Natural fibre composites for injection moulding

Abstract

Natural Fibre Composites are the hybrid materials made of a polymer resin reinforced by fibres. This combination provides high mechanical and physical properties to the compo-sites. This thesis studies the possibility of producing dog-bone pieces in injection mould-ing machine using natural fibre composites as raw material and also optimizing the process parameters. In this thesis study, the drying time and cost variation between natural fibre composites and general thermoplastics are discussed. Furthermore, the tensile testing of those dog-bone pieces is done for the comparative analysis of strength between natural fibre composites and thermoplastics. Injection moulding machine is used for the production of dog-bone pieces whereas testometric machine is used to analyse the tensile strength and E-modulus of the produced pieces. The author concludes that even though the natural fibre composites are more expensive than thermoplastic polymers, they possess better ability to withstand higher stress than those thermoplastics. The fact that their environmental friendly nature and ease of production should be considered as possible replacement for thermoplastics.