Original Article

Journal of Reinforced Plastics

and Composites

Creep behaviour of injection-moulded 0(0) 1–11

! The Author(s) 2016
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DOI: 10.1177/0731684416661239
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Tamás Tábi1,2, P Bakonyi2, S Hajba2, PJ Herrera-Franco3,

T Czigány1,2 and JG Kovács2

Abstract
In this paper, the creep of short (chopped) basalt fibre reinforced poly(lactic acid) composites was investigated; 5, 10, 20
and 30 wt.% short basalt fibre reinforced composites were prepared by using twin-screw extrusion followed by injection
moulding. Differential scanning calorimetry measurements revealed that the basalt fibres had nucleating effect on the
poly(lactic acid)grade used in this study, while scanning electron microscopy demonstrated that there was strong adhe-
sion between the fibre and the matrix. Fibre distribution analysis showed that there was no significant statistical differ-
ence between the average fibre lengths of all of the produced composites. Finally, creep mastercurves were constructed
using the single creep curves obtained by applying 10, 20, 30,. . ., 90% of the tensile strength of the composites as a static
creep loading force. It was demonstrated that the basalt fibres as reinforcements can effectively reduce the strain and
increase time to failure of the composites during creep load and thus could open the possibilities for poly(lactic acid)-
based composites to be used in long-term constantly loaded structural or engineering applications.

Keywords
Biodegradable polymer, poly(lactic acid), basalt fibre, creep properties, injection moulding

stiffness (tensile modulus around 3–3.5 GPa) but with

Introduction
rather low impact strength (Charpy notched and
Nowadays, there is a growing interest in the application unnotched impact strength around 2.7 and 23 kJ/m2
of biodegradable polymers due to environmental con- respectively) and heat deflection temperature (HDT)
sciousness. Since some members of the biodegradable of around 50–55 C. To overcome these drawbacks of
polymers are also renewable resource based they are low impact strength and HDT, reinforcing fibres are
believed to solve or at least to moderate the petrol typically introduced to PLA to prepare composites.6
dependency of the plastic industry as well as the In most cases, plant fibres and thus renewable
waste management problems caused by accumulation resource-based fibres are used for composite prepar-
of non-biodegradable, low life-cycle plastic products ation; in this way the final composite is mostly referred
mostly coming from the packaging industry.1
Currently, the most promising biodegradable poly-
mer is the starch and sugar-based poly(lactic acid) 1
MTA–BME Research Group for Composite Science and Technology,
(PLA),2 which is already commercialised as bottles, Budapest, Hungary
cups, cutleries, office utensils, agricultural mulch films, 2
Department of Polymer Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering,
medical bio-absorbable implants, etc., and actively Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary
3
researched to widen its applications for instance Yucatan Centre for Scientific Research (CICY), Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico
by foaming,3 by increasing biodegradation rate4 or
Corresponding author:
having shape-memory properties.5 PLA is a semi- Tamás Tábi, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest,
crystalline aliphatic thermoplastic polyester with high Muegyetem rakpart 3, Budapest H-1111, Hungary.
strength (tensile strength around 60–65 MPa), high Email: [email protected]

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2 Journal of Reinforced Plastics and Composites 0(0)

to as biocomposite.7–17 Unfortunately, plant fibres also hard tissue repair with basalt fibre reinforcement.
have some major drawbacks compared to synthetic It was proved that the basalt fibres significantly
fibres of glass or carbon, like the higher deviation of reduce the rate of degradation of the scaffold, and
the properties of the fibres, which is influenced by the also decreases inflammatory responses caused by acid-
source of the fibre, the age of the plant, and the fibre ification during absorption of the PLA. It was con-
extraction method used. Further drawbacks are the sig- firmed that PLA scaffolds reinforced with basalt fibres
nificant water uptake, lower mechanical properties can be potentially used in hard tissue repair. It was
compared to synthetic fibres, and the susceptibility to proved by Liu et al.24 that basalt fibres with certain
thermal degradation.18 Accordingly, the biocomposites sizing can significantly increase tensile, bending, and
with higher mechanical properties are often achieved impact strength of PLA. It was possible to further
with pulltrusion10 or film stacking11,12 methods to increase the impact strength of PLA from 19 kJ/m2 to
keep the extent of degradation of the fibres low and 34 kJ/m2 (unnotched impact strength) at 20 wt.% of
the fibre ratio as well as the length of the fibres ratio basalt fibre content by adding 20 wt.% of ethylene-
high. At the same time, the high cycle time method of acrylate-glycidyl methacrylate copolymer (EAGMA)
film-stacking is not always suitable to commercialise to the composite. Kurniawan et al.25 analysed the adhe-
PLA biocomposite products in an economic way; more- sion between surface-treated (atmospheric pressure
over, only flat-like products could be made this way. glow discharge plasma polymerization) basalt fibres
Subsequently, injection moulding can be used to and PLA. It was proved that by increasing the
preferably produce complex 3D shaped parts with low plasma polymerisation time above 3 min, the tensile
cycle time in an economic way, making this processing strength of the composites increased above the own
technology the most feasible to commercialise PLA strength of PLA. The plasma polymerised fibres were
products. However, there are only minor or moderate well wetted by the PLA as demonstrated by using elec-
improvements in the mechanical properties of the bio- tron microscopy; however, the tensile strength of the
composites when injection moulding is applied13,14 due composite was lower compared to results from Liu
to the thermal degradation of the fibres as well as fibre et al.24 In our previous publication26 related to injec-
breakage, that resulted in a low fibre aspect ratio tion-moulded PLA reinforced with short (chopped)
(around 40–50%) and finally due to the lower design- basalt fibres, it was demonstrated that it is possible to
ability of the mechanical properties caused by the par- develop strong adhesion between the PLA and the
tial in-flow fibres orientation, since only a shell layer basalt fibres by using silane sizing. The strong adhesion
contains in-flow oriented fibres, while the core layer was demonstrated by electron microscopy by observing
contains fibres with random orientation. As it is excellent wetting of the fibres. Recently, in our other
demonstrated, it is challenging to produce injection- publication,27 long basalt fibre reinforced injection-
moulded biocomposites with high mechanical proper- moulded PLA composites were prepared by first pro-
ties mainly due to the properties of the plant fibres and ducing a pre-product of basalt roving extrusion coated
also due to some features of the injection moulding with PLA and followed by injection moulding of this
technology. pre-product. It was found that the average fibre length
An alternative to plant fibres could be a rather new within the final composites increased from 159 mm
reinforcing material, the basalt fibres.19–21 Although (‘classical’ extrusion compounding followed by injec-
basalt fibres are not plant and thus not renewable tion moulding) to 658 mm by applying this long fibre
resource based, but mineral fibres, they are still con- injection moulding technology. As a result, around
sidered as natural like the plant fibres since basalt can 20% increase was found in tensile and flexural strength
be found in the nature in the form of basalt rocks vir- of the long basalt fibre reinforced PLA composites
tually all over the Globe. Moreover, it is a biologically compared to the composites with the same fibre ratio
and chemically inert material and by the weathering of but with lower average fibre length, while the most sig-
basalt rocks, it increases the mineral content of soil, nificant improvement was found in the three times
which features also increase the natural character of higher impact strength. Finally, a review was published
basalt. By simply melting the basalt rocks, short or recently according to basalt fibre composites including
continuous basalt fibres can be made by using the spin- biodegradable matrix composites.30
neret or the Junkers technology respectively.22 As it was demonstrated, basalt is an excellent
Although basalt seems to be a good alternative to reinforcement for PLA and even injection moulded,
plant fibres, there are only a limited number of publi- basalt fibre reinforced PLA parts with high mechanical
cations in the literature of basalt fibre reinforced PLA- properties can be made despite of the typically signifi-
based composites23–27 or basalt fibre reinforced other cant fibre breakage taking place during processing.
biodegradable matrix composites like starch28 or However, to be able to use and design basalt fibre rein-
gluten.29 Xi et al.23 produced PLA-based scaffolds for forced PLA composites in engineering applications, its

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Tábi et al. 3

long-term behaviour, especially its creep behaviour and the conventional dry mixing, extrusion, pelletizing,
needs to be investigated, since thermoplastic polymer- and injection moulding method. The extruder used was
based composites are designed not to maximum allow- a LabTech Scientific twin-screw extruder (screw diam-
able stress, but to maximum allowable strain. Bakonyi eter ¼ 26 mm, L/D ¼ 40) with a temperature profile of
et al.31–33 extensively researched the creep of glass fibre 175–180–185–190 C (from the hopper to the die) and a
reinforced polypropylene (PP) and found that based on screw rotational speed of 10 r/min. All pellets were
the temperature–time and load–time superposition annealed prior to injection moulding at 120 C for 2 h
principle, long-term creep curves (mastercurves) could to avoid pellet sticking to the screw during injection
be constructed from short-term creep measurements. In moulding caused by cold crystallisation reported in
a recent publication,34 the creep of PLA/bamboo fibre our previous research.35 Finally, the basalt fibre rein-
compression moulded composites was investigated by forced PLA pellets were injection moulded with an
using temperature–time superposition principle. Arburg Allrounder 370 S 700–290 injection moulding
However, the number of these papers is still very lim- machine equipped with a 30 mm diameter, L/D ¼ 25
ited, despite of the interest of reinforced PLA compos- screw. An injection rate of 50 cm3/s, holding pressure
ites in structural applications. of 600 bars, holding time of 20 s, residual cooling time
Although the creep of ordinary, petrol-based poly- of 40 s, melt and mould temperature of 190 C and 20 C
mers and their composites was extensively investigated, were used. Based on EN ISO standard number 527-2,
but according to our best knowledge, the number of dumbbell specimens type 1 A with 4  10 mm cross-
papers dealing with reinforced PLA is very limited; section (172 mm in total length, 80 mm in the length
moreover, there is not a single paper dealing with the of 4  10 mm cross-section) were injection moulded
long-term behaviour of basalt fibre reinforced, injec- and used for the investigations.
tion-moulded PLA composites. Accordingly in our
work, basalt fibre reinforced PLA composites were pre-
pared by using extrusion compounding and the long-
Methods
term creep behaviour of the final injection-moulded Differential scanning calorimetry measurements were
composites with different fibre ratio was investigated performed on a TA Instruments Q2000 type cal-
by using short-term creep tests and load–time superpos- orimeter (New Castle, USA) by using 3–6 mg of
ition principle. samples taken from the middle of the cross-section of
the injection-moulded specimens. Since a skin/core
structure develops during injection moulding, where
Experimental in the skin layer lower, but in the core layer higher
crystalline ratio develops due to the different cooling
Materials rates; thus in this case, the maximum crystallinity of
Injection moulding grade PLA type 3052D from the given specimen could be determined by taking
NatureWorks (Minnetonka, MN, USA) was used for the calorimetry samples from the middle of the cross-
the research with a D-Lactide content of around 4%. section. The samples were tested in non-isothermal
3052D PLA has a density of 1.24 g/cm3, a glass mode (heat/cool/heat) from 0 to 200 C at a heating/
transition temperature range of 55–60 C, a melting cooling rate of 5 C/min to determine glass transition
temperature range of 145–160 C and a melt flow temperature (Tg), cold crystallisation temperature
index of 14 g/10 min (at 210 C, with 2.16 kg load). (Tcc), enthalpy of cold crystallisation (Hcc), melting
Chopped basalt fibres with an initial fibre length of temperature (Tm), and enthalpy of fusion (Hm).
10 mm were purchased from Kameny Vek. The average Crystallinity was calculated from the first heating scan
diameter of the fibres was 13 mm and had a silane treat- of the injection-moulded specimens by using equation (1)
ment under trade name KV-12 suitable for polyesters.
Hm  Hcc
X¼  100 ð1Þ
Hf  ð1  Þ
Material preparation and processing
PLA was dried at 120 C for 6 h prior to processing to where X (%) is the calculated crystallinity, Hm (J/g),
remove as much residual moisture as possible to avoid and Hcc (J/g) is the enthalpy of fusion and the
hydrolitical degradation. Even though basalt fibres enthalpy of cold crystallisation, respectively, Hf (J/g)
have no hydrophilic character, they were also dried is the enthalpy of fusion for 100% crystalline PLA
along with the PLA to remove any residual moisture (93.0 J/g36) and  () is the mass fraction of the basalt
from the surface of the fibres. PLA-based composites fibres. After calcinating the samples (at 700 C for one
with a nominal basalt fibre content of 5, 10, 20, 30 wt.% hour) taken from the middle of the injection-moulded
were prepared by using chopped (10 mm) basalt fibres specimens, the actual fibre content was determined by

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4 Journal of Reinforced Plastics and Composites 0(0)

Table 1. DSC data of the basalt fibre reinforced PLA composites and the pristine PLA obtained from the first heating scan.

Material Hcc/J g1 Hm/J g1 X/% Tg/ C Tcc/ C Tm/ C

PLA 28.64 29.31 0.7 60.9 106.5 147.3 and 154.7

PLA+5 wt.% basalt fibre 27.96 28.67 0.8 61.6 102.3 146.7 and 154.8
PLA+10 wt.% basalt fibre 21.13 26.79 6.8 62.3 102.5 146.9 and 154.9
PLA+20 wt.% basalt fibre 21.16 26.39 7.0 61.9 103.6 147,1 and 155.1
PLA+30 wt.% basalt fibre 15.35 19.99 7.1 63.5 104.0 147.2 and 155.0
DSC: differential scanning calorimetry; PLA: poly(lactic acid).

the cross-head, but also more precisely by using an

extensometer as a verification. A load rate of 20 N/s
was used and 20 specimens were tested. Afterwards,
10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, and 90% of the determined
maximum force value was used as static loading force
for the creep tests. These are named as load ‘levels’
(for instance 30% load level) since it is a dimensionless
quantity; 20 N/s load rate was applied until the force
reached the given static loading level and kept it for one
hour. Two specimens were used for each loading level if
the specimens did not break until the one hour creep
test, and six specimens were used if they were broken
during the creep test. All of the measurements were
performed at room temperature (23  1 C) and at a
relative humidity of 50  10%. Finally, by using the
Figure 1. Measured (real) fibre content in the function of load–time equivalence principle, master curves were
nominal fibre content. constructed. Since every mastercurve is related to a cer-
tain load level, this desired value must be selected first,
analysing the weight of the residual compared to the e.g., in our case 50% of load level was selected.
weight of the sample prior to calcination as well as Afterwards, the single time-strain creep curve in loga-
the fibre length distribution was measured determining rithmic scale related to the selected load level was
the length of the fibres by using optical microscopy (type depicted in a diagram and the other curves with higher
Olympus BX 51 M); 1000 fibre lengths were determined loading levels were fitted to the original curve by shifting
for each sample to characterise distribution. in the time-scale. For comparison, mastercurves were
Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was performed also constructed by modifying the creep strain data cal-
by using a Jeol JSM 6380LA type electron microscope culated from the cross-head movement with the strain
to investigate the quality of adhesion between matrix data obtained during the tensile tests using extensometer.
and reinforcement. The fracture surfaces of the tensile The modification was performed based on the ratio of
specimens were used for the observations. Au/Pd alloy the strain values measured by the two different method.
was sputtered onto the surface prior to observation to
avoid electrostatic charging.
Finally, creep tests were performed according to EN
Results and discussion
ISO 899-2 standard by using a Zwick Z250 universal First, the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) meas-
testing machine. The force and strain (nominal exten- urement of the basalt fibre reinforced PLA composites
sion) were determined by a Zwick BZ 020/TN2S and the pristine PLA was performed in order to analyse
load cell, and by the movement of the cross-head the possible nucleating ability of basalt fibres on PLA
(the change in distance between the grips), respectively. and thus the crystallinity of the injection-moulded spe-
The injection-moulded samples were used without any cimens. Although PLA is a semi-crystalline thermoplas-
further processing or machining, and thus the creep of tic material, but unfortunately it has very slow
the given sample also represents its skin/core structure crystallization kinetics, meaning that during injection
developed during processing. First, the tensile strength moulding usually only a few per cent of crystallinity
of each composite was determined by using force develops due to the high cooling rate. Nucleating
controlled tensile testing. Only for the tensile tests, agents can be used for enhancing crystallization, but
strain was not only determined by the movement of it is still challenging to develop high or even the

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Tábi et al. 5

possible maximum crystallinity of around 40–50% As it can be seen, the addition of basalt fibres to
during processing.37 According to the basalt fibre rein- PLA did not significantly modify the transition tem-
forced PLA samples, the first heating scan was analysed peratures; moreover, and most importantly it also had
and the thermal history was not erased and thus the only low effect on the crystallinity values. Although
crystallinity values represent the crystallinity of the crystallinity increased by increasing basalt fibre con-
injection-moulded specimens (Table 1). tent, basalt fibres had nucleating ability, probably by
developing a trans-crystalline structure around
the fibres.38 However, since a PLA with relatively
high D-Lactide content (4%) was used, which
is rather difficult to crystallize compared to lower
D-Lactide content PLA grades, as a result, only low
crystallinity of 7.1% was reached even when 30 wt.%
basalt fibres were added to PLA.
In the next step, the real basalt fibre content in the
composites (Figure 1) as well as the distribution of fibre
lengths (Figure 2) was investigated.
There was only minor variance found between the
nominal and the measured real basalt fibre content of
the composites meaning that the technology used to
produce the composites was adequately precise.
Regarding to the fibre lengths, it can be observed
that the average basalt fibre length was almost inde-
pendent from the basalt fibre content within the
Figure 2. Average fibre length as a function of fibre content.
investigated 5–30 wt.% basalt fibre content range.

Figure 3. (a) Fibre distribution of 5 wt.%. (a) 10 wt.%, (b) 20 wt.%, (c) and 30 wt.%, (d) basalt fibre content PLA composite.

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6 Journal of Reinforced Plastics and Composites 0(0)

Figure 4. (a) Fracture surface of 5 wt.%. (a) 10 wt.% (b), 20 wt.% (c), and 30 wt.% (d) basalt fibre content PLA composite.

Table 2. Tensile properties of the basalt fibre reinforced PLA compounds and the pure PLA.

Tensile Maximum force Strain at break/% Strain at break/%

Material strength/MPa at break/N (cross-head displacement) (extensometer)

PLA 68.9  1.1 2758  46 3.49  0.12 3.26  0.43

PLA + 5 wt.% basalt fibre 73.0  2.0 2920  79 3.05  0.48 2.97  0.31
PLA + 10 wt.% basalt fibre 78.9  0.8 3154  34 2.71  0.34 2.58  0.29
PLA + 20 wt.% basalt fibre 97.7  3.0 3906  120 2.22  0.06 1.94  0.02
PLA + 30 wt.% basalt fibre 106.5  2.4 4260  96 2.01  0.10 1.64  0.14
PLA: poly(lactic acid).

Although there was no significant statistical difference fibres decreased, while the amount of shorter fibres
found between the average fibre length of all of the increased with increasing basalt fibre content. This
composites, namely, 424  194 mm, 376  117 mm, could be explained by the increasing fibre–fibre fric-
404  140 mm and 334  118 mm for the 5, 10, 20 tion during processing with the increasing fibre
and 30 wt.% basalt fibre composites, respectively, if content.
the whole distribution is taken into consideration After determining the real fibre content and fibre
(Figure 3), it is visible that the amount of longer length distribution of specimens, their fracture surface

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Tábi et al. 7

was also investigated by SEM to qualify the adhesion as in the absence of any gap between the root of the
between the phases (Figure 4). fibres and the matrix. On the other hand, some longer
As it is visible, there was strong adhesion found for basalt fibres pointing out from the fracture surface sug-
every compound which is manifested in the PLA layer gests that some of the fibres got pulled out. Moreover,
that developed on the surface of the basalt fibres as well interestingly, some of the possibly pulled-out fibres had
a periodic band-shaped PLA layer along the length of
the fibres (Figure 4(a) and (c)) which suggests the fail-
ure of the matrix by intensive shearing action during
the tensile testing. The strong adhesion demonstrated
on the SEM images was naturally also observable in the
tensile properties of the composites (Table 2), which
was determined to use this maximum force at break
value as a point of reference for applying various
static loading levels during creep tests.
Both tensile strength (68.9 MPa + 1.2804 MPa/
wt.%, R2 ¼ 0.98) and strain at break (3.49%–0.056%/
wt.%, R2 ¼ 0.91 for cross-head displacement and
3.26%–0.058%/wt.%, R2 ¼ 0.97 for extensometer)
were found to increase and decrease linearly with
increasing basalt fibre content in the investigated 0–
30 wt.% basalt fibre range, respectively. According to
Figure 5. Creep strain of pure PLA at various static loading the strain values, there was no statistically significant
levels. The curves are averaged creep curves, while the cross difference found between the strain of PLA and 5 wt.%
means the breakage of the single specimens. basalt fibre reinforced PLA measured by the two

Figure 6. (a) Creep strain of 5 wt.% (a), 10 wt.% (b), 20 wt.% (c), and 30 wt.% (d) basalt fibre reinforced PLA at various static loading
levels. The curves are averaged creep curves, while the cross means the breakage of the single specimens.

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8 Journal of Reinforced Plastics and Composites 0(0)

Figure 7. (a) Creep mastercurves for pure PLA and 5 wt.%, 10 wt.%, 20 wt.%, 30 wt.% basalt fibre reinforced PLA in case of 50%
loading level constructed by using the creep strain data from cross-head displacement (a) and from modified creep strain data obtained
by extensometer measurements (b).

reinforcement (Figure 6(a)), the strain of the specimens

decreased for the same static loading level, which cor-
responds to increased creep resistance, meaning that
more time was needed to reach the same deformation
compared to pure PLA specimens.
Nevertheless, basalt fibres also made the composites
more brittle, resulting in decreased maximum strain at
break where creep leads to failure, but on the whole, the
creep retarding effect of basalt fibres was still higher
than its embrittlement effect, which makes the usage
of basalt fibres useful for mechanically loaded long-
term applications. The same trend could be observed
when 10 wt.% (Figure 6(b)), 20 wt.% (Figure 6(c)) or
30 wt.% (Figure 6(d)) basalt fibre reinforcement was
used. Finally, creep master curves were constructed
Figure 8. Creep strain time (to failure) estimation as a function
of basalt fibre content in case of 50% loading level. from the single creep curves in case of 50% loading
level by applying the load–time equivalence principle
(Figure 7).
As it was discussed previously, it is also visible and
different methods (cross-head displacement and extens- easily observable in the master curves that by increasing
ometer), On the other hand, there was minor difference the basalt fibre content, the strain at break naturally
between the strain of 10 wt.%, while there was even decreases and thus failure occurs at lower strain
statistically significant difference between the strain of values, at the same time, the creep resistance increases
20 wt.% and 30 wt.% basalt fibre reinforced PLA mea- even more, which results in increased time to failure.
sured by the two different methods. For the creep tests, Although crystalline structure could also reduce creep,
the cross-head displacement was used to calculate but in this case, the reduced deformation can be almost
strain, while for the mastercurves construction, the entirely related to basalt fibre content, since it was
more precise extensometer strain data obtained from proved previously that these fibres had only negligible
the tensile tests are also taken into account. From the effect on the crystallinity of the PLA grade used in this
tensile data, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, and 90% of study. It can also be observed that despite of the
the determined maximum force at break values were increasing fibre length reduction experienced with
used as a static loading levels for the creep tests. increasing fibre content as proved previously, there
First, the creep behaviour of pure PLA was analysed was still remarkable improvement found in creep resist-
(Figure 5). ance with more and more increasing fibre content in the
Naturally, the higher the loading level was applied, investigated 0–30 wt.% fibre content range, which
the higher the strain was measured; moreover, the PLA could be related to the strong fibre–matrix adhesion
specimens did not break within the one hour creep test as well as to the increased fibre content naturally.
until 70% of the maximum force at break was applied For comparison, mastercurves were also constructed
as static loading level. In case of 5 wt.% basalt fibre by modifying the creep strain data (obtained from

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Tábi et al. 9

cross-head displacement) by the tensile test strain results the tensile strength of the basalt fibre reinforced compos-
obtained by using extensometer. Since there was no sig- ites was determined to be able to use 10, 20, 30,. . ., 90%
nificant statistical difference between the strain of PLA of the tensile strength of the composites as a static creep
and 5 wt.% basalt fibre reinforced PLA measured by the loading force. Creep mastercurves were constructed
two different methods (Table 2), only the strain of using the short-term single creep curves obtained by
10 wt.%, 20 wt.% and 30 wt.% basalt fibre reinforced applying various static creep loading forces determined
PLA was modified (Figure 7(b)). As it is visible, the previously and the load–time equivalence principle. It
mastercurves of 10 wt.%, 20 wt.% and 30 wt.% basalt was demonstrated that the basalt fibres as reinforcements
fibre reinforced PLA shifted to lower strain values; how- can effectively reduce the creep strain of the composites
ever, this decrease was rather minor. Nevertheless, much and despite of the fibre length reduction demonstrated
higher difference is expected between the strain measured previously, there was still significant creep resistance
by using the two different methods in case of highly improvement found with more and more increasing
reinforced thermoset materials. fibre content due to strong fibre–matrix adhesion.
Finally, the creep strain time (at failure) estimation Finally, all these result demonstrate that by using the
obtained from the mastercurves was also plotted conventional twin-screw extrusion and injection mould-
against basalt fibre content (Figure 8) to be able to ing techniques, the short basalt fibre reinforced injection-
investigate the effect of basalt fibre content directly. moulded PLA could even be used in long-term con-
As it is visible, the creep strain (at failure) estimation stantly loaded structural or engineering applications.
obtained from the master-curves could be very well
fitted by an exponential equation with the basalt fibre Acknowledgements
content as variable in the investigated 0–30 wt.% basalt The authors thank Arburgungária Kft. for the Arburg
content range. All these results demonstrate that the Allrounder 370 S 700-290 injection moulding machine,
basalt fibre reinforced PLA-based composites could Lenzkes GmbH for the clamping tool system and Piovan
even be used in long-term constantly loaded structural Hungary Kft. for their support.
or engineering applications.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with
Conclusion respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
In our research the creep of short (chopped) basalt fibre article.
reinforced PLA composites was investigated; 5, 10, 20,
Funding
and 30 wt.% short basalt fibre reinforced composites
were prepared by twin-screw extrusion followed by injec- The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial sup-
port for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
tion moulding. DSC measurements revealed that the
article: This paper was supported by the János Bolyai
selected basalt fibres had nucleating effect on PLA used Research Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of
for this study, accordingly, the crystallinity of injection- Sciences, the Italian–Hungarian and the Mexican–Hungarian
moulded PLA of 0.7% was increased up to 7.1% by bilateral agreement of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the
incorporating 30 wt.% of basalt fibres. However, the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA K105257, OTKA
low increase in crystallinity could be explained by the PD105995), the New Széchenyi Plan (Project ID: TÁMOP-
rather high D-Lactide content (4%) of the PLA used, 4.2.1/B-09/1/KMR-2010-0002), and also by the grant
which is difficult to crystallize compared to a PLA with TÁMOP – 4.2.2.B-10/1-2010-0009. This work is connected to
lower D-Lactide content. The real basalt fibre content of the scientific program of the ‘Development of quality-oriented
the composites was measured and it was in good accord- and harmonized R+D+I strategy and functional model at
ance with the nominal fibre content. According to the BME’ project. The work reported in this paper has been devel-
oped in the framework of the project ‘Talent care and cultiva-
fibre distribution, there was no significant statistical dif-
tion in the scientific workshops of BME project.
ference found between the average fibre length of
5 wt.%, 10 wt.%, 20 wt.% and 30 wt.% basalt fibre com-
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