Processability of Pultrusion Using Natural Fiber and Thermoplastic Matrix

Fundamental mechanisms of the pultrusion process using commingled yarns of polypropylene matrix and discontinuous flax fiber to produce thermoplastic profiles were investigated in numerical and experimental manners. Essential issue is the fact that all natural fibers are discontinuous by nature, which may negatively influence the processability. The pultrusion process will be only successful if the pulling force exerted on the solidified pultrudates can be transmitted to the regions of unmelted commingled yarns by “bridging over” those melted regions within the die. This can be realized by applying a sufficient number of small yarn bundles of high compactness rather than a thicker single bundle of lower compactness as the raw material. Furthermore, the possibility of adding extra melt into the yarn bundles by side-fed extrusion has been investigated showing that the impregnation can be improved only for the outer layers of yarns, which is owed to the high viscosity of the thermoplastic melt and the limited length of the die.