Fabrication Process Optimization of Hemp Fibre Reinforced Polypropylene Composites

摘要

Natural fibre composites combine the advantage of reducing the usage of products from petroleum by using a renewable natural resource, and offering an enhanced structural performance by the addition of natural fibre. Natural fibre composites also feature competitive pricing because of its economical natural components. In this research natural fibre reinforced polypropylene composites are produced using noil hemp fibre from textile industry. A study of the influence of processing parameters, including mixing temperature, mixing time and rotor speed, on mechanical properties (tensile strength, flexural strength and impact strength) of the hemp fibre reinforced composites was carried out. The experimental setting is based on a full-factorial design of experiments. The range of these factors is set as: mixing temperature 165-175°C, mixing time 12-20 min and speed of rotation 30-50 rpm. The results of a factorial analysis show that the mixing temperature has the most evident impact on all three mechanical properties and the flexural strength has lowest sensitivity to all the three experimental conditions. Finally confirmation experiments were conducted under the optimized conditions, resulting in significant high mechanical properties.