Recent innovative results on natural fibre composites

A. VÁZQUEZ, A. STOCCHI AND C. BERNAL

Roma, Italia

Conferencia; Conference on Innovative Natural Fibre Composites for Industrial Applications; 2007

A novel fibre treatment consisting on an alkali treatment superimposed to biaxial tensile stress was applied to woven jute fabric/vinylester laminates. The effect of the treatment on the mechanical properties of the laminates was investigated and the influence of the time of treatment was also studied. Also a treatment without any water o solvent in the procedure was used and the comparison between traditional fibre treatments (i.e., alkaline and acetylation) and the present one was done. The use of resin transfer moulding technique for the case of natural fibre permit us to obtain a novel material without of void. The discussion of the technique was done. Natural fibre composites were obtained by vacuum infusion using untreated and alkali-treated jute fabrics.  The effect of the treatment on the mechanical properties of the fibres, the processing conditions (injection times, flow pattern, perform impregnation) and the mechanical properties of the composites was studied.  Although many studies about chemical treatments of natural fibres can be found in the scientific literature, there is very few research in which its influence on the whole obtaining process (fibre and matrix, processing and final product) was analyzed