Electrostatic painting of conductive composite materials

This study deals with the conductive polymeric materials used for electrostatic painting applications. The authors recall the characteristics of intrinsically conductive polymers (ICP) and the polymeric composite materials and describe the main conductive fibres. They recall the definition of the critical volume fraction of fibres (volume fraction to obtain electrical properties) and give its value for a few fibre–matrix associations. Finally they discuss the results of mechanical tests (tensile curves and Charpy tests) and micrographic observations obtained on a polyamide/polyoxyphenylene (PA/PPO) matrix reinforced with carbon fibres. It is shown that the microstructure has a strong effect on the overall mechanical properties of the composite material.