PA6 organosheet line, fiberglass products enhance structural reinforcement options
CAMX 2023: In addition to its range of engineered fiberglass offerings, Johns Manville highlights its Neomera PA6 thermoplastic organosheets, which offer reinforcement versatility in addition to higher FVFs and better impregnation.
Pickup truck bed prototype. Photo Credit: Johns Manville
Johns Manville (Denver, Colo., U.S.), a manufacturer of glass fiber reinforcements, introduces Neomera, a polyamide 6 (PA6) organosheet that combines the rigidity of thermoplastics with the strength of fiber reinforcement.
JM’s expertise in glass fiber manufacturing, and in-depth understanding of fiber-polymer interfaces in composites, led to the development of a manufacturing technology to produce fully impregnated PA6 composite sheets. The proprietary technology is versatile in terms of reinforcing materials and can be used to impregnate glass, carbon, aramid and hybrid fibers.
Neomera PA6 thermoplastic organosheets offer a wide range of material solutions and applications. They are produced in a continuous process through the impregnation of fibers with a low-viscosity caprolactam monomer, followed by the in-situ anionic polymerization of caprolactam to form the thermoplastic polyamide matrix. This enables the control of fiber content in composites and offers design flexibility for specific applications by incorporating the desired fiber orientations into fabrics with various weaving architecture. According to Johns Manville, Neomera organosheets are the ideal structural reinforcement solution to replace metal with lightweight parts, and are suitable for high throughput manufacturing processes such as injection molding and compression overmolding. Neomera’s ease of processing streamlines production processes, reduces manufacturing costs and provides designers with greater flexibility in creating innovative products.
Johns Manville will showcase its latest automotive application of Neomera organosheets — a pickup truck bed prototype. This project is a collaborative effort between Johns Manville, Agesia and Aerlyte. It is constructed using a sandwich panel design, which consists of two Neomera organosheets combined with a high-density PET foam core. The organosheets and PET foam core are bonded together with a covalent interface, creating a panel with high strength and load-bearing capacity on a small surface area. It is lightweight, self-supporting, highly resistant to puncture impacts and is fully recyclable.
Johns Manville also manufactures a wide range of engineered fiberglass products for various applications in both the U.S. and Europe. The company offers ThermoFlow chopped strands and StarRov single-end roving for fabric processes and long fiber thermoplastics/direct long fiber thermoplastics (LFT/D-LFT) applications. It also provides MultiStar multi-end roving optimized for sheet molding compound (SMC) processes and long fiber-reinforced polyurethane panel production. These products offer optimized fiber distribution, wetting, bonding and mechanical properties, ensuring high-quality performance during processing.
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