Abstract:
A range of blends of polypropylene-polyethylene are investigated for their mechanical performances. These speciality
polymer blends are chemically designed to suit high modulus/high load bearing mining wire rope applications subjected
to continued bending and tensile stresses and fluctuating loads and are exposed to extreme weather conditions. In this
paper we study the influence of different parameters on the performance of the wire ropes: chemistry of polymer, crystallinity
of the polymer matrix, and the morphology. The FTIR and SEM studies revealed that the high fraction of polypropylene
in polypropylene-polyethylene matrix lead to early failure as a result of incompatibility and phase segregation
and high spherulite sizes of the polymer matrix.
