Abstract
Most of the textile used to reinforce rubber products is accounted for by tyre cord, belting fabric and hose reinforcement. The cotton fibre used fifty years ago has now been largely superseded by rayon, nylon, polyester, glass, steel and more recently by aramid filaments. Kevlar and nylon cord reinforced rubbers are currently being evaluated for structural application. The accurate design of composite materials requires a knowledge of the material properties of both the matrix and the reinforcement fibre and details of the proportions and directions in which the fibres are included. As a prelude to research on the nondestructive characterisation of these latter parameters in cord-reinforced rubber, a programme of work directed at sectioning, polishing and microscopic examination of these materials is reported. The paper will also describe simple equipment based on an optical microscope-monochrome video camera-microcomputer system, which can be used to replace the human subjective view when sampling the micrograph by the objectivity of the electronic machine.
| Original language | English |
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| Pages | 534-535 |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Dec 1985 |