Evaluation of the strength characteristics of polymer materials for the manufacture of personal electric vehicle elements

Abstract

The properties of materials for airless wheel propulsion of vehicles, including electric ones, have been studied. The experimental substantiation of the choice of the type of polymer matrices and compositions of reinforcing fillers for the manufacture of an airless wheel mover of electric vehicles has been carried out. To test the basic epoxy matrix, part of the samples without the addition of reinforcing fibers was cured at room temperature (L-285H), and the rest (L-285G) – when heated to 60 °C. In order to improve the strength characteristics of the epoxy matrix L-285G, glass reinforcement was carried out with EC16 1600T-16(400) glass reinforcement. The Smooth-Cast 300 Series was chosen as the matrix for performing samples based on injection-molded polyurethanes. Samples are made of base polyurethane under various conditions: at atmospheric rejection (SC), under vacuum 0.8 kPa (SC-0.8) and during vibration-induced curing (SCV). Comparative tests were carried out, which showed differences in the mechanical properties of the base matrices based on epoxy resins and injection-molded polyurethanes, in particular, the relative elongation of samples from injection-molded polyurethane by more than 2 times. It is established that the most rational use of injection-molded polyurethane is application as damping elements, and the material for manufacturing spokes dampers is composite SCV-S-20. It is advisable to manufacture products from the resulting composite when vibrations are applied to the mold and with preliminary vacuuming at a vacuum of 0.8 kPa of the components of the polyurethane matrix, which reduces the number of internal defects in the form of shells. Since vacuuming of the product during polymerization does not give a significant effect due to the presence of a set of specialized deaeration additives in the base matrix, it is proposed to carry it out under constant control, since exceeding the vacuum in the range from 0.8 to 0.9 kPa entails decomposition of individual matrix components with foam formation.