Application of Continuous Natural Fiber Reinforced Biodegradable Resin Composites for Structural Member

摘要

Continuous natural fiber reinforced thermoplastics are expected to replace inorganic fiber reinforced thermosetting plastics. However, natural fiber itself has low strength and in the process of fabricating the composites, it is difficult to impregnate the thermoplastic resin into reinforcement fiber because of the high viscosity. In our previous studies, it has been clarified that a natural spun yarn had high strength. Moreover, intermediate material, which allows highly impregnation during molding, can be obtained for fabricating continuous fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites by aligning resin fiber alongside reinforcing fiber with braiding technique. This intermediate material has been called "Micro-braided yarn (MBY)". Moreover, the MBY could be applied for pultrusion method. In this study, all-biobased MBY was fabricated by using PLA fiber as thermoplastic biodegradable resin and Jute spun yarn as reinforcement. By using the MBY, pulltrusion product was fabricated, and the relationship between the mechanical properties and molding condition was investigated.