Production of thermoplastic coated continuous glass fibre reinforced composite rope and investigation of its application areas

The first aim of this thesis is to introduce a desktop prototype of a continuous fiber reinforced thermoplastic composite rope manufacturing process. The other aim is to investigate the mechanical properties such as tensile strength of polylactic acid (PLA), thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), polyethylene terephthalate glycol (PET-G) coated glass fiber composite ropes and to investigate their usability in the industry. A 120W desktop filament extruder with a maximum operating temperature of 300°C and an extrusion speed of 250-660 mm/min was used to coat the composite ropes. An AC motor with a nominal power of 60W, a speed of 1350 rpm, a torque increasing reducer and a speed control unit was used to wind the composite ropes on the bobbin during the coating process. Continuous E-glass fibers with linear densities of 300 tex, 600 tex and 1200 tex were used as fibers and polylactic acid (PLA), thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and polyethylene terephthalate glycol (PET-G) were used as resins. At the end of the process, 9 different composite ropes with diameters between Ø0.52 mm-Ø1.16 mm, fiber volume ratios between 31%-53% and densities between 1.610 g/cm³-1.919 g/cm³ were produced. Although the tested glass fibers had a high tensile strength of 1025 MPa on average and a modulus of elasticity of 20300 MPa, they showed brittle behavior. After coating with thermoplastic materials, an average reduction of 48% (533 MPa) in tensile strength and 64% (7318 MPa) in modulus of elasticity of continuous glass fibers was obtained. However, the brittleness of composite ropes was significantly reduced with an average increase in elongation of 53%. The data obtained at the end of the study are promising for the use of PLA, TPU and PET-G coated glass fiber reinforced composite yarns in the industry.