NYCOA TOPICS IN ENGINEERED PLASTICS: Glass Filled Nylons
Glass-filled Nylon is an important technology in the world of Polymers, with large volumes being used around the world, in several industries. While glass-fiber filled nylon has been a known application for decades, not everyone has a basis in what glass-fiber does, and how it allows nylons to be used in specific performance applications.
In the polymer matrix, glass fibers are distributed evenly creating a complex mesh network throughout the plastic. Unlike a fiberglass product, it isn’t necessary for the glass fiber to be molded into a specific shape beforehand, and as such it retains the desirable properties of plastics, such as their ability to take complex shapes during injection molding, while gaining many advantages of being glass fiber reinforced.
Glass-filled Nylons allow for a stiffer nylon product, with greater tensile strength and one less prone to thermal expansion. Additionally, glass-filled nylons may show elevated resistance to impact (shattering or breaking) and some chemical exposure. These properties mean that in many applications glass-filled Nylon can be a superior cost-effective solution to get the benefits of non-plastics materials with the variability and moldability of a plastic. One of the most commonplace is to replace metal in complex assemblies such as automobiles. Here, the filled nylon reduces the weight of the full assembly (increasing fuel efficiency in vehicles), and allows a more efficient production cycle.
However, as with most products, there are situations where glass-filled nylon may be less desirable. Because it’s stiffer and more rigid, it is also more brittle. It also costs more than an unfilled nylon due to the material cost of the glass fiber, which has seen significant increases in 2021 and 2022. Additionally, the glass filler is heavier than the nylon so the glass-filled nylons are heavier. And because glass fiber isn’t distributed at the join lines, welds can be weaker than the rest of the part.
As such, knowing how to get the most out of this powerful material mostly comes down to which Nylon product you’re using, and how much filler you introduce. If deflection, warping, and chemical resistance are your main concerns? Glass-filled will likely help you to get to your tensile strength and chemical resistance targets. But knowing how much filler to add to hit your targets, without introducing unnecessary weaknesses is the true art behind this versatile material.
Glass-filled nylons are already being used in a wide range of applications, such as washers, bearings, door-latches, fans, industrial equipment and many others. One exciting new use for Glass-Filled fiber is the 3D printing world. Glass-filled offers the strength and stiffness necessary to bear the load of 3D printed parts, which often need to support their own weight even in an incomplete and semi-hardened state.
This is just a small introduction to the wide world of glass-filled nylons, and we can’t hope to cover the entirety of this fascinating material. If you’d like to contact a Nycoa Representative to discuss this, or any of our other line of fillers and custom Nylon blends, in more depth feel free to check out our products on knowde or on our website or reach out with the contact information below.
About NYCOA
NYCOA (the Nylon Corporation of America) commercially manufactures specialty engineered nylon, including nylon 6, nylon copolymers and terpolymers, nylon 6,10 and nylon 6,12, long-chain nylon chemistry alternatives to nylon 11 and nylon 12, as well as a broad variety of compounded nylon materials. All NYCOA products are made in the USA, manufactured in our ISO plant located in Manchester, NH. NYCOA is dedicated to plastics engineering, plastics innovation, and a consistent quality earned through operational excellence. NYCOA is dedicated to its customers, and produces specialty engineered polymers for industries and partners around the world, and has plastics compounding capabilities to produce a variety of reinforced grades.
NYCOA manufactures specialty engineered polyamide (nylon) plastics for many industries and applications, including fasteners, hook and loop, extruded parts, injection molding, foamed components, monofilament, powders, and wire and cable jacketing.
Contact:
333 Sundial Ave.
Manchester, NH 03103-7230
Tel: 603.627.5150
Fax: 603.627.4499