TAGS: Polymer Reinforcement
An Interview with Kazutoshi Sato, General Manager R&D at NITTOBO
Fiber-reinforced polymers (FRPs) are proven to offer high mechanical performance and withstand extreme conditions in industries, such as automotive, aerospace, chemical processing equipment, etc. They are rapidly replacing metals, however, replacement with FRPs has proven challenging due to the issue of warpage.
NITTOBO has developed flat fibers which exhibit some very useful characteristics owing to their unique shape. We recently talked to Kazutoshi Sato, General Manager R&D at NITTOBO about this innovative flat fibers technology and its benefits over conventional fibers.
Find out how you can achieve low warpage, enhanced tensile strength, and greater surface smoothness in a variety of engineering plastics, including Polyamides.
#1 - As Japan’s leading glass fiber manufacturer, one of NITTOBO’s most unique technologies is flat glass fibers. How do they differ from conventional glass fibers?
Flat fibers have a unique oval cross-section shape which NITTOBO has produced commercially for the first time in the world. The typical advantages of Flat Fiber include:
- Excellent physical property,
- Low warpage,
- High flow-ability, and
- Extra-ordinary surface finish.
For example, in terms of performance, the surface roughness of 50% Flat Fiber-reinforced Polyamide 6 is similar to 30% conventional glass fiber reinforced Polyamide 6.
Apart from this, NITTOBO has been developing new types of flat fibers, such as fine diameter flat fiber, high flat ration fiber, high modulus type, low Dielectric (Dk/Df) type, etc. The low Dk/Df type would be most suitable to be used in 5G communications infrastructure.
#2 - NITTOBO’s flat fibers are particularly a fit for Polyamides, what are the benefits of using flat glass fibers for Polyamide compounders?
One of the biggest advantages of using flat fiber for Polyamide compounds is to improve
dimensional stability, especially, the
warpage of the mold without sacrificing the physical properties. The processing of NITTOBO Flat fiber is similar to when conventional fibers are used for Polyamide compounders. For example, a twin screw extruder is suitable to process Flat Fiber-reinforced Polyamide as well, so there is no need to modify the processing parameter such as temperature, revolution of the screw, etc.
Additionally, surface treatment of Flat fiber is completely suitable for various types of olyamides, not only aliphatic but also aromatic Polyamide.
The process-ability of feeding into extruder of the Flat Fiber is also treated, therefore, any kind of feeders can be used. The volume of Flat Fiber vs the same quantity conventional fiber has higher volume without changing the machine and its parameters. For example, in case of higher content of glass fiber, especially, 50% or more glass fiber content of conventional fiber, declines, or saturates the properties, however Flat Fibers can achieve good properties without saturation because Flat Fiber-reinforced Polyamides have longer residual fiber than conventional ones.
Additionally, they can be a very effective cost reduction solution. Since Flat Fibers have longer residual fiber storage than conventional ones, it means that even if the compounder wants to use the recycled material again into the compounding machine, the Flat Fiber can retain the residual strength than conventional glass fibers. It is thus possible to increase the ratio of the regrind material. It is a very good opportunity for the compounders to reduce the cost.
One big change to contribute to overall cost reduction is to move from less expensive material such as Polyamide 6 in place of Polyamide 66. If we do that, with the properties Flat Fiber offers, it is still possible to expect similar performance as one can expect by using Polyamide 66. The shift to using them for PP is not exactly viable but from Polyamide 66 to Polyamide 6, it is very much possible. As we all know, Polyamide 66 base material is very costly and so if we offer improved performance with Flat Fiber-reinforced Polyamide 6, it will benefit both the customer and the compounder. Flat Fiber-reinforced Polyamide 6 might be a potential replacement for other polymers which are overall highly-priced such as PEEK, PEI, etc.
Moreover, Flat Fiber can not only benefit polyamides but a wide range of thermoplastics such as PC, PBT and PP too.
#3 - What industries can NITTOBO’s flat glass fibers be applied in?
Currently, the most used applications are the Automotive and E&E field. Especially, the parts of Smartphones and Tablets find the most use of Flat Fiber. It means that small and thinner parts have been most suitable applications of Flat Fiber because of their high flow-ability and extra-ordinary good physical properties. If the parts have warpage, the assembly process is not good, and waterproofing is not suitable.
In parallel, Automotive is another potential application for Flat Fiber-reinforced Polyamide compounds. Under the hood applications are one of the most used when it comes to incorporating Flat Fiber.
NITTOBO has been developing Flat glass fiber roving for long glass fiber pellet technology (LFT) for use in
Polyamide. These pellets can be expected to be applied for tougher application areas where high temperature or high strength, modulus, and impact are required.
Another potential application could be aerospace. Our surface treatment of glass fibers are also suitable for PEEK and other super-engineer plastics, which are known polymers for aerospace.
A new type of glass fiber has been currently under development (with low dielectric constant and tangent) for E&E. This new Flat Fiber will provide benefits to a wide array of applications that fall under E&E.
#4 - The automotive industry is one of the main application areas of your Flat Fiber technology. Please share some of the benefits of using Flat Fiber-reinforced plastics for OEMs.
The flat fiber can be expected to suit automotive applications, due to improvement of physical properties with good dimensional stability. The improvement of physical properties can be achieved in terms of reduction of thickness, or volume reduction of glass fiber content, which means that flat fiber contributes majorly to cost as well as weight reduction.
The most important subject for OEMs has been to reduce weight for the reduction in carbon dioxide emissions via reduction of fuel or energy consumption. This need has made Polyamide compounds one of the major materials acting as a
metal substitute. A lot of metal parts have been substituted by Polyamide, however, OEMs still expect to replace the material or other heavy materials for weight reduction without a decline in desired properties. In this case, Flat Fiber-reinforced Polyamide can achieve the purpose attributed to thinner thickness or lower content of glass fiber volume with equivalent properties.
The reason why Flat Fiber-reinforced Polyamide can achieve reduction of thickness or lower content of glass fiber volume, is because the physical property of transverse direction of the molding parts is much better than conventional fiber’s due to the unique oval cross-section shape, therefore, Polyamide compound with Flat Fiber exhibits better overall physical properties than conventional fiber-reinforced Polyamide.
To add to some more benefits of Flat Fiber apart from light-weight-ness, they also show electrical resistance because of their high voltage in electrical components. It can be used in electric vehicles (EVs) which benefit from the prevention of dielectric breakdown. It is possible to depict how Flat Fiber prevents this.
Overall Flat Fiber exhibits improved physical properties than conventional ones including impact resistance as well. We can also count on better durability and heat-, creep & fatigue resistance under high temperatures. We expect to bring Flat Fiber-reinforced polymers as a substitute for metals in EVs.
Get Inspired: Experience enhanced physical properties with over 60% fiber content »
#5 - How can NITTOBO’s flat glass fiber technology contribute to a more sustainable, energy-saving society?
Since Flat Fiber does not break even after recycling, so it has a longer life. Flat Fiber-reinforced Polyamide has a long residual fiber length, therefore the possibility of
material recycling may expand.
In addition to that, the improvement in warpage and dimensional stability can also help achieve high yield when it comes to manufacturing, as a result, reducing energy and material consumption. Furthermore, the
weight reduction of automobiles can achieve the reduction of fuel consumption leading to less carbon emissions.
Flat fibers-reinforced Polyamide can find use in many kinds of EV and FCV applications. Most expected allocation will be battery box and housing substituted from metal parts for weight reduction. EV battery weight relates to high energy consumption. Weight reduction due to the use of Flat Fiber-reinforced plastics is replacing metal so the battery weight can be reduced up to 30-70% so energy consumption can be improved.
We thus fulfill a couple of UN SDGs such as ‘Climate Action’, ‘Industry Innovation and Infrastructure’ and ‘Responsible Consumption and Production’.
NITTOBO’s Product Range
View a wide range of products by NITTOBO, analyze technical data of each product, get technical assistance or request samples.
About Kazutoshi Sato
Kazutoshi Sato is the General manager of the development department for composite materials and products for industrial materials at the Fiber Research and Development Center of NITTOBO.
He joined NITTOBO in 1991. He was engaged in the research and development of glass fiber products in the laboratory, especially contributing to the development of high-performance products, including the development of a focusing agent for high-temperature molding thermoplastics resins.
In the development of flat fiberglass, he promoted the development of new applications such as low warpage by conducting property analysis and successfully developed products for various applications.
Discover More About Nittobo Here