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This study develops sustainable and recyclable basalt fiber (BF)‐reinforced flexible plastic low‐temperature polyamide (L‐PA) filaments for fused deposition modeling (FDM)‐3D printing and optimizes fabrication parameters to achieve eco‐friendliness, high mechanical performance, and lightweight FDM‐fabricated composite parts. Herein, 15 wt% fiber‐filled composite filaments were prepared by an extrusion process. Three manufacturing parameters, including printing temperature, printing speed, and layer height, were investigated for their effects on the tensile and compression properties through Taguchi L9 orthogonal experiments. To obtain a suitable printing temperature range, the thermal behaviors of the composite filaments were characterized by differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetric analysis, and melt flow factor measurements. In addition, the FDM‐printed specimen surface and tensile fracture interface after tensile tests were observed and analyzed by SEM. Results show that the printing temperature has the greatest effect on the mechanical properties of the BF/L‐PA composites, followed by the layer height, whereas the printing speed has the least effect. This indicates that better mechanical properties can be obtained at higher printing temperatures and lower layer heights. Compared with neat L‐PA, adding BF to L‐PA improves the tensile modulus, tensile strength, and specific energy absorption per volume without sacrificing ductility, showing the maximal increases of 176.6%, 142.0%, and 172.2%, respectively, as compared with neat L‐PA. A SEM micrograph reveals that the primary factors for these improvements are the fibers acting as reinforcement filling in the L‐PA matrix and the good bonding properties between the adjacent infills in a single layer and among successive layers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies the correlation between the tensile strength and the chemical composition of basalt fiber roving and analyzes rovings with different chemical compositions to derive equations that predict the roving strength. The tensile properties of different types of basalt fiber roving that were impregnated with two types of resins were first tested, while the chemical compositions of the basalt fibers were analyzed. The functional roles played by different chemical constituents and their contributions to the tensile strength were analyzed and used to verify the correlation between the strength and the effective composition. A numerical method was used to derive equations to predict the strength of the basalt fibers. The results show that the tensile strengths of the impregnated basalt fiber roving vary from 2313 to 2714 MPa, depending on the manufacturers, and were 7–25% higher than that of E‐glass fiber roving. The chemical constituents of the basalt fibers play four different functional roles, network formers, network intermediates, network changers and network modifiers. Chemical composition groups are subsequently identified that have positive, negative and uncertain effects on the tensile strength. The weighting factors of the chemical composition are regressed, resulting in predictions for the tensile strength that are in good agreement with experimental measurements. The results from this study can be used to predict the strength of basalt fibers in basalt mineral analysis. POLYM. COMPOS., 40:2959–2966, 2019. © 2018 Society of Plastics Engineers [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, native emulsion polymerization styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) were first grafted by vinyltriethoxysilane (VTES) to SBR‐g‐VTES (VTES grafted SBR), second, the SBR‐g‐VTES were modified by different amount of TEOS (tetraethoxysilane) using in situ sol‐gel method, at the last, the extra silica was added into the in situ modified SBR system to get the modified SBR/silica composites using latex coagulation technology. The effect of different amount of TEOS on modified SBR/silica composites was also systematically studied, including the content of silica and utilization of silica, cure characteristics, physical mechanical properties and dynamic mechanical properties. The surface properties of modified SBR/silica composites were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM). It can be got that the grafting of VTES and in situ hydrolysis and condensation of TEOS can effectively inhibit the agglomeration and improve the mechanical properties of modified SBR/silica. It also can be found that modified SBR brings well physical and dynamic mechanical properties, wear resistance, and low rolling resistance to SBR, especially, when the TEOS is 3.0 g, the best overall performance of modified SBR/silica can be achieved. POLYM. COMPOS., 39:22–28, 2018. © 2016 Society of Plastics Engineers [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]