A Comparative Study of Reinforced-Polyurethane Foam Composite and Unreinforced Polyurethane Foam for Packaging.

In recent time many materials have been develop which are used for packaging applications. Here, a new type of composite for packaging has been developed consisting of hexagonal wire mesh as reinforced and rigid polyurethane foam as matrix material, which give high strength to weight ratio, good tensile and compressive strength. Tensile strength of reinforced-polyurethane foam composite (RPFC) is increased by 2.71 times and compressive strength is increased by 107% when compared with unreinforced polyurethane foam (UPF). Energy absorb by reinforced foam composite is 59.04% more than unreinforced one when drop test is performed. Reinforced-polyurethane foam composite (RPFC) can preferred for packaging where good surface hardness, thermal stability and controlling load-unload cycles is needed. As it show better results when tested by Shore D, DSC, TGA and Damping tests respectively. RPFC has good interfacial bonding between them as shown by scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) result. A comparative study of reinforced-polyurethane foam composite and unreinforced polyurethane foam has been done. Test results validation is done by using finite element methods ANSYSWorkbench14.5 and solidwork15. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]