Yield, impact and fracture performance of injected metallic looking polypropylene parts

Abstract

Innovation, cost and weight reduction are some factors for the replacement of metals by plastics. Plastics continue to offer attractive solutions for design engineers. The metallic effect obtained by incorporation of metal particles in polymers by injection moulding has the advantage of eliminating postprocessing techniques reducing production cost and time. Nevertheless, undesired defects in the final appearance of parts are common. These defects occur due to inhomogeneous orientation and anisotropy of the metal particles. Very few studies are reporting the influence of metallic particles on the morphology development of PP parts. Therefore, this study is focused on the production of parts made of PP/metallic pigments (aluminium) by injection moulding in order to understand the influence of metallic particles on the aesthetic, morphological and mechanical properties of the parts.