Fiber reinforced plastic (FRP) composite materials offer numerous advantages compared to traditional materials, like very low density, very high strength-to-weight ratio, higher fatigue resistance and better corrosion resistance. Nevertheless, their utilization in the automotive sector has been limited mainly in the design of race, high performance or luxury cars. In fact, despite their great advantages, employing FRP materials in vehicles components is more expensive than utilizing common materials like steels and it is not economically feasible for mass productions. Therefore, a fundamental aspect for increasing the utilization of FRP in the automotive sector is the reduction of the cost of raw materials and manufacturing processes. Another important aspect in the modern engineering is the possibility of recycling the materials. Nowadays, most of the FRP composites produced make use of thermosetting resins matrices that cannot be recycled. The objective of the thesis was investigating the use of an innovative thermoplastic resin for manufacturing glass fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP) panels through the vacuum assisted resin transfer molding (VARTM) process....
