The use of chicken feather wastes as filler for production of composites boards: Effect of filler loadings

摘要

The number of chicken broiler production in Yogyakarta city reaches more than 1 million head per year and always increase from year to year due to increasing the demand for chicken meat. This produces chicken feather waste approximately 120 tons per year. Usually, this large chicken feather wastes are handled by burning or buried underground, and only a small portion used as a mixture of animal feed or for handicraft products. Chicken feathers have considerable potential to be used as filler for the composites. It is because chicken feather has good physical and mechanical properties. In the current study, chicken feather waste was used as filler for epoxy resin composites. The waste was obtained from local chicken slaughtering house in Yogyakarta city. Chicken feather waste at different concentrations, i.e. 100, 150, and 200 grams were well blended with 100 mL of epoxy resin. In order to make board samples, the mixture was put into a mold and pressed using hot-press machine at pressure of 100 bar and temperature of 50°C for about 20 minutes. The resulted composites were tested for their mechanical properties. The test results showed that the tensile properties of the composites were 1.9, 1.8, and 1.6 kg/cm~2 for feather filler at 100; 150; and 200 gram, respectively. Whereas, the compressive test results of the composites were 23, 19, and 17 kg/cm~2 for feather filler at 100; 150; and 200 gram, respectively. These mechanical properties results showed that board composites made of chicken feather waste-epoxy resin have potential to be commercially used.