Abstract
The investigation on the effect of adding silane modified chopped E-glass fibre and Aluminium metal wire-mesh into nano silica toughened nylon 6-6 thermoplastic composites on mechanical, drop load impact, fatigue and tribological behaviour is studied in this paper. The primary aim of this research work is to develop a hybrid Nylon 6-6 nanocomposites having high stiffness, toughness and wear resistance. The chopped glass fibre and Al wire-mesh was surface treated with the help of 3-Aminopropyletrimethoxylane (silane) and acid etching. The tensile results revealed that additions of glass fibre and Al mesh into nano - silica toughened nylon 6-6 composite gives improved tensile and flexural strength. Similarly, the Izod impact strength of Al-mesh reinforced nano silica (1vol.%) toughened nylon 6-6 gives superior energy absorption up to 6 Joules/cm. The drop load impact penetration of composite N3 (59% - Nylon 66, 20% - E-glass fibre, 20% - Al wire mesh and 1 % - nano silica) shows very limited penetration than other composites. Highest fatigue life of 16391 cycles was observed for the composite designated N3, which contains 1 vol.% of nano silica, whereas the composite containing 2 vol.% of nano silica gives very lower specific wear rate and Co-efficient of friction. The developed composite which has better modulus, stiffness, wear resistance and fatigue life could be possibly used in automobile power transmission gears, domestic equipment and farm related machineries.
Keywords: thermoplastic; aluminium wire-mesh; nano-silica; fatigue; tribology