The photochemical surface modification of a silicone-based thermosetting hard protective film was achieved by using an excimer lamp with wavelength of 172nm. As the result of Taber abrasion test, ΔHaze value was 1.3%, almost the same as a generally used glass. Surface hardness measured by nanoindentation was more than 2 GPa, showing a great improvement with respect to 0.7 GPa of the original hard-coat. It was revealed that the SiO₂ layer was dominantly formed on the surface of the hard-coat layer, by using fourier transform spectroscopy and photoelectron spectroscopy.

Until now, the glass-inserted heating cylinder for visually analyzing the plasticization process has not been applied to glass fiber reinforced resins, because of such possible obstacles as (1) opacification of melts, (2) abrasion on the inner surface of glass windows, and (3) breakage of glass windows under high pressures, etc. In this study, the authors attempted the visualization of the plasticization process up to the screw rotation speed of 150 rpm for the first time using short glass fiber reinforced PP (GFPP), and succeeded in visually and quantitatively analyzing the generation processes of the solid bed (SB) and melt pool (MP), and solid-bed break-up (BUP) phenomena in the feed, compression, and metering zones, respectively. These results for the first time demonstrate the possibility of the visualization analysis of the plasticization process even for glass fiber reinforced resins. The main conclusions obtained from this study are as follows.

(1) The plasticization process varied greatly by changing the compression ratio of the full flight screw. When the compression ratio was 1.8, the starve feed state occurred, but at the compression ratios of 2.2 and 2.75, pellets filled into the channels during the solid conveying process to form the SB. When the rotation speed was high, the SB interfered with metal walls and BUP was intensely generated in the compression zone. Furthermore, BUP generation became particularly conspicuous at the compression ratio of 2.75, causing the plasticization process to become unstable.

(2) The melting process of GFPP was uniformly more promoted compared to PP. As a result, it was confirmed that leakage flow occurred at an early stage of solid conveying, and the melting resin crossed over the pushing screw-flight and accumulated in the start region of the adjacent trailing flight.

(3) The plasticization process model of GFPP unexpectedly showed no significant difference from PP, due to the similarity of the pellet shape and internal distribution of short fibers. It was concretely demonstrated that the melting model shifts from Maddock-Tadmor's model to Dekker-Lindt's model accompanying the BUP phenomenon of the SB.