INJECTION MOLDED NATURAL FIBRE HYBRID COMPOSITES FOR AUTOMOBILE APPLICATIONS - MECHANICAL PROPERTIES AND FLAMMABILITY

摘要

Recently, demand for natural fibre reinforced composites in the automobile industry has been increasing rapidly because of their wide acceptance for making lightweight, eco-efficient and cost effective products. Natural fibre - thermoplastic composites have been diversifying their markets in the automotive industry from the cosmetic applications to structural and semi structural interior and exterior applications. The objective of this research work was to develop high performance injection molded natural fiber and natural fiber/glass fiber hybrid composites to meet the current OEM requirements of the automotive products. These hybrid composites are expected to provide the advantages of both natural fibre and the glass filled composites. Mechanical properties such as tensile and flexural strength and moduli of the composites were found to be highly promising and are even higher than that of the engineering plastics like polycarbonates and polycarbonate/ABS resins (greater than a tensile strength of 50 - 60 MPa and flexural modulus of 2300 MPa). One of the major concerns of natural fibre composites is their flammability, because like any other organic materials, polymers and the natural fibres are very sensitive to flame and hence study of the flammability of these composites has become important in order to comply with the safety requirements of the automotive products. Flame resistance of these hybrid composites were also investigated in the present study.