Flax Fiber as Reinforcement in Recycled Tire Rubber and Thermoplastics Composite

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Flax Fiber as Reinforcement in Recycled Tire
Rubber and Thermoplastics Composite
Paper No. CSBE08-191

• Jimmy Fung and Satya Panigrahi
• Agricultural Bioresource Engineering Dept.
• University of Saskatchewan
• CSBE/SCGAB 2008 Annual Conference
• Vancouver, British Columbia
• July 13 - 16, 2008

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Outline

• Introduction
• Objectives
• Materials
• Experimental Method
• Results Discussions
• Conclusion

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Introduction

• Natural fibers have been used as the
  reinforcement in plastic industry
• Advantages with natural fiber lower density,
  lower processing temperature, non-abrasive
  nature, renewable and relatively cheaper in cost
• Scrap rubber non-degradable, e.g. wasted carpet
  rubber underlay, industrial wasted rubber and
  wasted tires
• Serious solid waste disposal and hazard
  environmental problem

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Introduction (cont)

• Developing new and innovative materials utilizing
  agricultural residue and recycled polymer
• Reduction of CO2
• Add crops economic value
• Recycling

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Objectives

• Investigate a viable biocomposite material from
  the flax fiber/shive, recycled tire rubber and
  thermoplastics
• Develop the extrusion and compression molding
  process on this composite material

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Materials

• Saskatchewan-grown oilseed flax fiber
• Contains 80 fiber, 20 shives
• Without any treatment
• Thermal degradation temperature
• Cellulose 300ºC
• Hemicellulose 220 to 280ºC
• Lignin 280 to 300ºC

Decorticated Flax Fiber
Oilseed Flax Field
Retted Flax Bale
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Materials (cont)

• Recycled ground tire rubber (GTR)
• Size about 0.4 mm, density 1226 kg/m3
• Linear Low Density Polyethylene (LLDPE)
• Melting temperature is at 127 oC and
  crystallization temperature is 112.7 oC
• Lubricant
• Improve the process smoothness

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Experimental Method
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Composite Preparation

• Flax fiber size used through 2 mm screen
• Mix the materials in different composition ratio
• Blend the mixture with mixer

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Processing Procedure

• Extrusion
• Single-screw extruder
• Cross-linked rubber can be broken under high
  shear stress and high temperature
• Fiber mixed into the polymer
• Max temperature used 200C
• Compression Molding
• Heated press into 20 cm x 20 cm square shape
  sample
• Heating temperature 150C

Extruder
Heated press
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Material Properties Tests

• Tearing test ASTM D624-00
• Tensile test ASTM D412-98a
• Water absorption test ASTM D570-98
• Durometer hardness test ASTM D2240-02b

Dumbbell tensile test specimens
Instron testing machine
Type C tearing test specimen
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Results Discussions
Tearing test results of the biocomposites
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Results Discussions (cont)
Tensile test results (in yield stress) of the
biocomposites
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Results Discussions (cont)
Tensile test results (in Youngs modulus) of the
biocomposites
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Results Discussions (cont)
Water Absorption test results of the
biocomposites
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Results Discussions (cont)
Hardness test results of the biocomposites
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Conclusion

• Composite can be done through the extrusion and
  compression molding processes
• Flax fiber has been successfully demonstrated as
  the reinforcement in the biocomposite
• Tensile yield strength and stiffness of GTR -
  LLDPE composite are improved with adding flax
  fiber content
• Higher LLDPE content exhibited higher tensile
  strength, better stiffness, improved tear
  strength, less water absorption and harder

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Acknowledgements

• Saskatchewan Agriculture Research Chair Program
  in Engineering.
• NSERC
• Biofibre Industries Ltd.
• SaskBet Inc
• Department of Agriculture and Bioresource
  Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan

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References

• Fukumori, K. and M. Matsushita. 2003. Material
  Recycling Technology of Crosslinked Rubber Waste
  Review. RD Review of Toyota CRDL. Vol. 38
  No. 1. Science Links Japan. Available at
  http//sciencelinks.jp/j-east/journal/R/ G0820B/
  2003.php (Accessed 29 September 2007)
• Mohanty, A.K., M. Misra and L.T. Drzal. 2001.
  Surface modifications of natural fibers and
  performance of the resulting biocomposites An
  overview. Composite Interfaces. Vol. 8
  313-343.
• Saheb, N.D. and J.P. Jog. 1999. Natural fiber
  polymer composites A review. In Advance in
  Polymer Technology. Vol. 18, No. 4, 351-363.
• Van de Velde, K. and P. Kiekens. 2002. Thermal
  degradation of flax the determination of kinetic
  parameters with thermogravimetric analysis.
  Journal of Applied Polymer Science. Vol. 3
  2634-2643.

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