New Kraiburg rubber can beef up polymer composites

Waldkraiburg, Germany – Gummiwerk Kraiburg has developed a material comprising “non cross-linked rubber foils”, which can be integrated directly into existing manufacturing processes for polymer composites.

While FRPs offer excellent stability-to-weight ratio, they can be costly and also have limitations in terms of acoustic properties, fragmentation and impact behaviour, according to Kraiburg.

“An essential characteristic of FRP is the high component stability in relation to the weight, which however results in low damping behaviour and poor acoustic properties compared to conventional materials,” said a company release.

To overcome these issues, it added, "Kraibon can be processed like pre-preg, or pre-impregnated composite fibres; in the joint hardening process they produce an excellent bond with fibre-reinforced plastics and with metals."

Direct integration of the new material into composites can improve the acoustic properties of FRP components, enabling structure-borne sound attenuation of up to 20 dB with only very little additional weight, the company added.

And by overcoming inherent weaknesses in FRPs due to fibre orientation, Kraiburg said the material can increase impact resistance by up to 300 percent, while also minimising any tendency for fragmentation.