Abstract

The present investigation is on the role of fine particles on the mechanical behavior of short glass fiber (SGF)
reinforced thermoplastic blends. Thermoplastic blends such as polyamide66 and polytetrafluoroethylene
(PA66/PTFE) and polymethylmethacrylate and PTFE (PMMA/PTFE) in 80/20 wt. % were selected for the study.
They were reinforced with SGF and filled with micro fillers such as short carbon fibers, alumina (Al2O3), and
silicon carbide of different geometric shapes to form the mixture. These composites were prepared by melt mixing
method using twin screw extruder followed by injection molding. The mechanical properties such as tensile
strength, flexural strength, impact strength including hardness of the blend composites were studied as per ASTM
standards. Results revealed that addition of SGF into PA66/PTFE and PMMA/PTFE blends exhibited good tensile
and flexural strength obviously, but the different shape micro fillers exhibits a synergic effect on the tensile and
flexure properties of PA66 and PMMA based composites, respectively, except flexural modulus. PMMA/PTFE
based microcomposites showed better tensile and flexural properties than PA66/PTFE blend microcomposites.
PMMA/PTFE based composites showed moderate elongation at break and better impact strength after the
filler addition into PMMA/PTFE blend composites. The moderate change in hardness was observed for both
microcomposites.