Mechanical Properties of Isotactic Polypropylene with Oriented and Cross-hatched Lamellae Structure

Abstract The mechanical properties of injection moulded unreinforced isotactic, polypropylene depend on the crystalline structure and lamellae orientation. Push-pull processing is an injection moulding technique that allows the user to produce parts with oriented structures. Mostly applied for short fibre reinforced thermoplastics in order to align fibres parallel to the flow direction, this technique can also be used to orient the polymeric matrix of LCP and polypropylene. A comparison of mechanical properties as well as investigations on morphology between the samples produced using conventional injection moulding and push-pull processing are presented trying to improve the knowledge about this so far rather unknown technique.