In the present study, polymeric epoxy and polyester resin reinforced with glass fiber compounds were prepared by adding of flame retardants based on aluminum and magnesium hydroxide in order to evaluate their influence on mechanical properties. An experimental DOE design was developed with two qualitative factors: the resin and retardant type; with two levels each and a quantitative factor: volumetric composition of the retardant with three levels (3%, 6% and 9%). With all possible combinations; tensile, flexural and impact tests were carried out. The results showed that the addition of retardants in different percentages has different influence for each mechanical property. It was evidenced that the 9% HA Aluminum Hydroxide has no significant effect on the tensile strength and its modulus compared to Magnesium Hydroxide HM. Conversely; on the flexural strength, flexural modulus and rupture energy the HM has a slightly lower effect with respect to the HA. For flexural strength and its modulus, the best proportion of retardant was 6%. 3% is the recommendation for rupture energy. The data presented in this document can be used to improve the fire resistance of the existing materials studied.

Nowadays, the fire behavior of polymer composite materials is a concern in automotive applications. Due to the flammability of this type of compounds, the present study focused on analyzing the influence of the flame retardants of aluminum hydroxide and magnesium hydroxide on the flammability index. A DOE was carried out using a complete factorial design using two categorical variables (type of resin and type of retardant at two levels) and one quantitative variable (volumetric percentage of the retarder for 3 levels). Twelve combinations of composite material were manually conformed maintaining the general volumetric fraction (30% reinforcement, 70% polymer matrix). Percentages of retardants (3.6 and 9%) were part of the volumetric composition of the matrix. The performance and evaluation of the flammability test was carried out under ISO 3795: 1989 and FMVSS 302. In addition, the average temperature inside the test chamber was measured to observe its behavior during combustion. The results showed that the flammability index was significantly reduced with the use of polyester resin with retarder aluminum hydroxide at any percentage and the highest temperature inside the chamber was produced by the combustion of the epoxy resin with 9% retardant of flame.