Comprehensive material development of glass fiber reinforced polyamide 6 LFT-D

Vehicle weight reduction is crucial due to limited natural resources. Lightweighting of components is a solution. Long fiber thermoplastic (LFT) composites balance moldability and performance. Compression molding of directly compounded LFTs (LFT-D) is an economical process for high volumes. Glass fiber (GF) reinforced polyamide 6 (PA 6) is processed at four fiber fractions (wf) from wf = 20 % to wf = 60 %. Deviations are rooted in the microstructure, where wf distribution is shown to be broad. PA 6 GF LFT-D can reach tensile stiffnesses and strengths of 20 GPa and 229 MPa. Flexural stiffnesses and strengths are at 17 GPa and 373 MPa. Impact toughness reaches 80 kJ/m².