Effect of product geometry on fiber orientation of compression-molded rib type products

Use of compression molding compounds with a thermoplastic matrix, such as glass-mat-reinforced thermoplastics and more recently long fiber-reinforced thermoplastic pellets, has been growing rapidly within the last few years especially in automotive applications. Glass reinforced thermoplastics offer economic efficiency, a high process reproducibility, short cycle times, a stable and high component quality and a good recycling ability. In the present study, the distribution of fiber orientation by the image processing method for rib type compression molded products of each fiber content is measured. And the effects of fiber content, product size on the orientation state are discussed.