This study examines the process of using injection moulding to join two different materials to manufacture bi-component moulded products with improved performance characteristics. The two-component process, which combines the advantages of two different technologies-the high efficiency of the injection moulding process and the excellent mechanical properties of long glass fibre composites produced by resin transfer moulding (RTM) technology-offers a particular advantage and improved applicability of the prepared lightweight products in both the automotive and aerospace sectors. The composite studied here consists of Elium® thermoplastic resin (30%) reinforced with unwoven glass fibre fabric (70%) using the RTM process. The Elium® composite sample is consequently used as an insert overmoulded with polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) homopolymer reinforced with 20% w/w of short glass fibre through injection moulding. The influence of different mould temperatures and surface treatments on the adhesion between the materials used is investigated by evaluating the mechanical performance using tensile shear strength tests. It was found that while an increase in mould temperature from 40 °C to 120 °C resulted in a doubling of the initial average bond strength between untreated Elium® RTM inserts and overmoulded PBT parts (0.9 MPa), sandblasting the inserts ensured a further tripling of the bond strength of the composites to a value of 5.4 MPa.

Centre of Polymer Systems Tomas Bata University in Zlin Trida Tomase Bati 5678 760 01 Zlin Czech Republic

Department of Applied Logistics and Polymer Sciences Hochschule Kaiserslautern University of Applied Sciences 67659 Pirmasens Germany

Department of Physics and Materials Engineering Faculty of Technology Tomas Bata University in Zlin Vavreckova 5669 760 01 Zlin Czech Republic

Department of Polymer Engineering Faculty of Technology Tomas Bata University in Zlin Vavreckova 5669 760 01 Zlin Czech Republic

Department of Production Engineering Faculty of Technology Tomas Bata University in Zlin Vavreckova 5669 760 01 Zlin Czech Republic

M s r o Na Zahonech 1177 686 04 Kunovice Czech Republic

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