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The first part of the paper presents the specific issues from the injection molding associated with the water content of the hygroscopic plastics (water adsorption, equilibrium moisture level, chemical affinity, hydrolysis) and recommendations regarding the drying of plastics for injection, the drying methods and defects specific to products injected due to the moisture content. The experimental results on the injection of a polyamide (AKULON) and of a thermoplastic polyurethane (DESMOPAN) presented in the second part of the paper are focused on the surface appearance fault `splay` associated with the different values of moisture content for these two materials, verify the value for the admitted moisture content for two hygroscopic materials, polyamide and thermoplastic polyurethane, and ends with conclusions on the residual humidity allowed and opinions on choosing the drying technology and parameters.

In this paper, experimental investigation, modeling and optimization of the drilling of PMMA are performed using the Taguchi Design of Experiments (DOE), analysis of variance (ANOVA) and artificial neural networks (ANN) methods. Drilling experiments were conducted on PMMA to assess the impact of process parameters (drill diameter, spindle speed, and feed rate) on the hole-quality characteristics (surface roughness, circularity error, and cylindricity error). ANOVA was performed to identify the drilling parameters that have a statistically significant influence on the hole-quality characteristics. A predictive model for the hole-quality characteristics was derived using a four-layer ANN with a backpropagation algorithm and a sigmoidal transfer function at the hidden layers. The ANN model was able to accurately predict the hole-quality parameters with the absolute mean relative errors of the testing data in the limits of 3 to 7%. Based on the experimental results and analytical modeling, it was found that drilling of PMMA requires lower spindle speed and high feed rate when the integrity of the drill hole is the main quality criterion.

This article is devoted to the problem of working out of damping polymer materials which are effective in the wide temperature and frequency range. In the modern world, work is being carried out to create damping polymer composite materials (DPM) from which it is possible to manufacture protective elements and parts of engineering structures of reduced vibration excitability. Existing DPM have a narrow temperature range, within which effective vibration absorption is observed, moreover, most of them go through a vulcanization stage, which increases the cost of the final product, has a harmful effect on environment and allows limited recycling of waste. One of the ways to solve this problem is to replace traditional rubber vibration-absorbing materials with thermo-elastoplasts (TEP). The most promising polymer for TEP is ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA), which has high damping properties, oil resistance and relative incombustibility. In this regard, experimental studies were conducted to establish the patterns of influence of the type and concentration of structure-forming components (plasticizers, fillers, modifiers) on the dynamic mechanical properties of TEP based on EVA in order to develop a new DPM effective in a wide temperature range. The leading method to investigate this problem is a method of dynamic mechanical analysis which allows to get information about changes of mechanical characteristics under mechanical load and controlled temperature and frequency. With the help of detected patterns it was possible to determine type of plasticizer which significantly decreases glass temperature of EVA. The percentage ratio of EVA/plasticizer system is stated, and the type of plasticizer at which the maximum of mechanical losses takes over greater values is accordingly detected. It is revealed, that to work out DPM on EVA basis, which are effective in wide temperature range it is more preferable to add not less than 40 % on volume basis inert fillers, such as talc or mica with addition of 5-10 % of carbon as the hardening additive. The kind of resin improving damping properties and raising rigidity of composites on EVA basis is defined. On the basis of the research, a material was developed which has the following properties: the maximum value of tan δ is at least 0.45 at a temperature of plus 5°C (oscillation frequency 10 Hz); width of the temperature interval within which tan δ is not less than 0.3 from minus 40 to plus 50°С (oscillation frequency 10 Hz); conditional tensile strength of not less than 10 kg/cm2, cold resistance up to minus 50°C.

Carbon fibre reinforced (CFR) laminates were manufactured by prepreg lay-up and deposition of interlaminar carbon nanotubes (CNTs). An easy and innovative manufacturing procedure was used. CNTs were separated in solvent by ultrasonication, and poured on the woven fabric prepreg. Solvent evacuation was performed at low temperature, and dry functionalized prepregs were used for composite lamination. Laminates were cured by compression moulding on a heating plate. Peeling tests, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and dynamic mechanical analyses (DMA) were carried out on multiply samples with and without 1 wt% of interlaminar CNTs. Results show that the glass transition temperature of the resin matrix reduces because of the interaction with CNTs. Nevertheless, peeling strength shows 10% increase at room temperature.

Carbon fibre reinforced composites were manufactured by using recycled carbon fibres (CF) and carbon nanotubes (CNT). Dry fabrics were impregnated by hot melting with 1 wt% CNT filled epoxy resin to produce prepregs. Subsequently, composite laminates were manufactured by vacuum bagging and autoclave moulding. Only materials and industrial equipment were used for the laminate production. Laminates with unfilled resin and virgin CFs were also manufactured for comparison. Samples were extracted for physical and mechanical measurements. Dynamic mechanical analyses and bending tests were carried out to evaluate the interaction between CNTs, resin matrix and recycled CFs.

In recent years, the rapid development of electronic equipment led to millions of tons of waste printed circuit boards (WPCB) generated in the entire world rising important concerns regarding its recycling. Besides the metals recovery, intensively studied, the reuse of the nonmetals is especially difficult. In this study, the non-metallic fraction from the waste of printed circuit boards is used as reinforcing filler of a styrene-butadiene block-copolymer. The composites were characterized by mechanical and dynamo-mechanical analysis and thermo-gravimetry. The study aimed the reintroduction into the economic circuit of WPCB as composites suitable for the production of shoe soles injected directly on the footwear faces and as bitumen modifiers for road coverings.

Molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) beads for proto-hypericin recognition were prepared by suspension polymerization. In order to study the impact of monomers on the MIPs properties, various monomers such as acrylic acid (AA), hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA), methacrylic acid (MAA) and itaconic acid (IA) in their combinations were crosslinked with ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EDMA) in the presence of a complex phyto-extract template derived from Hypericum perforatum L. The synthesized MIPs and corresponding non-imprinted polymers NIPs were characterized by infrared spectroscopy analysis, morphology and thermogravimetric analysis. High-performance liquid chromatography combined with UV–Visible spectroscopy, used to investigate the recognition properties of the MIPs for various naphthodianthrones, pointed out that the MIP IA-AA system seemed to be the most adequate for favoring quantitative rebinding of proto-hypericin and proto-pseudohypericin against competitors with similar structures, like hypericin and pseudo-hypericin, which are usually present in high quantities in the primary Hypericum perforatum L. phyto-extracts.

This paper presents experimental research results obtained from testing the compression of polymer matrix composites. The four types are analyzed by thin layers of polymer composite material of various thicknesses were subjected to the test of mechanical compression. The analyzed samples were obtained by reinforcing the siloxane rubber with FeSi powder and stretching the mixture on the metallic mesh (PM), as well as stretching the simple siloxane rubber, without reinforcing agent on the metallic mesh. The mathematical modeling of the experimental results obtained on the LFM 30kN compression tester, Walter & Sai AG was performed using the Excel program. Establishment of material was based on regression analysis performed later. The modulus of elasticity of the samples was determined according to the deformation range 0.1 ÷ 0.3%, corresponding to the maximum correlation coefficient resulting from the regression of the experimental data. Following the compression analyzes it was found that in the case of simple siloxane rubber (S) without filling, the average modulus of elasticity decreases from 80 MPa to 39 MPa for the siloxane rubber laying on the metallic mesh. For the composite material (siloxane rubber with FeSi powder addition) noted SF, the value of the module is 81, and in the case of the laying composite (siloxane rubber reinforced with silicon iron powder filler on the metallic mesh, noted PMSF), the value of the module decreases to 31 MPa. We conclude that the addition of silicon iron powder leads to an increase in the elasticity of the siloxane rubber, and its reinforcement with the metallic mesh leads to a decrease in the elasticity modulus of the siloxane rubber, as well as of the siloxane rubber reinforced with the iron powder.

Through gravimetric determinations, volume resistivity, dielectric spectroscopy, and comparative thermal analysis (TG, DTA and DTG), the interactions between the distilled water and three different types of alkyd-epoxy-melamine, epoxy and polyurethane lacquers were studied. From the experimental determinations it was found that after 700 h of immersion in water at 20 ± 2°C the alkyd-epoxy-melamine based lacquer has a maximum water uptake, respectively 1.76%, followed by the epoxy lacquer 1.4% and polyurethane 0.93%. The thermal analysis sugests that because the water retained by the investigated polymers does not change the TG diagrams in the temperature range up to 150 °C, which suggests that the weight increase of the samples during the immersion could be due to some chemical processes between the water and polymer by which the chemistry structure of the polymer changes. Through electrical measurementes one can observe that after the immersion in water (over 700 hours), dielectric loss increases and the volume resistivity (measured in DC) of the investigated lakes decreases, which is explained by the increasing of polar groups (–OH) in the polymer structure. A comparative analysis of the experimental data reveals that in electrical applications the lacquer LS (polyurethane) is superior to the lacquers L-528 (alkyd-epoxy-melamine) and LG (epoxy), because it has no mass losses (structural changes) up to 280°C it has a volume resistivity of about 21 % higher than L-G, and about 300 % higher than L-528, and has water uptake and dielectric loss substantially lower comparing to L-528 and L-G.

This paper studies the influence of the volume proportion between components on the mechanical behaviour of a hybrid resin obtained by combining the natural resin Dammar and epoxy resin. We analyse three sets of hybrid resin samples, in which we used a Dammar volume proportion of 60%, 70%, and 80% respectively and epoxy resin (employed together with its associated reinforcement in order to generate a quick process of polymerization). Following the tensile test we found the characteristic curves, the tensile strength and the elongation at break for each of the three types of resins. We also looked into the vibration damping properties of bars made of this resin. We experimentally determined the frequency and the damping coefficient of the first particular vibration mode for one bar taken out of each set of resins, with one end fixed and the other free. On the basis of the results, we calculated the loss coefficient for each type of resin.