Dyneema

General Composites Discussions Products Talk
#1

Dyneema®, the world’s strongest fiber™

Dyneema® is a superstrong polyethylene fiber produced using a patented gel spinning process. This remarkable fiber is up to 15 times stronger than steel and, weight-for-weight, is 40% stronger than competing aramid fibers. It has high energy absorption and low elongation. Dyneema® floats on water, and is extremely resistant to abrasion, moisture, UV rays and chemicals. As a result, it has an almost unlimited range of applications, providing maximum strength and security for minimum weight.

http://www.dsm.com/en_US/html/hpf/products.htm

#2

its not as good as it sounds. Although it is light for the strength, it is dufficult to wet out and melts at a super low temp. If you put a lighter up to the fabric, it will melt like any plastic.

#3

Most, if not at all, resins will not stick to PE (HD or LD), PP and such plastics.

#4

As far as my experience, the fabric will absorb the resin and works the same way as glass, turning clear once saturated. I made a small epoxy test piece but was really not impressed with the finished qualities other than the weight.

#5

I’ve never used it in woven “cloth” form, only as a string, it’s strong as heck for that application. Good compound hunting bows are strung with Dyneema. Makes an awesome fishing line too, very light and can be made super thin and high test yield.

#6

And, if anything like SpectraShield (which is the same material, different company, UHMWPE), is a bitch to work with. I have yet to see where one can get woven material. It’s a thermoplastic, so yeah, low melting temp, but the processing temp is at 255f, which is pretty high anyways. Many standard VERs and epoxies don’t like getting that high.

Still, it is nice to have a bulletproof panel attached to my front door…you never know :slight_smile: