The mechanical properties of unidirectional all-polypropylene composites

Abstract

The creation of highly oriented, co-extruded polypropylene (PP) tapes allows the production of recyclable ‘all-polypropylene’ composites, with a large temperature processing window (>30 °C) and a high volume fraction of highly oriented PP (>90%). These composites show little deviation of mechanical properties with compaction temperature. This paper introduces all-polypropylene composites and reports the tensile and compressive properties of unidirectional composites. These composites show good retention of tape properties despite the relatively high temperatures used in composite manufacture.