Acrylic resins reinforced with woven highly drawn linear polyethylene fibres. 3. Mechanical properties and further aspects of denture construction.

Previous work has established the feasibility of producing acrylic denture bases reinforced with layers of highly drawn linear polyethylene fibres in a woven form. This paper reports on the mechanical properties of the system, including the effect of water conditioning. It is confirmed that substantial improvements in impact strength can be obtained by the incorporation of the polyethylene fibres in woven form. The fibre/resin integration within the dentures has also been studied by optical microscopy. It was found that delamination may occur during some processing stages and steps are suggested to avoid this problem.