Electrically and thermally conductive resins can be produced by adding conductive fillers to insulating polymers. Mechanical properties such as tensile modulus, ultimate tensile strength, strain at ultimate tensile strength, and notched Izod impact strength are also important and cannot be ignored. This research focused on performing compounding runs followed by injection molding and tensile and impact property testing of carbon filled nylon 6,6 and polycarbonate based resins. The three carbon fillers investigated included an electrically conductive carbon black, synthetic graphite particles, and a milled pitch based carbon fiber. For each polymer, resins were produced and tested that contained varying amounts of these single carbon fillers. In addition, combinations of fillers were investigated by conducting a full 23 factorial design and a complete replicate in each polymer. The objective of this paper was to determine the effects and interactions of each filler on the tensile and impact properties. The results showed that, in many cases, combining two and three different fillers caused a statistically significant effect at the 95% confidence level. Polym. Compos. 25:172–185, 2004. © 2004 Society of Plastics Engineers.

Electrically and thermally conductive resins can be produced by adding conductive fillers to insulating polymers. Mechanical properties such as tensile modulus, ultimate tensile stress, strain at ultimate tensile stress, and notched Izod impact strength are also important and cannot be ignored. This study focused on performing compounding runs, followed by injection molding and evaluation of tensile and impact properties of carbon filled nylon-6,6 based resins. The three carbon fillers investigated include an electrically conductive carbon black, synthetic graphite particles, and a surface treated polyacrylonitrile (PAN) based carbon fiber. Resins containing varying amounts of these single carbon fillers were produced and tested. In addition, combinations of fillers were investigated by conducting a full 2 3 factorial design and a complete replicate. The addition of carbon fiber increased the composite tensile modulus, ultimate tensile stress, and impact strength. Also, in many cases, combining two or three different fillers caused a statistically significant effect at a 95% confidence level. When comparing the results of this study with prior work, it appears that increased heteroatoms present on the carbon fiber surface likely improve composite ultimate tensile stress and impact strength.

ABSTRACT:The electrical conductivity of resins can be increased by adding electrically conductive carbon fillers. A significant amount of work has been conducted varying the amount of single conductive fillers in a composite material. Limited work has been conducted concerning the effect of combinations of different conductive fillers. In this study, three different carbon fillers were used in nylon 6,6: carbon black, synthetic graphite particles, and a surface treated polyacrylonitrile (PAN) based carbon fiber. The goal of this project was to determine the effect of each filler and combinations of different fillers on the electrical conductivity of conductive resins. A 2 3 factorial design was analyzed to determine the effects of the three different carbon fillers in nylon 6,6. The results showed that carbon fiber caused the largest increase in composite electrical conductivity and that all the combinations of different fillers do have a statistically significant effect on composite electrical conductivity. C

Electrically conductive resins can be made by adding electrically conductive fillers to typically insulating polymers. Resins with an electrical resistivity of approximately 100 ohm‐cm or less can be used for electromagnetic and radio frequency interference shielding applications. This research focused on performing compounding runs followed by injection molding and shielding effectiveness testing of carbon filled nylon 6,6 based resins. The three carbon fillers investigated included an electrically conductive carbon black, synthetic graphite particles, and a surface‐treated polyacrylonitrile (PAN)‐based carbon fiber. Conductive resins were produced and tested that contained varying amounts of these single carbon fillers. In addition, combinations of fillers were investigated by conducting a full 23 factorial design and a complete replicate. The objective of this paper was to determine the effects and interactions of each filler on the shielding effectiveness properties of the conductive resins. Carbon fiber caused the largest increase in shielding effectiveness. Also, all the single fillers and combinations of fillers were statistically significant at the 95% confidence level, except the composite containing carbon black and synthetic graphite particles tested at 800 MHz. Polym. Compos. 25:407–416, 2004. © 2004 Society of Plastics Engineers.

Electrically and thermally conductive resins can be produced by adding conductive fillers to insulating polymers. Mechanical properties, such as tensile modulus, are also important. This research focused on performing compounding runs followed by injection molding and tensile testing of carbon-filled nylon 6,6 and polycarbonatebased resins. The three carbon fillers investigated included an electrically conductive carbon black, synthetic graphite particles, and a milled pitch-based carbon fiber. For each polymer, resins were produced and tested that contained varying amounts of these single-carbon fillers. In addition, combinations of fillers were investigated by conducting a full 2 3 factorial design and a complete replicate in each polymer. These tensile modulus experimental results were then compared to results predicted by several different models. For the composites containing only one filler type, the Nielsen model with the modified ⌿ term provided the best prediction of the actual experimental values. For the composites containing more than one filler type, a new parameter, which includes the vibrated bulk density (VBD) of the fillers, was incorporated into the Nielsen model with the modified ⌿ term. This model with the new VBD parameter provided the best estimate of experimental tensile modulus for composites containing multiple-filler types.

Annually or as events occur, operators submit data to various regulatory agencies about the operation, maintenance and extent of their assets. Many of these figures are used by the public, non-profit organizations and private companies to independently conduct assessments about operators, ranging from safety to quality assurance to scope and nature of product deliveries. The Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), the National Energy Board (NEB), and other industry organizations have recently put an emphasis on more meaningful metrics by releasing guidelines and leading discussions at industry conferences and workshops. In order to derive more strategic accuracy and pertinence, Explorer Pipeline Company (Explorer) and Det Norske Veritas (U.S.A.), Inc. (DNV GL) have developed a procedural effort to develop meaningful metrics. Several derivative benefits come from this effort such as support for calculating cost-benefit / ROI figures for maintenance projects, justification for compliance-plus activities and, most importantly, a more informed perspective of operational risk. A renewed approach to this effort is to organize the more meaningful factors into three categories: (1) Metrics of job roles and tasks within Explorer’s Asset Integrity staff, (2) Other existing influential metrics (3) Regulatory metrics. Using this approach, Explorer defined well-targeted, unitized metrics, each with a meaningful basis. Explorer anticipates the development of these more meaningful metrics to support the transparency sought by regulators and other stakeholders, benchmark and continually evaluate our Asset Integrity program and possibly support the development of practical metrics for the pipeline industry.