In the territory of the Russian Federation, the volume of fiberglass reinforcement consumption is increasing every year - this trend has persisted for several years. The Russian man has always been famous for his ingenuity and enterprise - this is what prompts him to look for more and more new places where you can choose fiberglass reinforcement instead of an expensive analogue of steel.
The search is bearing fruit - between producers and consumers, cooperation is created that is beneficial to each of the parties. What does a modern enterprise for creating this material look like? What is equipment for the production of fiberglass reinforcement in general?
Room requirements
To produce high-quality composite materials, large industrial premises are not needed. To establish a line, it is enough to have a room, the length of which will be at least several tens of meters. As a rule, the width required for technical equipment rarely exceeds 1 m.
You should also think about electrical power - at startup, the line for the production of fiberglass reinforcement requires no more than 12 kW, and during operation only 4 kW of energy is enough. Another important factor: all machines should be provided with mandatory exhaust ventilation systems - it is usually connected to a tunnel kiln.
What equipment should be part of the line
- Creel - roving reels are placed here.
- The device with which the tension is carried out, heating the threads. Also, there should be a bath in this area - the roving is impregnated with polymer in it.
- A wrapper is required - it is he who forms the winding, the central bundle.
- If the equipment for the production of fiberglass reinforcement is selected with the expectation that special types of composite material will also be performed, you can not do without a device that sprinkles sand on the product.
- The most important element can be called a tunnel furnace - it is it that heats the already formed bundle, which is impregnated with polymer.
- After the furnaces, a water cooling system is installed: when the polymerization of the material is completed, it must be cooled.
- Immediately before water cooling, a roller or track clamp with a drive is installed.
- Sometimes machines for the production of fiberglass reinforcement are also supplemented by an automatic cutting device (however, it may not be used if the manufacturing process is monitored by a worker).
How the equipment works
How do all nodes of the line interact with each other? The roving threads from the creel come into the device where the tension occurs - they are placed in a certain order, the quantity depends on what diameter of the reinforcement is made.
Before immersing them in a polymer bath, they are heated: both the compound and the threads themselves are heated - so that drying occurs, the temperature necessary for impregnation occurs. In some cases, equipment for the production of fiberglass reinforcement requires close monitoring on the part of workers - otherwise the threads may become tangled, and often they also break.
From the impregnation bath at the outlet, roving threads are pulled together through a special hole - a die, it is she who sets the diameter of the rod (along with the wrap).If classic reinforcement is made, the winding is made thick enough - if the settings are made for production with sanding, the winding is made thinner.
Materials for the manufacture of fittings
Five different components are usually used in production: roving (coils with fiberglass yarns) acts as a reinforcing material. The main binder is usually an epoxy resin, but three chemical components are also added to the composition, which directly affect the plasticity of the product and the speed of the polymerization process.
All mechanical loads in composite reinforcement are assumed by the roving, while the resin evenly distributes the loads throughout the rod, protects the material from the external environment.
It is very important to use high-quality raw materials for the production of fiberglass reinforcement (roving must be dry, the polymer composition is prepared in certain proportions), otherwise the finished products will not have the stated strength, performance will be below an acceptable level.
Processing rods in furnaces
When the wrapper is passed, the rope impregnated with polymer is in the tunnel kiln. There, the core is heated to accelerate the polymerization of epoxy resins. On average, the length of the ovens is 650 cm, they have heating elements of various types, there are also sensors that control the temperature at certain points. All information goes to the central point, it is here that the entire production process is managed.
