Product Development Of The Glass Fiber Tenting Flexible Composites

With the development of science and technology as well as new materials, textile composites are emerging one after another. As a newly arisen material, flexible composites have been used widely in many fields and have a broad prosperity in future. The today's ranges of applicatipn of tenting flexible composites extend from ad decoration, the simple camping tent for short-term residential use over temporary, also improvised accommodations for disaster-damaged people, refugees or pilgrims up to high-technical mobile, temporary usable, durable shelters, changeable or wide span constructions for storage and production, exhibition, meeting, culture or sports.The reinforced parts of the flexible composites are mostly woven fabrics and warp-knitted bi-axial fabrics. In contrast with the woven fabrics, warp-knitted bi-axial fabrics have higher productivity, better mechanical properties and a broad using market.The purpose of the subject is to exploit glass fiber tenting flexible composites. We choose the warp-knitted bi-axial fabric made from high-strength GF as the reinforcement, utilizing heat-melt laminating to make the fabric and PVC membrane become composites. And we mainly study some mechanical performances of the tenting flexible composites, by analyzing technical parameters of laminating, the testing data and mechanical properties, and then summarize the factors affecting the mechanical performances of the tenting flexible composites. Meanwhile, we compare mechanical properties of the GF/PVC with those of the PET/PVC, and get many useful conclusions.Firstly, we laminate the fabric and the PVC membrane together, on thecondition of temperature, pressure and time. And according to the mechanical properties of the composites, we select out the best combination of the technical parameters.Secondly, tensile and tear experiments of flexible composites are carried out. By comparing and analyzing the testing data, we summarize several factors affecting the tensile strength and tear strength. The conclusions drawn from the analysis are the tensile strength of warp-knitted bi-axial fabrics is improved a lot because directly oriented parallel and non-crimped yarns are inserted into the structures. Furthermore, the availability of the mechanical properties of yarns is quite high, which makes it possible to reduce the density of the fabric and therefore reduce the weight of fabric when the whole high strength of the fabric is still ensured. Economically, with this excellent tensile performance, we can dramatically save raw materials and reduce the production cost. Ulteriorly, the superiority of the warp-knitted bi-axial fabrics used as the substrates of tenting flexible composites are confirmed compared with woven fabrics.Thirdly, the peeling property and the interfacial adhesive property are studied. The adhesion of the GF/PVC composites is very strong, we cannot separate the PVC membrane from the fabric, which is analyzed according to the aspect of the interfacial adhesive property, and the effect to the peeling property by the different finishing process is explained.In conclusion, some insufficiencies are pointed out. The future development, application and the study on this kind of composites will benefit a lot from this thesis.