing measurements were carried out to understand the effect of temperature on the reaction kinetics and curing degree. Results showed that at the temperature of 110°C is possible to minimize polymerization time. Dynamical mechanical analysis were carried out on a UPR fully cured sample according to the technical specifications, and samples obtained from an experimental pultrusion line. Glass transition temperature and stiffness of materials were calculated on all the samples produced and correlated to pultrusion temperature process and resin curing degree.