Composites: Part B 56 (2014) 157162

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Composites: Part B
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compositesb

Selective reinforcement of LLDPE components produced by rotational

molding with thermoplastic matrix pultruded proles
A. Greco , G. Romano, A. Maffezzoli
Department of Innovation Engineering, University of Salento, Via per Arnesano, 73100 Lecce, Italy

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 26 April 2013
Received in revised form 25 June 2013
Accepted 12 August 2013
Available online 21 August 2013
Keywords:
A. Glass bers
B. Adhesion
E. Pultrusion
E. Thermoplastic resin
Rotational molding

a b s t r a c t
This work is aimed to study the use of pultruded proles for the selective reinforcement of linear low
density polyethylene (LLDPE) parts produced by rotational molding. A preliminary screening on different
types of pultruded proles was performed, highlighting the relevance of adhesion to LLDPE in order to
prevent debonding of the reinforcing pultruded proles. As expected, high density polyethylene (HDPE)
matrix pultruded tapes are characterized by a very high adhesion to rotomolded LLDPE. Therefore, HDPE
matrix pultruded tapes, fastened on the inner surface of the mold, are incorporated into LLDPE during
rotomolding. Plate bending tests performed on reinforced rotomolded plates and pressurization tests performed on the box shaped prototypes showed a signicant increase of the stiffness with a negligible
amount of reinforcement and increase of the weight of the component.
2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Rotational molding is a process for manufacturing hollow or
double-walled plastic products, in the absence of any external
pressure. Specic material requirements limit the polymers available for the fabrication of products by rotational molding. In particular, low melt viscosity is required in order to achieve an efcient
sintering of polymer powders and void-free products. Further, an
adequately high toughness is required in order to allow the extraction of components from molds [1]. Nowadays, only few classes of
thermoplastic polymers are processed by rotomolding, and most of
them are different grades of polyethylene, in particular linear low
density polyethylene (LLDPE). The mechanical properties of these
polymers are relatively poor, and rotomolded products nd applications in elds where mechanical requirements are not particularly critical. Therefore, in recent years, in order to improve the
mechanical properties or rotomolded parts, incorporation of
nanollers [2,3], particulate reinforcements [4,5] or short bers
[6,7] were considered. However, such approaches involve some
drawbacks, either in terms of mechanical properties, either in
terms of processability. In facts, incorporation of any type of ller
is always associated with an embrittlement of the material [8],
as well as with an increase of the viscosity of the polymer melt,
which in turn reduces the sinterability of the material, thus
increasing the fraction of voids [3,9]. Further, the presence of
powders of different size and weight must be carefully managed,
Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 0832297233.
E-mail address: antonio.greco@unisalento.it (A. Greco).
1359-8368/$ - see front matter 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesb.2013.08.047

in order to avoid segregation, with ner and heavier particles being

predominantly dispersed on the outer surface of the rotational
molded products, and coarser and lighter particles being located
at the inner surface [1,4,10]. Other approaches developed in order
to increase the mechanical properties of the rotomolded products
involve the use of different types of polymers, such as polyamides
[3,11], polypropylene [12], high density polyethylene [13], or combination of different materials in multi walled products [14,15].
Recently, it was shown that the rotational molding equipments
can be readily adapted to the production of long ber reinforced
composites by the use of thermoplastic prepreg in a bladder molding process [15,16]. Such approach requires pressurization of the
mold, and in general, poses severe limitations to the geometric
complexity of the part. Further, the glass bers are uniformly distributed in the rotational molding product, even where loading
conditions would not require any reinforcement.
On the other hand, pultruded rods are used for the reinforcement of polyethylene beams produced by in mold extrusion (or
intrusion), in order to optimize the distribution of reinforcement,
thus limiting the presence of the glass bers in the zones of the
part which are subjected to higher loads [17]. This involves a
reduction of the weight of the components, and of the costs associated with production, compared to an uniformly distributed reinforcement. Despite the signicant increase of the stiffness of the
material, the reinforcement is effective only if high matrix/reinforcement adhesion occurs.
The aim of this work is the production of LLDPE prototypes,
reinforced with thermoplastic matrix pultruded proles, by rotational molding. Initially, the adhesion between LLDPE and different

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A. Greco et al. / Composites: Part B 56 (2014) 157162

pultruded proles was analyzed. Then, box shaped prototypes

were built by rotational molding, using HDPE matrix pultruded
tapes as reinforcement. The improvement of mechanical properties
showed the potential of the developed approach for the production
of continuous ber reinforced LLDPE parts by rotational molding.

2. Materials and methods

The materials used are a linear low density polyethylene
(LLDPE), Clearex RM 50 by Polimeri Europa (Italy), characterized
by a density equal to 0.936 g/cm3 and a melt ow index equal to
4.2 (measured by ASTM D1238). The melting peak temperature,
as measured by DCS analysis, is about 129 C.
Different pultruded proles were used for the characterization
of adhesion properties to LLDPE and production of rotational molding prototypes:
Thermosetting matrix pultruded rods with circular cross section
(kindly supplied by Polystal Composites, Germany) characterized
by a nominal diameter of 3 mm, a tensile modulus of 50 GPa,
composed of about 85% by weight of glass bers and 15% vinyl
ester matrix. A picture of the rods is reported in Fig. 1. Besides
longitudinal bers, the Polystal rods are also characterized by the
presence of helicoidally winded bers, which are expected to
improve the adhesion to LLDPE.
Thermoplastic matrix pultruded rods with circular cross section, kindly provided by Jonam Composites (United Kingdom),
characterized by a polypropylene (PP) matrix. The rods have a
diameter of 6 mm, and a ber weight fraction equal to 0.5 (corresponding to 0.25 by volume). PP matrix rods are actually made of
dry glass bundles surrounded by the PP matrix. The measured tensile modulus of pultruded rods is about 6 GPa and the strength is
about 120 MPa.
Thermoplastic matrix pultruded tapes, with rectangular cross
section (0.2  10 mm), supplied by Phoenixx TPC inc (USA). They
are characterized by the presence of a high density polyethylene
matrix (melting temperature of 127.5 C), a glass ber weight fraction equal to 0.5 (corresponding to 0.25 volume fraction). The measured tensile modulus of the pultruded tapes is equal to 12.4 GPa
and the tensile strength is equal to 280 MPa. The higher modulus
and strength of the HDPE matrix tapes compared to the PP matrix
rods can be explained by the good impregnation of bers observed
in the former case, as evidenced by the SEM images of pultruded
tapes, reported in Fig. 2.
The adhesion strength of pultruded rods to LLDPE matrix was
measured by means of pullout tests. Samples were obtained by a
double stage compression molding process, using a Campana hot

Fig. 1. Microscopy of thermoset matrix pultruded rod.

Fig. 2. Microscopy of HDPE matrix pultruded tape.

press. At rst, 20  40  6 mm samples of LLDPE were obtained

by compression molding under 200 bar and plate temperature of
30 C, after preheating the material at 180 C. Then, the LLDPE plate
was divided in two parts. The rods were enclosed between the two
LLDPE plates and compression molded at 200 bar and plate temperature of 30 C. Rectangular specimen 20  20  12 mm were
obtained. Samples with thermoset matrix rods were obtained after
preheating at 170 C, whereas samples with polypropylene matrix
rods were obtained after preheating at different temperatures,
ranging between 150 and 170 C. In facts, in the case of thermoset
matrix rods, the temperature of the process is expected to be of little relevance, while in the case of the thermoplastic matrix rods,
the processing temperature is expected to have a signicant inuence. Pull-out tests were performed on a Lloyd instruments, series
LR5K, according to ASTM D1871-98 standard, using the mentioned
rectangular specimens. Each specimen has a single reinforcing rod,
which protrudes 30 mm from the cross section area of the plastic
mass. The crosshead speed was 50 mm/min.
Polyethylene prototypes were built by using a two axes lab
scale rotational molding machine designed and produced by Salentec srl (Italy). A box-shaped mold was used to fabricate samples
characterized by an edge length equal to 148 mm. HDPE matrix
pultruded tapes were used for the reinforcement of LLDPE prototypes. The tapes were bonded at the inner surface of the aluminum
mold by means of silicon adhesive. One single tape was placed on
each of the six square faces of the mold. Then, a standard rotational
molding cycle was run using LLDPE powders, setting the oven temperature at 280 C, and the rotation speed of the primary and the
secondary axes at 6.1 rpm and 1.6 rpm respectively. The mold
was held inside the oven for 25 min, after which it was cooled by
forced convection in air for about 30 min. A picture of a prototype,
including a tape on each face, is reported in Fig. 3a. The prototype
is characterized by an average wall thickness equal to
4.2 0.05 mm. A scheme of the side view of each face of the prototype is reported in Fig. 3b.
The mechanical properties of samples extracted from rotomolded prototypes were measured by LLOYD LR 5K dynamometer.
For characterization purposes, beams were extracted, according
to the scheme of Fig. 3b, in correspondence of the red1line, and are
therefore composed of a stack of LLDPE (about 4 mm thick) and pultruded strip (about 0.2 mm thick), characterized by a width of
10 mm. Beams were characterized by means of exural tests, double
lap shear tests and short beam tests.
Beam exural tests were performed using a length to thickness
ratio equal to 16 and a crosshead speed of 2 mm/min.

1
For interpretation of color in Fig. 3, the reader is referred to the web version of
this article.

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A. Greco et al. / Composites: Part B 56 (2014) 157162

4.2 mm

LLDPE
0.2 mm

Pultruded tape

(a)

(b)

Fig. 3. (a) Photography of reinforced prototype processed by rotational molding and (b) scheme of the side view of each face of the prototype.

Double lap shear tests were used for evaluation of the average
adhesion strength between LLDPE and pultruded tapes, by measuring the maximum force during the tests:

sA

F max

bh

threaded nut
polyethylene

1
Flange disk

where b is the width of the samples and h is the distance between

the two laps.
Short beam tests were performed according to ASTM D 2344
with a span to thickness ratio equal to 4 and a crosshead speed
equal to 0.5 mm/min.
Plate bending tests were also performed on the faces extracted
from the rotomolded prototypes. Sheets 100  100 mm wide,
which, due to the high edge to thickness ratio, can be approximated as thin plates, were simply supported on their perimeter,
and loaded with a square punch (16 mm edge) in their center. In
reinforced samples, the tape was placed at the extrados. With reference to Fig. 4, being a = b = 90 mm (edge of the plate),
x1 = y1 = 37 mm, x2 = y2 = 53 mm (edges of the loading punch), the
deection at a generic point x, y on the plate is given as:
v

Cylindrical duct
for water inlet

2
3

npy 
mpx
4
F
mpn1
mpn2 
npg1
mpg2 7
6XX sen a sen b
cos
 cos
 cos
4
5

2 cos
6
p B x2  x1 y2  y1 m n mn m2 n2
a
a
b
b
a2
b2
2

where B is the exural stiffness of the sheet.

Finally, the box-shaped prototypes were pressurized by an
hydraulic system up to 10 bar. In absence of water leakages, the
volume change of the prototype was assumed to be equal to the
total volume of water injected inside the prototype. In order to perform these tests, the prototype was produced by insertion of a connecting device, according to the sketch of Fig. 5. The connection
device is made of a cylindrical duct for water inlet and a ange
disk, which is xed on the surface of the mold at the beginning
of the rotational molding process. After processing, the disk
remains included in the rotomolded sample wall. The cylindrical

Fig. 5. Scheme of the connection device for pressurization tests.

part is threaded on its outer surface in order to tighten the LLDPE

wall on the disk with a nut.
3. Results and discussion
A typical force displacement curve obtained by pullout tests of
pultruded rods is reported in Fig. 6. In the initial stage of pullout
test, the stress is elastically transferred from the rod to the polyethylene [18]. The peak in the initial part of the curve corresponds
to the break of the adhesive bond between rod and polymer, which
takes place when the interfacial shear stress reaches the adhesion
strength, ss. As the rod is further pulled out, the load gradually decreases with the reduction of the contact area between the two
components. The measured load at this stage is mainly due to
the friction stress acting between rod and polymer.
The values of ss can be calculated from Fig. 6. Assuming a uniform shear stress along the length of rod, the adhesion strength
can be obtained from the maximum force Fmax attained during
the test:

ss

F max

pDL0

where D is the rod diameter and L0 is the contact length between

rod and polymer. The adhesion strength calculated by Eq. (3) and

b
25

FMAX

y2

a
y1

force (N)

20
15
10
5
0
0

x1

x2

Fig. 4. Scheme of the sample geometry and loading device for plate bending tests.

displacement (mm)
Fig. 6. Forcedisplacement curve from pull-out tests.

A. Greco et al. / Composites: Part B 56 (2014) 157162

8
>
yG;PUL - tLLDPE
>
2
>
>
>
tPUL
>
y

>
G;LLDPE
2
>
>
>
t PUL t LLDPE
>
>
yNA 1 2- n tLLDPE
>
ntPUL
>
<
h 3
i
bt LLDPE
ILLDPE 12 ALLDPE yG;LLDPE - yNA 2
>
>
>
h 3
i
>
>
btPUL
>
APUL yG;PUL - yNA 2
IPUL 12
>
>
>
>
X
>
>
>
>
: K Ei Ii EPUL IPUL ELLDPE ILLDPE

where yG is the position of the baricenter across the thickness of

each layer, I the moment of inertia, t the thickness, and A the area,
and the pedices LLDPE and PUL refer to LLDPE and pultruded tape.
Further, yNA is the neutral axis position across the thickness, n is
the ratio between the moduli of pultruded tape and LLDPE, and K
is the total exural stiffness of the beam.

Table 1
Adhesion and friction stresses for thermoset and thermoplastic pultruded rods. In
parentheses the pre-heating temperature.
Rod

ss (MPa)

Poystal (170 C)
Jonam (150 C)
Jonam (160 C)
Jonam (170 C)

0.36 0.16
1.90 0.68
2.52 0.42
2.40 0.39

750

double lap shear test

600

force (N)

reported in Table 1, indicates that the thermoset matrix rods are

characterized by a lower adhesion strength compared to PP matrix
rods. The adhesion strength of the latter increases when the preheating temperature is increased from 150 to 160 C whereas no
relevant difference can be observed heating up to 170 C. This result
highlights that full melting of the PP matrix of the rod, occurring
only above 160 C, is capable to promote a proper adhesion with
LLDPE.
A typical force-displacement curve from double lap shear tests
is reported in Fig. 7. The adhesion strength between LLDPE and
HDPE matrix tape, calculated from the maximum force according
to Eq. (1), is 8.4 0.21 MPa. This value is very high, and of the same
order of magnitude of the interlaminar shear strength measured
for all high density polyethylene composites processed by
compression molding [19], despite the fact that that the composite
processed by rotational molding is obtained by a virtually zeropressure process. HDPE matrix tapes are characterized by a much
higher adhesion with LLDPE than PP or thermosetting matrix rods
(Table 1).
Even if thermoset matrix rods are characterized by a higher
modulus, and therefore by a higher stiffening potential, debonding
at LLDPE/rod interface can be responsible of a loss of the stiffening
effect and eventually of yielding of reinforced plates. In contrast,
though being characterized by lower modulus, and therefore by a
lower stiffening efciency, the HDPE matrix tapes are likely to preserve their stiffening effect even at high values of the applied
stress, due their higher adhesion to LLDPE. Therefore pultruded
tapes were used for the reinforcement of LLDPE processed by rotational molding.
A comparison between exural stressstrain curves of unreinforced and reinforced beams extracted from rotational molded prototypes is reported in Fig. 8. Addition of the HDPE matrix tape
involves an increase of the equivalent modulus of the material,
from 0.6 0.02 GPa, which is the value of LLDPE, up to
1.2 0.14 GPa.
In a previous work [15] it was shown that the exural stiffness
of double wall composites can be efciently represented by the following set of equations:

450
300
150
0
0.0

0.3

0.6

0.9

1.2

1.5

displacement (mm)
Fig. 7. Forcedisplacement curve from double lap shear tests.

12
10

stress (MPa)

160

not reinforced
reinforced

8
6
4
2
0
0.000

0.005

0.010

0.015

strain (mm/mm)
Fig. 8. Stressstrain curves from exural tests on beams extracted from rotational
molding prototypes.

Therefore, it is possible to obtain the equivalent modulus of the

material as:

EEQ

K
t PUL 3
b tLLDPE12

Combining Eqs. (4) and (5) with the geometric characteristic of

the beam extracted from rotational molded prototypes (b = 10 mm,
tPUL = 0.2 mm, tLLDPE = 4.0 mm, EPUL = 12 GPa, and ELLDPE = 0.6 GPa),
an equivalent exural modulus EEQ = 1.28 GPa was obtained, which
is value in very good agreement with the experimental value.
Short beam tests performed on samples extracted from rotational molded prototypes did not show any deboning at the interface between LLDPE and pultruded tape. On the other hand,
tension break of the pultruded tape was observed for a load value
of about 600 N. In such case, the interlaminar shear stress between
LLDPE and pultruded tape can be evaluated to be [15]:

1
b

s Sx;LLDPE

ELLDPE F
2K

where Sx,LLDPE is the static moment of the LLDPE area with respect to the neutral axis, F is the applied force, and K is given by
Eq. (4). Combining the geometric characteristic of the beam, for
an applied force of 600 N, which is the maximum force attained
during short beam tests, it is possible to estimate an interlaminar
shear stress equal to 6.4 MPa, in correspondence of tension failure.
This value is lower than the adhesion strength measured by double
lap shear tests, and explains the absence of any delamination during short beam shear test. It is worth observing that, in the case
that PP or thermoset matrix rods were used, the interlaminar shear
stress would exceed the adhesion stress measured by pullout tests
(Table 1), causing delamination.
The force displacement curve during plate bending tests on
sheets extracted from rotational molded prototypes are reported
in Fig. 9. From the slope of the force displacement curve, by

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A. Greco et al. / Composites: Part B 56 (2014) 157162

(a) Addition of glass spheres to LLDPE.

(b) Increase of the thickness of the prototype.
The rst approach can be studied by assuming an elastic modulus of 72 GPa for glass and 0.6 GPa for LLDPE. Therefore, the volume fraction of the reinforcing phase required to attain the same
stiffness of the plate can be calculated by coupling the HalpinTsai
model for isotropic material [20] (with an aspect ratio of particles
equal to 1) with the expression of the plate bending stiffness, valid
for homogeneous materials:

Es3
121  m2

For the three different simulated values (one single tape, two
tapes parallel to square edges, and two tapes on the square diagonal) the corresponding values of the glass spheres volume fraction
needed to reach the same stiffness, B, is reported in Table 2.
Assuming a LLDPE density of 935 kg/m3 and a glass density of
2540 kg/m3, the corresponding weight increase was obtained.

not reinforced
reinforced

force (N)

400
300
200
100
0
0

displacement (mm)
Fig. 9. Force displacement curves from plate bending tests on sheets extracted from
rotational molding prototypes.

1000

not reinforced
reinforced

volume change (cm )

inversion of Eq. (2), a exural stiffness of 3.96 0.15 Nm can be calculated for neat LLDPE plates. On the other hand, the exural stiffness for the reinforced plates was calculated as 5 0.15 Nm.
Therefore, a stiffening ratio SR = 1.26 was obtained.
The results of pressurization tests are reported in Fig. 10. Even
in this case, the higher stiffness of reinforced prototype is highlighted by the lower volume increase. The stiffening ratio (obtained
as the ratio between the volume increase measured using neat
LLDPE and reinforced LLDPE boxes) is 1.25, very close to the value
obtained by plate bending tests.
The structural mechanics problem of a reinforced plate
subjected to an uniformly applied pressure, was solved by nite
element (FEM) software (FlexPDE). For the same lay-up of the
reinforcement used for the production of the prototypes, comprising one single tape parallel to edges, a stiffness ratio between
reinforced and unreinforced plates of 1.22 was calculated. Nevertheless, it must be highlighted that more than one reinforcing
tape can be used at different positions. For example, by placing
two tapes parallel to the square edges, a stiffness equal to
5.3 Nm was estimated by FEM simulation. Two tapes placed on
the diagonals of the square face of the rotomolded box yielded
a stiffness of 5.8 Nm. Therefore, the use of two tapes in different
positions could lead to a stiffness ratio of 1.32 and 1.53,
respectively.
Such increase of the stiffness of the plate can be obtained by
adding a very low amount of glass bers (about 0.3% by volume
for one single tape, 0.6% for two tapes), with a negligible increase
of the weight of the component (0.5% and 1% respectively).
For comparison purposes, other approaches aimed to increase
the stiffness of the rotomolded box are analyzed:

800
600
400
200
0
0

10

pressure (bar)
Fig. 10. Volume change vs pressure from water pressurization tests.

Table 2
Comparison between different approaches for stiffening of rotational molded LLDPE.

One tape
Two tapes
parallel to
edges
Two tapes on
the diagonal

Pultruded tape
reinforcement

Glass spheres
reinforcement

Thickness
increase

SR

Weight increase
(%)

Vf

Weight
increase
(%)

Weight
increase
(%)

1.23
1.31

0.5
1

0.1
0.14

17
24

7
9.5

1.46

0.21

36

15

The values reported in Table 2 are much higher than those obtained by using pultruded tapes.
Following the second approach, the thickness of the prototype
should be increased by a factor of SR1/3, as reported in Table 2. In
this case, the weight increase would be almost equal to the thickness increase. Even in this case the weight increase, though lower
than the weight increase estimated for glass spheres reinforcement, is much higher than that calculated for the pultruded tapes
reinforcement.
Besides the increase of the weight of the components, both the
alternatives are characterized by severe processing limitations in
rotational molding. The drawbacks of adding glass spheres were already discussed in the introduction section. Instead, the increase of
wall thickness causes higher temperature gradients across wall
thickness [21], which in turn involves more severe degradation
phenomena on the outer surface of the part, in direct contact with
the mold.
4. Conclusions
A new design and processing route was developed for the production of reinforced LLDPE components processed by rotational
molding. A preliminary evaluation of the adhesion properties of
different types of pultruded proles to LLDPE was performed. Despite their lower modulus compared to thermosetting matrix proles, thermoplastic matrix proles are characterized by a higher
adhesion to LLDPE. Further, HDPE matrix tapes were characterized
by an improved adhesion to LLDPE compared to PP matrix rods.
Debonding was not observed between LLDPE and HDPE matrix
tapes even during short beam tests. As a consequence, HDPE matrix tapes were used for the reinforcement of LLDPE prototypes
processed by rotational molding. To this purpose, HDPE matrix
tapes were fastened on the inner surface of the mold, before running a standard rotational molding cycle. During processing, melting of LLDPE powders and of HDPE matrix is responsible of the
incorporation of the tape in the component walls.

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A. Greco et al. / Composites: Part B 56 (2014) 157162

Plate bending tests performed on the faces of prototypes

showed that the incorporation of HDPE matrix tapes into LLDPE
is responsible of a signicant increase of the stiffness, even for very
low amount of glass bers. A similar stiffness increase was obtained by pressurization of the box-shaped prototypes. In both
cases, it was shown that incorporation of a single tape leads to
an increase of the stiffness of about 25%, in good agreement with
FEM simulation. Finally, FEM analysis was used for the optimization of the layout of pultruded tapes on the surface of the boxshaped prototypes. A comparison of different materials choices
leading to the same stiffening effect was also proposed, showing
the potential of the developed approach for selective reinforcement of rotomolded parts.

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

Acknowledgements
Mr. Francesco Montagna is acknowledged for the support to
experimental activity, and Dr. Andrea Salomi for his useful
suggestions.
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