Morphological and mechanical properties of overmolded continuous/short glass fiber reinforced polypropylene composite for automotive components

In recent years, overmolded continuous and short fiber reinforced polymer composite materials have gained much attention for use as structural automotive parts. The aim of the study is to demonstrate a practical and scalable method for manufacturing lightweight, impact-resistant automotive components using overmolded PP composites. It presents a novel integration of high-content continuous glass fiber (cGF) and short glass fiber (sGF) reinforcements within PP-based composites via FiberForm overmolding, enabling structural-grade automotive parts with tailored thicknesses (2 and 4 mm) and enhanced damage tolerance. In this study, 47% (w/w) continuous glass fiber (cGF) reinforced and 30% (w/w) short glass fiber (sGF) reinforced PP automotive prototype test parts were fabricated with 2 and 4 mm thickness values by means of an overmolding method. The mechanical and morphological properties of the cGF and sGF reinforced PP automotive prototype test parts were examined. The maximum contact force at puncture for PP based CFRT sheets with a thickness of 4 mm was measured to be 14.00 kN. As a result of this study, it was found that the mechanical properties of cGF and sGF reinforced PP automotive prototype test parts exhibited a more ductile deformational behavior and toughness compared to 47% (w/w) cGF reinforced PP composite.