Impact of foaming on electrical conductivity and fiber orientation of coc/carbon fiber composites in injection molding

This paper investigates the impact of foaming on the electrical conductivity and fiber orientation of a carbon filled cyclic olefin copolymer in injection molding. Results show that foaming can lead to significant improvement of electrical conductivity in the out-of-plane direction. Due to the preferred in-plane fiber orientation during mold filling, the growth of a bubble adjacent to a carbon fiber would re-orient the fiber in the out-of-plane direction.