This is a two-part paper where part 1 presents details of a modified wet-filament winding process. Here, the resin bath was replaced with a resin injection system that impregnated the fibres prior to winding them onto a rotating mandrel. The resin and hardener were stored in separate containers and pumped on-demand via a pair of precision gear-pumps to a static mixer. The mixed resin system was then supplied to a custom-designed resin impregnation unit. The theoretical basis for the design of the resin impregnation unit is presented along with simulations of the various parameters that influence the impregnation time and the degree of impregnation. Part 2 of this series papers presents the experimental data on the performance of the resin impregnation unit and a comparison of the physical and mechanical properties of the tubes manufactured using the conventional and modified wet-filament winding techniques.

This paper reports on a modified pultrusion process where the conventional resin bath was replaced with a customdesigned, enclosed resin impregnation unit. A feature of this modified production process is that the rovings were spread, prior to impregnation, using a compact fibre spreading unit. The resin impregnator was designed to accommodate 60 rovings of 2400 tex E-glass. The design features enabled specified modes of impregnation to be enacted including, resin-injection, pin-impregnation, capillary-impregnation and compaction. The impregnator was designed to accept pre-mixed resin from a pneumatically activated pressure-pot or a custom-designed resin delivery system. Pultrusion trials were conducted on a commercial machine using a conventional resin bath, the pressure-pot and the impregnation unit. The physical, mechanical and thermo-mechanical properties of the composites pultruded using the modified technique were marginally superior to those manufactured using the conventional resin bath. However, the environmental benefits of the modified pultrusion process were demonstrated to be significant.

The use of deep strength asphalt materials characterization to construct and restore the heavily urban roads where damage has been induced is rapidly grown in Western Australia. Five different types of asphalt mixes were produced in laboratory to modify pavement performance mixture. The main role of this research is to evaluate the pavement materials characterization for Western Australia road. In this study, laboratory test for tensile strength, resilient modulus, wheel tracking, binder contents, Marshall Compaction, and air voids contents test were taken to analyze each asphalt mixtures. The results indicated that AC20-75 and AC14-75 asphalt mixes blow were in a good pavement performance as compared to other asphalt mixes. For a mix design purposed, all the asphalt mixes that are used in this study can strength and stable the stiffness of pavement that is notable, and the modification effect rank can be described as AC20-75 Blow > AC14-75 Blow > AC14-50 Blow > AC7-50 Blow > SMA7-50 Blow in this research.

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The focus of the current research was to demonstrate a modified pultrusion technique at an industrial site using a commercial production machine. In this instance, the conventional resin bath was replaced by a custom-designed compact impregnation unit. The dimensions of the impregnator were 310 mm × 400 mm × 9 mm. The relatively short length of the impregnator, when compared to a 5 litre resin bath, meant that it had to be efficient in impregnating the reinforcing fibre bundles. This was achieved using a fibre spreading unit and a facility to inject the resin under low-pressure. The design basis for the fibre spreading unit and the impregnator are presented along with the methodology that was used to select the pultrusion speed and die temperature. The pultrusion experiments were performed using filled and unfilled vinyl ester resin and E-glass fibres. The profile of the 0.5 metre-long die was rectangular with dimensions of 32 mm × 2.2 mm. The fibre spreading unit and the impregnator were retrofitted to the pultrusion line with ease. The physical, mechanical and thermo-mechanical properties were determined for the pultruded composites using the resin bath and the modified technique. The properties of the latter were found to be equivalent or marginally superior when compared to the resin bath-based production method. However, in the modified pultrusion technique, when compared to conventional resin bath-based pultrusion, the volume of waste resin generated was 97% lower. The volume of solvent required to clean the equipment after production was reduced by 90%.