Long fiber reinforced thermoplastic

"LFRT" redirects here. For the airport using that ICAO code, see Saint-Brieuc - Armor Airport.

Long fiber reinforced thermoplastics (LFRT) are one of the fastest growing materials in the polymer composites industry. Their advantages of high specific tensile properties and recyclability have enabled them to replace metals and thermoset composites in several areas of daily life. Besides with the independence of choosing the reinforcement from a wide range of fibers and the matrix from a wide range of thermoplastics polymer in the LFRTs, its property can be changed according to customer needs. It is the material that has already been deep inside the ocean and has been utilized in space as well, because of their property of not reacting to temperature change.

LFRTs have also become an increasingly valuable and popular part of building envelope components such as windows and doors.

Manufacture

LFRT components or semi-finished products are made by compression or injection molding. Fibers are impregnated in the polymer matrix of semi-finished products in the form of sheet or granulate by extrusion or pultrusion. However the starting material can also be processed directly to finished components.

See also

• FRP tanks and vessels (The strength of the fibers is utilized to make a tank extra strong in the tangential direction, where it is double the longitudinal direction due to the stresses)