Observation and understanding of scratch behaviors of glass fiber reinforced polycarbonate plates with various packing pressures during the injection molding process

In this paper, the scratch resistance of injection molded, glass fiber reinforced polycarbonate (PC), constructed with different packing pressures and fiber compositions, was evaluated using the progressive normal load scratch test. The quantitative evaluation of scratch resistance of the samples was based on the onset of visibility and morphological transition points of the scratch for two fiber orientations and various scratch speeds. This study reveals that glass fiber reinforcement exerts a beneficial influence on scratch visibility; however, it has an adverse effect on morphological damage. Anisotropy and heterogeneity of glass fiber reinforced PC also plays a role in scratch resistance. The relationship between the onset of scratch visibility and damage transition points is also discussed.