Parametric Optmisation of Pin-assisted-melt Impregnation of Glass Fiber/Polypropylene by Taguchi Method.

A continuous glass fiber (GF) roving reinforced polypropylene (PP) tape is prepared with a pin-assisted-melt impregnation set-up. This study originally applied the Taguchi method to statistically assess the effect of selected impregnation parameters on the impregnation process, and to optimize the parameters to realize a high quality impregnated tape. The quality of the impregnated tape is characterized by the degree of impregnation, ratio of the impregnated fiber number to the total fiber number. According to the Taguchi method, impregnation experiments are designed and the experimental results are analyzed. An optimal parameter combination is determined, which led to a degree of impregnation more than 94%. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed on the measured data and S/N (signal to noise) ratios. The results indicated that palling speed, melt temperature, and the number of impregnation pins are the significant factors in a declining sequence affecting the impregnation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]