Dessert Completes

Faculty of Arts, Computing, Engineering and Sciences
Improving Mechanical properties of

Bio-composites Materials
ByNuttapol Mungcalachatikul
(Student ID: 19044478)
Supervised by: DR. ABDUL HOQUE
May 2011
The dissertation IS CONFIDENTIAL and circulation should be restricted to those

involved in its assessment only.
A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of Sheffield Hallam

University for the degree of the Master in Advanced Engineering and Management
Sheffield Hallam University
Nuttapol Mungcalachatikul 19044478
PREFACE
This report describes project work carried out in the Faculty of Arts,
Computing, Engineering and Sciences at Sheffield Hallam University
between February and May 2011.
The submission of the report is in accordance with the requirements of the

award of the degree of MSc in Advanced Engineering and Management
under the auspices of the University.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to grateful acknowledge these assistances from all thos e
people who offered me their help. This dissertation would not be finished
without their supports.
First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude toward to my
postgraduate supervisor Dr. Abdul Hoque who encourages me with the
grateful help and support, great advice. He always give me an inspiration and
constructive comments with extremely valuable to bring me throughout the
complicated process of researching and experiment. I am totally appreciated
with my supervisor whose always give me great suggestion that make me
finish dissertation smoothly.
Secondly, my dissertation would not be finished without the support
from the technician, Mr. Mac Jackson who always teaches me and give a
grateful knowledge for the machine that is used in this experiment. He very
kind to supports and helps me to finish the experiment. Moreover, I would like
to thank my friends and people around me who always support me to finish
dissertation.
Finally, I would like to express my soul to my beloved family. They
always give me strong suggestion and support that encourage me to
successful for my postgraduate level at Sheffield Hallam University.
II
ABSTRACT
Bio-composites materials are the renewable and biodegradable
materials with many advantages such as light weight products, eco-friendly,
good in mechanical properties and inexpensive raw materials. The
advantages of bio-composites materials can help the industries to
competition with the competitors. The objective of this research is aimed to
improve the mechanical properties of bio-composites materials. The
materials which are used in this study are chicken feather fiber, human hair
and biodegradable resin. This experiment is divided into 4 samples materials
which are pure biodegradable resin, biodegradable resin contain 5% chicken
feather fiber, biodegradable resin contain 10% chicken feather fiber and
biodegradable resin contain 10% human hair fiber. All sample materials are
tested to compare the mechanical properties by using tensile testing
machine. The machines which are used in this research are extruder,
granulator, compression molding, laser cutting and tensile testing machine.
The result of this experiment is the per cent of elongation at break and tensile
modulus of natural fiber reinforce biodegradable resin is increased in contrast
the value of tensile strength is decreased when adding the chicken feather
fibers but slightly decreased when adding human hair fiber. Moreover, this
report also represents the market opportunities of bio-composites materials in
the current market.
III
CONTENTS
PREFACE
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
II
ABSTRACT
III
CONTENTS
IV
LIST OF FIGURES
VII
LIST OF TABLES
VII
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background
1.2. Statement of project
1.3. Aims & Objectives of this project
1.4. Materials and Machines which are used in this research
1.5. Project Chapter Outline
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATUE REVIEW

2.1. Bio-composite Materials
2.2. Natural fibers
10
2.2.1. Chicken Feather Fiber
10
2.2.2. Human hair
13
2.2.3. Plant fibers
15
2.3. Polymers
21
2.3.1. Polyethylene
21
2.3.2. Poly (lactic acid)
22
2.3.3. Thermoplastic starch
24
2.3.4. Cellulose
25
2.3.5. Polypropylene
26
2.4. Technique & Theory
27
2.4.1. Extruder
27
2.4.2. Granulator
29
2.4.3. Compression
30
2.4.4. Laser cutting
32
2.4.5 Tensile testing
33
IV
2.5. Application of Bio-composites
37
2.5.1 Automotive industry
37
2.5.2 Aerospace industry
39
2.5.3 Consumer industry
40
CHAPTER THREE: EXPERIMENT (METHADOLOGY)

3.1. The purpose of this experiment
42
3.2. Raw materials used for bio-composite material
43
3.2.1 Chicken feather fibers
43
3.2.2 Human hair
44
3.3.3 Biodegradable resin
45
3.3. The ratio of materials in this experiment
47
3.4. Laser cutting
48
3.5. Tensile testing
49
3.5.1. SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy)
49
3.5.2. FTIR
52
3.5.3 Compression molding
54
3.5.4 Laser cutting
57
60
CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS AND CASE STUDIES

4.1. The result of extruder machine
65
4.2. Result of granulating machine
68
4.3. Result of compression molding
71
4.4 Result of laser cutting
74
4.5 Result of tensile testing
77
4.6 Case study: Chicken feather fiber reinforce PLA
80
4.7 Market Opportunities for bio-composites materials
81
CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION

5.1. The quality of bio-composite materials
83
5.2. Marketing
86
5.3. The limitation of methodology
88
5.3.1 Extruder machine
88
5.3.2 Granulator machine
88
88
5.3.4 Laser cutting
89
89
5.3.6 Human error
89
CHAPTER SIX: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

6.1 Conclusion
90
6.2 Recommendation
91
REFERENCES
92
APPENDIX
96
VI
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2.1 (a) Solar power vehicle
Figure 2.1 (b) The kestrel, biocomposite automobile
Figure 2.2 (a) Chicken feather
10
Figure 2.2 (b) Pot made from chicken feather
10
Figure 2.3 The structure of chicken feather
12
Figure 2.4 (a) Flight feather fibers
13
Figure 2.4 (b) down feather fiber
13
Figure 2.5 (a) Schematic of hair fiber structure
15
Figure 2.5 (b) Cross-section of human hair fibers
15
Figure 2.6 The structure of plant cell
16
Figure 2.7 Microfibril structure
17
Figure 2.8 The structure of cellulose Vs hemicelluloses
17
Figure 2.9 Structure of microfibril
19
Figure 2.10 (a) Jute
20
Figure 2.10 (b) kenaf
20
Figure 2.11 Structure of polyethylene
22
Figure 2.12 The chemical structure of PLA
23
Figure 2.13 (a) The structure of starch
24
Figure 2.13 (b) Two mains components of starch
24
Figure 2.14 The structure of cellulose
26
Figure 2.15 The extruder
29
Figure 2.16 The granulating machine
30
Figure 2.17 Method of Compression molding
31
Figure 2.18 Compression molding
31
VII
Figure 2.19 Laser cutter head diagram
33
Figure 2.20 The specimen
34
Figure 2.21 Tensile testers
35
Figure 2.22 Extensometer
35
Figure 2.23 Stress-strain curves for ductile metal
36
Figure 2.23 Floor protection made from banana fiber reinforce composites 38
Figure 2.24 Natural fibers reinforce composites
38
Figure 2.25 B-2 aircraft
40
Figure 2.26 (a) I-phone case
41
Figure 2.26 (b) Tabletop tray
41
Figure 3.1 Chicken feather used for the experiment
44
Figure 3.2 Human hair
45
Figure 3.3 Biodegradable resin
46
Figure 3.4 The variation of sample material
47
Figure 3.5 The flow chart of overall process
49
Figure 3.6 Extruder machine
51
Figure 3.7 Chicken feather fiber and biodegradable resin
51
Figure 3.8 Raw materials are fed to extruder
52
Figure 3.9 Side view of granulating machine
53
Figure 3.10 Top view of granulating machine
53
Figure 3.11 Compression molding machine
55
Figure 3.12 Inside mold
56
Figure 3.13 Size of mold
56
Figure 3.14 Laser cutting machine
57
Figure 3.15 The prototype of specimen edit by computer program
58
Figure 3.16 Corel draw program
58
VII
I
Figure 3.17 Prototype of specimen
59
Figure 3.18 Material cutting templates
59
Figure 3.19 Tensile testing machines
61
Figure 3.20 The upper and lower grips
61
Figure 3.21 Bluehill program
62
Figure 3.22 Setup controls test for this machine
62
Figure 3.23 End of test
63
Figure 3.24 Setup calculation
63
Figure 3.25 Setup graph
64
Figure 3.26 Setup document output
64
Figure 4.1 Pure biodegradable resins
66
Figure 4.2 Biodegradable resins that is used to clean the machine
66
Figure 4.3 Biodegradable resins contain 5% chicken feather fiber
67
67
Figure 4.5 biodegradable resins contain 10% human hair fiber
68
Figure 4.6 Biodegradable resin contain 5% chicken feather fiber
69
69
70
Figure 4.9 Biodegradable resins contain 10% human hair fiber
70
Figure 4.10 Weights of bio-composites materials
71
Figure 4.11 The Parameter of compression molding
72
72
Figure 4.13 Biodegradable resin contain 5% chicken feather fiber
73
73
Figure 4.15 Biodegradable resins contain 10% human hair fiber
74
Figure 4.16 Laser cutting
75
IX
Figure 4.17 Specimen of 10% human hair fiber in biodegradable resin
75
Figure 4.18 Specimen of 5% Chicken feather fiber in biodegradable resin 76

Figure 4.19 Specimen of 10% chicken feather fiber in biodegradable resin 77
Figure 4.20 Specimen of pure biodegradable resin
77
Figure 4.21 The result of pure biodegradable resin
78
Figure 4.22 The result of 5% chicken feathers reinforce resin
78
Figure 4.23 The result of 10% chicken feather reinforce resin
79
Figure 4.24 The result of 10% human hair reinforce resin
79
Figure 4.25 Tensile properties of CFF/PLA composite
80
Figure 4.26 Bio-composites material used in 2002
82
Figure 5.1 Tensile strength Vs Fiber content
84
Figure 5.2 %Elongation at break Vs Fiber content
84
Figure 5.3 Tensile modulus Vs Fiber content
85
LIST OF TABLES
Table 3.1 Technical index of biodegradable resin
42
Table 3.2 The condition of extruder machine
50
Table 5.1 SWOT analysis for bio-composite material
87
XI
XII
XII
I
XI
V
XV
XV
I
XV
II
XV
III
Chapter 1
Introduction
1.1 Background
In recent years, the environmental pollution problems have been
concerned in the developing country and industrialize. Thus, in many
countries start to manage solid waste disposal that can be caused of
environmental pollution problems. The main cause of the environmental
problem come from the material that is used in the industry for example,
synthetic polymers based on petrochemical (N. Caigueral 2009). The latest
researches have been found out the fibers which are made from the animal
feathers. The advantages of these fibers are lower density than inorganic
fibers, reduce the environmental impacts and relatively easy to obtain. (R.
Barone and F. Schmidt 2005). In the large countries for example USA, China
and UK always have many wastes from the agriculture resources for each
year that can be caused of the environmental problems, thus the wastes from
the agriculture resources can be used to reinforce with polymers in order to
increase the quality of the products.
Nowadays, the biodegradability raw material is used for replace solid
waste which is used in the past. Feather from the poultry can be applied for
the nature fiber reinforce with polymers to make new material that has more
efficient in term of Mechanical and Thermal. According to, Huda and Yung
(2008) the high amount of chicken feather in USA that can be made the
numerous of waste in each year then the USDAs research service has
developed a process to pulverize feather and separate the quill from feather
fiber for improve the properties of material, for example, improve the
mechanical and acoustics properties by using ground chicken quill reinforce
with polypropylene (PP).
The structures of chicken feathers have many interesting things which

are useful for improving the properties of new materials. There are compose
1
of protein having similar strength likely nylon but smaller diameters compare
with fibers which are made from woods, hydrophobic keratins, and high
aspect ratio and are impervious. In addition, the wonderful properties of
chicken feathers is cross-linked structure and special semi crystalline which
is provided high elastic modulus and improve the resistance of polymer
based on composites to mechanical stress (Cheng et al. 2009). The key
factors of this project which are for solving the currently environmental
problems by using the raw materials are made from the agriculture resources
and its biodegradability instead of using non-renewable materials.
According to bio-composite materials, it has been widely concerned in
the industries areas for reducing the pollution problems. Moreover, the
structures of bio-composites which are made from feathers have some
interesting properties to improve the quality of material in term of mechanical
and thermal properties. Nowadays, natural fiber rapidly increase used as
reinforcing materials in bio composites because it has many advantages than
the traditional fibers, which are made from glass and carbon fibers, such as
low density, low cost and biodegradability. Furthermore, there are many
benefits by using bio-composites materials, for example energy saving, light
weight and can be reduced carbon dioxide that can be caused of green
house effect (Lee, Han and Seo 2008). In this report will focus on feather
fibers that are used as reinforcing with polymer for improving mechanical and
thermal properties.
Regarding to the structure of chicken feather, there are three basis
parts of feather which are quill, pennaceous fibers and plumulaceous fibers.
The majority of chicken feather is quill (identify by weight) which is made of
keratin protein (Huda and Yang 2008). From the structure of chicken feathers
above, it can be used to reinforce polymer for developing thermal and
dynamic-mechanical properties. The example of using chicken feather fibers
reinforce with polymers follow by:
Keratin Bio fibers from chicken feather reinforce with polymeric

composite to improve dynamical-mechanical and thermal properties. The
advantages of natural fibers are not only friendly to environmental but the
properties of natural fibers also very interesting. It can be used as actual and
potential reinforce with polymer composites, offer many benefits, for
example, good strength properties, low cost, low density, high toughness,
good thermal properties, biodegradability, non abrasive behavior and
availability. On the other hand, natural fibers from vegetal reign also have
some disadvantages due to their intrinsic characteristics: incompatibility with
the hydrophobic polymer matrix, tendency to form aggregates during
processing and poor resistance to moisture, finite length and large diameter.
However, the natural fibers also come from poultry feather.
The most interesting of poultry feather is chicken feather fibers
because it has a keratin protein which has many interesting properties:
chemically unreactive, insoluble and durable. Moreover, the main structural
of keratin contributes to a wide range of necessary function, including,
physical and chemical protection, temperature control and also provides
mechanical strength and elasticity. Chicken feather fibers have several
benefits, including surface toughness, flexibility, high length to diameter ratio,
hydrophobicity and a highly organized morphology characterized by its
complex hierarchical structure. From the advantages of chicken fibers that is
shown above, they have been used as reinforce with polymeric composite to
modify mechanical of PMMA (Martnez-Hernandez et al. 2007).
1.2 Statement of the project

This report has aimed to study fibers which are made from feather
(chicken feather, human hair) to reinforce with PLA (poly lactic acids), starch
and polymers in order to improve the quality of polymers in term of
mechanical and thermal properties. In recent years, the environmental
problems have been concerned around the world thus, the traditional fibers,
which are made from carbon or solid waste, are replaced by natural fibers,
which are made from plant and animal feathers for reduce the pollution
problems. From the reason above, the natural fibers have been chosen to
study and do the experiment for the future plan.
There are several topics should be considered for this research follow
by:
Which kinds of feather fibers have the best properties to improve

the quality of polymers?
Do the feather fibers have better properties than the traditional

fibers?
How much bio composites can reduce on the environmental

problems?
What types of feather fibers are suitable for the current situation?
Can feather fibers are an acceptation raw material in the future?
1.3 Aim & Objective of this project

The objective of this report aim to study in the structure of feathers
fibers and use the specific properties of feather fibers reinforce with polymers
to improve the quality of polymers in term of thermal and mechanical
properties. There are many methods for testing the properties and the
application of feather fibers for instance, Thermo Gravimetric Analysis (TGA)
and Scanning Electron Microscope. This report will be presented the benefit
of feather fibers reinforce with bio composite material. In addition, this report
will promote good properties and application of feather fibers for the
developing countries to solve the pollution problems.
There are several key objectives of this project follow by:
Using different data basis to identify sources of fibres and

polymer.
Investigating the feasibility of using chicken feather fibres

(CFF) combine with Polymers to improve the properties in
term of mechanical and thermal in real-life applications (
Automotive / Aerospace)
Investigate fibre break down (granulation) process
Investigate compounding with polymers via single screw

extruder versus twin screw system
Develop a marketing strategy for potential products.
1.4 Materials and Machines which are used in this research

According to, this research aim to improve mechanical and thermal
properties in the polymers by reinforces with feather fibers by using the
different types of polymers and feather fibers for compare the result after
testing those materials then can be known which feather fibers have the best
properties to reinforce with polymers.
The main materials that are used in this research are:
Chicken feather
Human hair
Tapioca starch
Poly Lactic Acids (PLA)
In order to achieve in this research, we need to focus on other materials

and machines which are used to reinforce between natural feather fibers and
polymers including:
Extruder machine
Granulator machine
Tensile tester
According to those machines above, there are very dangerous

machines so we need to study a technique to use those machines by doing
the risk assessment before using the machines. Moreover, we need to know
the methods and techniques of reinforcing between polymers and natural
feather fibers to success in this research.
1.5 Project chapter outline

Chapter 1: Introduction
This chapter describes the background of natural feather fibers and
some experiment of chicken feather fibers reinforce with polymers, the
objective and materials of this project and statement of this research in order
5
to easy to understand and follow.
Chapter 2: literature review

In this chapter, the definition of natural fibers including animal fibers
(chicken feather fiber and human hair) and plant fibers are described.
Moreover, the definition of polymers such as poly (lactic acids), polyethylene
and polypropylene, ect are also described. In order to achieve in biocomposites materials, the machines and methods which are used in this
experiment are represented in this chapter. In addition the application of biocomposites materials in automotive industry and consumer industry are
shown in this chapter.
Chapter 3: Experimental
This chapter describes clearly details about all of machines and
methods which are represented in chapter 2. The techniques which are used
to reinforce between natural fibers and bio-composites materials (chicken
feather fiber, human hair and poly (lactic acids)) are also represented in this
section.
Chapter 4: Result of the experimental

This chapter is represented the results of the experiment and also
analyzed the results of this experiment. Moreover, the case study and market
opportunities of bio-composites materials are also discussed in this chapter.
Chapter 5: Discussion
In chapter 5, the advantage and disadvantages of bio-composites
materials are discussed in this chapter. In order to success in the good
product, the quality of bio-composites materials that are tested in this
experiment are also discussed in this section. Furthermore, the marketing for
bio-composites materials is represented in this chapter to analyze the future
plan in bio-composites materials. The significant factor to produce the biocomposites materials is the machines that are used to produce these
materials, thus the limitation of machine need to be concerned to achieve in
high quality of products.
6
Chapter 6: Conclusion and Recommendation

In this chapter, the result of this experiment is summarized and the
conclusions of study in bio-composites materials are represented in this
chapter. Moreover, the problems and solutions of this project are also
discussed in this section. In addition, the development of bio-composites
materials in the future is described in this chapter.
Chapter 2
Literature Review
2.1 Bio-composite Materials
According to bio composite materials, as well as the reinforcement of
natural fiber with the composite materials to improve the structure of the
composite in term of high tensile strength and stiffness, while the embedding
matrix provides the shape of composite structure, conveys the shear force
between the fibers (Nickel and Riedel 2003). The fibers which are used to
reinforce with composite materials required the values of the tensile strength
and stiffness of the composite (Michaeli and Wegener 1990).
Natural fibers can be divided into 3 categories which are vegetable,
animal and mineral fibers. The vegetable fibers such as flax, hemp and
cotton, all of these composed of cellulose, whereas natural fibers are made
from animal consist of proteins, for example, hair, poultry feather and wool.
Almost of natural fibers have a hollow space; as a result, there have a low
density. Furthermore, they also have a node at irregular distances which is
used to divide the fibers into individual cells. The advantages of natural fibers
over synthetic fibers are tensile strength, elongation at failure and elasticity, it
is clear that flax, hemp and ramie fibers can complete with E-glass fibers,
which serve as a reference because of their great significant in composite
technology (Satlow et al. 1994).
In manufacturing bio-composites, they use biopolymer to reinforce
with natural fibers, thus, their basic component must be made predominantly
of renewable resources (Nickel and Riedel 2003). Biopolymer can be divided
into 2 types that are thermoplastic and thermosets:
Thermoplastics are chain polymers; therefore they are soluble

and fusible polymer (Ashbee 1989). Normally, this type of
polymers is used for the packaging industry. In particular, these
biopolymers have some disadvantages that are high processing
viscosity and overly high breaking elongation, therefore the
8
properties of these materials are not suitable to reinforce with

fiber composite materials (Nickel and Riedel 2003).
Thermosets are network polymers, which are insoluble and

infusible (Ashbee 1989). This type of biopolymers has been
considered for development from renewable resources because
of the polymer chains are cross-linked by intermolecular
bonding then they cannot be softened by heating. As a result,
there
are
suitable
for
development
of
naturally-based
thermosets.
The figure below is indicated some example of bio-composite material.
The figures a) and b) are shown the application of bio-composite material
which are used in automobile area.
(a)
(b)
Figure 2.1) a) Solar power vehicle (McDougall 2011) b) The kestrel,

biocomposite automobile (Fletcher 2011).
In this report aim to study bio-composite materials which are used

chicken feather fibers and human hair reinforce with biopolymer-based
composite then the section below will show the definition of chicken feather
fibers, human hair fibers, some cellulose fibers and biopolymer-based
composite.
2.2 Natural fiber

2.2.1 Chicken Feather Fiber
Since the past decade, there are many researches relate to improve
the properties of materials by using biodegradability materials. The
reinforcement between natural fibers and polymer based materials has been
concerned in the last decade. Chicken feather fiber gradually increase to
reinforce with bio-composite material in order to improve the properties of
materials.
The advantages of using chicken feather fibers over traditional fibers
reinforcing with bio-composite materials are low density, cheaper than other
fibers,
acceptable
specific
strength
and
recyclability
because
its
biodegradability materials (cheung et al. 2009). Moreover, the recently

research has discovered that chicken feather fiber is used for increase
hydrogen storage capacity because of this fiber made mainly keratin fiber,
which is the natural protein. This protein can creates cross links when heat it
up which strengthen its structure so it can absorb hydrogen more than metal
hybrid (Feather fibres increase hydrogen storage capacity 2011).
On the other hand, there are some essential problems in term of
mechanical properties that are needed to full understand in chicken feather
fiber such as bonding characteristics between silk fibroin and surrounding
matrix, surface morphologies, the environmental impact because of chemical
attacks and moisture (cheung et al. 2009).
10
(a)
(b)
Figure 2.2) a) Chicken feather (EATON 2009) b) Pot made from chicken
feather (Durham 2009)
According to the large amount of chicken feather in many country,
there are widely used for many composites for instance, pillow, air filter
element which are used instead of traditional wood pulps, feather fibers feed
and light weight feather composites. The structure of chicken feather fibers
consists of keratin protein, water and lipids acid, 91%, 8% and 1% by weight,
respectively (cheung et al. 2009). Furthermore, in chicken feathers also have
amino acid which is sequence similar with other feather, in addition chicken
feathers have more reptilian keratin protein from their claw more than other
feather (RDB and DAD 1996). The sequence is largely constituted of cystine,
glycine, proline and serine, and consist almost no lysine, methionine and
histidine.
According to the main part of chicken feather, it can be divided into 2
main parts which are the fibers and the quills. The fiber is thin filamentous
materials which integrate from the middle core material called quill that is
shown in figure 2.2. To illustrate this, the quill is hard, center axis is soft and
also has fibers branch on the quill.
11
Figure 2.3) The structure of chicken feather (cheung et al. 2009).
In order to have a greater proportion of fibers, smaller feathers are

better than bigger feathers which have a higher aspect ratio than the quill.
The properties of quill surrounded by fibers results in a more granular, bulky
and lightweight materials. The benefit of chicken feather fibers among
synthetic and natural reinforcements is light density, thus, by using chicken
feather fibers reinforce bio composite could potentially lower composite
density. Therefore, chicken feather fibers can be produce light weight
materials which can be reduced cost, especially, transportation cost. In
addition, in chicken feather fibers can be divided into 2 parts which are down
feather and flight feather. The flight feather provides an airfoil, protects the
body from moisture and skin from injury, and down feather provides
insulation fibers (cheung et al. 2009).
According to, the purpose of using fiber reinforcement, down fibers is
selected to use to reinforce with composite materials because of the crosssectional of down fibers is in solid phase in contrast flight fibers is hollow
12
form, thus, down fibers is better than flight fibers (cheung et al. 2009). The
figure below is illustrated the cross-sectional of down and flight feather fibers.
(a)
(b)
Figure 2.4) a) Flight feather fibers b) down feather fiber

(cheung et al. 2009).
According to chicken feather fibers reinforce with bio composite,
there are some researches in this area such as, using keratin protein form
chicken feather fibers reinforce with polyethylene-based composites (Barone
and Schmidt 2005), Poly Lactic Acids green composites reinforce with
chicken feather fibers to improve mechanical and thermal properties (Cheng
et al. 2009), using keratin fibers from chicken feather fibers reinforce for a
Poly Methyl Methacrylate to improve the properties of composites in term of
thermal and dynamic mechanical and improving thermal (MartnezHernandez et al. 2007) and mechanical properties by adding natural fibers in
starch-based sustainable bio composite (Moriana et al. 2011).
2.2.2 Human Hair Fiber

Human hair is nanocomposite biological fibers which have a good
characteristic in microstructure (Wei, Bhushan and Torgerson 2005). In order
to easy understand in human hair fibers reinforce with bio-composite
material, the first thing that needs to know is the structure of human hair.
There are wide varieties fiber shapes of human hair but the normally
accepted which the curliness of hair fibers are roughly. The classification of
13
human hair can be divided into 3 ethnic groups that are Asian hair, African
hair and Caucasian hair then there have difference characteristic in term of
internal nanostructure (Kajiura et al. 2006).
The main structure of human hair consist of cuticle and cortex, and in
some cases have medulla inside, there are dead cell, which are fully filled of
keratin protein. The significant characteristic of keratin protein that it is mainly
contains of an amino acids and cystine. This substance has the capacity to
cross-link the protein by its intermolecular disulfide linkages. In particularly,
human hair has high mechanical properties because of it has high cystine
content corresponds to high disulfide cross-links. Furthermore, in term of
chemical structure (disulfide bonds), human hair is also rich in peptide bonds
and the abundant NH- and CO- groups which is rise to hydrogen bonds
between groups of neighboring chain molecules
(Wei, Bhushan and
Torgerson 2005).
According to the cuticle, it contains flat overlapping cells which are
attached at the root end and the tip end of the hair fibers. In each cuticle cell
contains the cell membrane complex and the structure of cuticle subdivided
into 3 main layers which are A-layer is called a resistance layer with high
cystine content, the second layer is called the exocuticle, it is also rich in
cystine contain and the last layers is called the endocuticle, it is low cystine
contain. The other one in main structure of human hair is cortex which
consists of cortical cells and the intercellular binding material or cell
membrane. The cortical cell is a majority of the inner hair fiber composition
and the macrofibrils consists of a main portion of the cortical cells. In each
macrofibril comprise intermediate filaments are low in cystine and the matrix
is high in cystine. The cell membrane complex contains cell membranes and
adhesive material which bond the cortical cell and cuticle together. In some
human hairs also have medulla that is a small portion of whole hair and it is
contributed negligibly to the mechanical properties of human hair fibers. The
figure below is illustrates the cross-section of human hair fiber.
14
Figure 2.5) Schematic of hair fiber structure and cross-section of human

hair fibers (Wei 2006).
2.2.3 Vegetable fibers

The other category of natural fiber is vegetable fibers which consist of
cellulose, hemicelluloses, lignin, pectins and waxes. There are several
vegetable fibers which are used to reinforce with polymer-based composite
for instance, hemp, flax, bamboo, jute and kenaf. All of these are cellulose
and its crystallinity. According to cellulose, is a natural polymer, which is
consist of D-anhydro glucose (C6 H 11O5) repeating units joined by 1,4--Dglycosidic lingkages at C 1 and C4 position (Nevell and Zeronian 1985). These
celluloses have high degree of polymerization (DP) and in each repeating
unit also have 3 difference hydroxyl groups. The benefit of these hydroxyl
groups and their ability to hydrogen bonds directing effect to the crystalline
packing and the physical properties of cellulose. In addition, cellulose is
15
resistant to strong alkali but it is easily hydrolyzed by acid to water-soluble

sugars and it is related resistant to oxidizing agents (John and Thomas
2008). The figure below is indicated the structure of plant cells.
Figure 2.6) The structure of plant cell (The Cell Wall 2010)
The next main component of natural fiber is hemicelluloses. This is not

a form of cellulose and it name is a misnomer. In the structure of
hemicelluloses consist of a group of polysaccharides, which contain 5- and 6carbon ring sugars. These hemicelluloses have three differences aspects
from cellulose. Firstly, hemicelluloses consist of many difference sugar units
in contrast, celluloses contain only 1,4--D-glucopyranose units. Secondly,
cellulose is a linear polymer, whereas hemicelluloses are a significant degree
of chain branching composed pendant side groups. Finally, the degree of
polymerization
of
celluloses
is
vast
higher
than
hemicelluloses.
Hemicelluloses are very hydrophilic, easily hydrolyzed in acids and soluble in

alkali. Hemicelluloses act as form the supportive matrix for cellulose
microfibrils (John and Thomas 2008).
16
Figure 2.7) Microfibril structure (Mahony 2010)
Figure 2.8) The structure of cellulose Vs hemicelluloses (Lysing

Enzymes 2011)
17
The other main component of natural fibers is lignin, it is a complex

hydrocarbon polymer with both aromatic constituents and aliphatic. The
nature of lignin is a completely hydrophobic and amorphous. Moreover, it is
an insoluble in most solvents and it cannot be broken down to monomeric
units. However, lignin has principal problem in lignin chemistry is that no
method has been verified by which it is possible to isolate lignin in its nature
state from the fiber (John and Thomas 2008).
Biofiber can be considered to be composites of hollow cellulose fibrils
which are linked between hemicelluloses and lignin (Jayaraman 2003). In
each structure of fibril has a complex layers, the first layer is a thin primary
wall, which is deposited during cell growth encircling a second wall. The
secondary wall of fibril is made from 3 layers, the middle layer contain a
series of helically wound cellular microfibrils formed from long chain cellulose
molecules which is determined the mechanical properties of fibers. The
amorphous matrix in cell wall contains lignin, hemicelluloses and some of
pectin. According to the hydrogen bond of hemicelluloses to cellulose, it acts
as a cementing matrix to form a hemicelluloses-cellulose network, which is
thought to be the major structure component of the fiber cell. The
hydrophobic lignin network acts as a coupling agent and also increases the
stiffness of the cellulose-hemicelluloses composite (John and Thomas 2008).
18
.
Figure 2.9) Structure of microfibril (Carbohydrate Metabolism 2010)
According to the advantages of natural fibers, there are several
advantages when using natural fibers reinforce with bio-composites. The
common benefit by using plant fibers is it can reduce the environmental
problems and can reduce the chance of tool wear when processing, dermal
and respiratory irritation (Cheng et al. 2009). Furthermore, bio-fibers are
nonabrasive to mixing and molding equipment then these composites can
reduce cost of processing and also have high electrical resistance. The
hollow cellular structure of plant fibers provides good acoustic insulating
properties.
On the other hand, there also have some disadvantages of natural
fibers. The major disadvantage of natural fiber reinforcing bio-composite is
the nature of lignocellulosic fibers and the non-polar characteristics of most
their thermoplastics results in compounding difficulties leading to non -uniform
dispersion of fibers within the matrix that impairs the capability of the
composites. The other problem is the restricted temperature of processing
which is not exceed 200 c and it is low microbial resistance and susceptibility
to rotting which can be caused of problems during storage and composite
processing. Moreover, these fibers have high moisture absorption of natural
fibers leading to swelling and presence of voids at the interface, as a result
19
poor mechanical properties and reduce dimensional stability of composites

(John and Thomas 2008). The figure below is shown the image of plant fiber
that is jute and kenaf.
Figure 2.10) a) Jute (Jute-the golden fibre 2011) b) Kenaf (Wong and Chiu
2000)
In the past decade, there have some researches in area of plant fibers
reinforce biopolymers-based composite, for instance, natural fiber from jute
reinforce poly(butylenes succinate) (PBS). The advantages of jute are high
specific strength and modulus in lignocellulosic fiber that is useful to enhance
composites. On the other hand, jute fiber also has some disadvantages such
as high moisture absorption and low processing temperature that is not
exceed to 200 c. This experiment focus on the mechanical properties of jute
fiber reinforces PBS which are both has great properties and nearly
processing temperature. The result of this experiment is weight of the
composites reduce by reinforcing jute fiber with PBS (Liu et al. 2009).
Moreover, Jute fibers also use to reinforce thermoplastic and
thermosetting
polymers,
for
example,
polyester,
polypropylene
and
polyethylene are used as bio-composite materials in automobile industry.

There are used in interior application such as trunk liners and door panels.
The main reason by using natural composites materials is to protect the
environmental problems. There are several researches have shown that in
the large countries such as USA and the countries in Europe already used
20
natural fibers for instance, hemp, jute, kenaf reinforcement of thermosetting

and thermoplastics in automotive industry and it is predicted the use of
natural fibers in automotive components will increase up to 54% per year
(Alves et al. 2010).
In addition, plant fibers which are made from kenaf are used to
reinforce biodegradable composites for improving the mechanical properties
in term of decreasing the tensile strength while the youngs modulus
increases (Cheng et al. 2009). The advantages of kenaf can be divided into 2
main reasons. The first reason is it absorbs nitrogen and phosphorus
included in the soil and the second one is it accumulates carbon dioxide at
high rate. Furthermore, the advantages in term of economical and ecological
of kenaf also benefit for reinforcing bio-composite materials such as it has
high specific mechanical properties, low density, non-abrasiveness during
processing and biodegradability.
There are some experiments using kenaf fiber reinforces biocomposite material, for example, using poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA) reinforce
kenaf fiber. The result of this experiment by using kenaf fiber content 70 vol%
is tensile strength (62 MPa) and youngs moldolus (6.3 GPa). These
properties were higher when comparative with pure kanaf fiber sheet and the
PLLA film (Nishino et al. 2003). The other example is using kenaf fiber
reinforce thermoplastic elastomer composite for increase the flexural
properties and impact strength of the composites (Anuar and Zuraida 2011).
2.3 Polymers
2.3.1 Polyethylene
Polyethylene is a simplest basic structure of other polymers (-CH2-CH2CH2-CH2-). The significant features of polyethylene are great electrical
insulation properties, toughness, high chemical resistance, flexibility and
transparency. This type of polymer is essentially a long chain aliphatic
hydrocarbon and it is a thermoplastic polymer. Regarding to the C-C bonds
of polyethylene, it is flexibility bonds, thus it would be anticipated to lead to
21
low values for the glass transition temperature. The structure of polyethylene
is no strong intermolecular forces and most of the strength of the polymer
because it is crystallization that allows close molecular packing (Brydson
1999).
Figure 2.11) structure of polyethylene (History of Polymers & Plastics

for Teachers 2010)
Brydson (1999) stated that the mechanical properties of polyethylene
are depends on the degree of branching and the molecular weight of
polymer. Moreover, the mechanical properties are also depends on the
temperature of testing, the rate of testing, the method of specimen
preparation and the conditioning of polymer before testing. The tensile
strength of polyethylene at density equal to 0.92 g/cm 3 (high-pressure
polymers) is 12.5 MPa and at the density = 0.94 g/cm 3, tensile strength is
equal to 20.7 MPa. However, polyethylene is a non-biodegradable materials,
thus it effect to the environmental is called environmental stress cracking.
Although, this polymer can be caused of environmental problems but it has a
good properties for wide varieties of uses. For example, it is used for
packaging, pipes, crates and items for electrical insulation (Nicholson 1991).
2.3.2 Poly (Lactic Acid) PLA

According to bio-composite materials, this is reinforcement between
natural fibers and bio-polymers to reduce the environmental impacts. One
choice of bio-polymer is PLA which is made from lactic acids by using the
manufacture processing. Poly (lactic acids) or polylactide has been
interested lately because this type of polymer can be obtained from plant22
based materials such as corn, sugar beet and starch, thus it is a

biodegradable materials. PLA has a promising future with the high potential
which can be used instead of petrochemical-based materials, for instance,
polyethylene and polypropylene (Rasal and Hirt 2009). Rudnik (2008)
explained that the structure of PLA is linear aliphatic thermoplastic polyester,
which is prepared for lactic acids and it is one of simplest chiral molecules
and contain 2 stereo isomers, L- and D-lactic acids. The figure below is
illustrated the chemical structure of poly (lactic acid) PLA.
Figure 2.12) the chemical structure of PLA (Rasal and Hirt 2009)
The properties of PLA is a semicrystalline polymers with a glass

transition temperature about 55 c and melting point about 180 c. PLA has
good properties in term of mechanical properties, biocompatibility and
thermal plasticity. Furthermore, it is readily fabricated and can be end-used in
wide range of applications. Poly (lactic acids) has high strength and modulus
and is lacking toughness. In order to improve the toughness of PLA, it can
use this process, orientation, blending and copolymerization. Moreover, PLA
also has good properties in term of electrical properties; its electrical
properties seem like polyethylene that currently used as insulation for
electronic wire and cable. PLA resin can be used in fabrication processes
such as injection molding, sheet extrusion, thermoforming, blow molding and
23
fiber spinning. According to the application of PLA, it has been used in many
applications including, paper, films, packaging, coat and fibers.
2.3.3 Thermoplastic Starch- TPS

The other biopolymer is starch, which contains polysaccharide of
tubers, legumes and cereals, it is a renewable raw material (Rudnik 2008).
Starch is a widely natural raw material that appears in seeds, roots and fruits
of plants. Normally, starch which is used for the commercial made from corn,
though potatoes and wheat are also used. In order to extract starch from
plants, the processes that are used to extract are grinding with water,
centrifuging, filtering and drying, a process that yields starch in granular form
(Nicholson 1991).
According to the structure of starch, it contains 2 mains components
which are amylase and amylopectin. The majority of component in starch is
amylopectin which is representing about 70-85% of the total mass of the
starch. However, the ratio of component of the starch depends on the source
of starch. Amylopectin is a polymeric component of the starch and contain
mainly of glucose units jointed at the 1,4-positions (Nicholson 1991). Figure
below is shown the structure of starch (which link at alpha 1-4 glycosidic
bonds and 1-6 glycosidic bonds) and two main components of starch.
Figure 2.13) a) the structure of starch b) two mains components of

starch (Starch and glycogen 2011).
24
Regarding to the properties of starch, the mechanical properties is

depends on the water content. Normally, the water content of a high and a
low molecular mass of the starch is in the range of 5-30% (w/w). The
materials which contain the water content less than 9% is a glassy with an
elastic modulus between 400 to 1000 MPa. The result of starch mixed with
the plasticizer glycerol at the lower glass transition temperature is decreased
in tensile strength and modulus and increased elongation. There are wide
range of products are produced from thermoplastic starch. The first product
which is made from thermoplastic starch is used in drug delivery capsule
Capill. After that, the products which are made from starch slightly increase
such as golf tees, plates, food container and cutlery (Rudnik 2008).
2.3.4 Cellulose
Cellulose is the most plentiful organic compound in the world, which is
a main structure of cell wall of the higher plants. It can find mostly in the
cotton, flax, jute and wood and cellulose pulps can be obtained in many
agricultural by-products, for example, oat, wheat, rice and straws of rye. It is
a carbohydrate of molecular formula (C 6H 10O5). Cellulose is a polydisperse
linear polysaccharide compose of D-glucose linked -1,4-glucosidic unit
(Rudnik 2008). Nicholson (1991) considered that the monomer of cellulose
come from D-glucose, which built up the cellulose molecule. According to Dglucose is highly soluble in water, in contrast cellulose cannot soluble in
water. In order to soluble cellulose in the water, sodium hydroxide and carbon
disulphide can be used as a treatment with cellulose. The figure below is
illustrated the structure of cellulose.
25
Figure 2.14) the structure of cellulose (Plant Structure & Function 2010)
The most general cellulose esters including cellulose acetate (CA),
cellulose acetate butylate (CAB) and cellulose acetate propionate (CAP). All
of these are thermoplastics materials through esterification of cellulose. The
cellulose ester biopolymer can be made from difference raw materials, for
instance, sugarcane, recycled paper and wood cellulose in the power form.
The application of cellulose can be used in widely range of products such as
in cosmetics and for coating pharmaceutical tablets. Cellulose esters are also
used in the composites and laminates as binder, laminate layers and filter.
Moreover, it can be used for reinforce with natural fiber to make a biocomposites materials with good biodegradability (Rudnik 2008).
2.2.5 Polypropylene
The structure of polypropylene is a [-CH2CH(CH 3)-] . It is a linear
hydrocarbon consists of little or no unsaturation. There are 2 possible forms
of polypropylene, the first form is likely polyethylene but it has better rigidity
and hardness and the second form is amorphous and of little strength
(Nicholson 1991). The structure of polypropylene consist of methyl group that
has the most necessary influence in term of products of difference tacticity,
ranging from completely isotactic and syndiotactic structures to atactic
molecule (Rudnik 2008). According to the 2 forms of polypropylene above,
the first form is now known as isotactic, which is with a normal
stereochemistry at each alternating carbon atom and the second form is now
26
known as atactic, which is with a random distribution of difference

stereochemistry arrangements at carbon atom.
The properties of polypropylene are similarities with polyethylene,
especially in the electrical property and in their swelling and solution
behavior. On the other hand, there are some properties differences from
polyethylene follow by:
Polypropylene has a lower density than polyethylene which is

about 0.9gcm3.
Polypropylene has higher softening point, thus it can be used at

high temperature such as used to make the kettle and the jugtype of design. Furthermore, it is well able to resist the effects of
exposure to boiling water.
Polypropylene is not impressionable to the environmental stress

cracking.
Due to the consequence of relatively readily fragmented tertiary

C-H bond within the molecule, it lead to get polypropylene has
more readily oxidized than polyethylene.
In addition, it has some more interesting property of isotactic

polypropylene that is it can be reused many time without damage, thus it is
used for one-piece moldings, for instance, card indexes and boxes
(Nicholson 1991).
2.4 Technique and theory

2.4.1 Extrusion
This machine is popular to work for mixing polymer than injection
molding. The basic of extrusion machine contain forcing fluid material
through an orifice to give an extrudate of constant cross-section. The process
of this machine can be applied to use with metals and pasta. Moreover, it can
be used with molten polymers. In the plastic industry, the materials are
27
normally used in molten form and pumped into the orifice or die by means of
screw pump. The majority of extrusion operation uses a single screw
extruder. This machine can be divided into 4 main components which are:
Material feed
Extruder barrel
Extrusion die
Haul off
In the material feed, dry granules are fed into the hopper after that
these are passed through the barrel of extruder in the steady state. According
to the extruder barrel, the function of this is to receive plasticize, granules
them to the accurate consistency and pump them into the die for shaping.
This can be divided into 3 zones which are feed zone, compression zone and
metering zone (Brydson 1990).
The first zone of extrusion barrel is feed zone, it receive granule
materials form the hopper and then pumps them up to the barrel and
commences heating. The principle problem that may happen is that the
granules not fall to the barrel wall but these falls to the screw channel and
stick to the wall of channel. The efficient of pumping depends on the screw
and the barrel which mean the efficient of pumping will increase when the
screw is cooled and the barrel is hot. The next part of extrusion barrel is
compression zone, this zone the volume of one turn of channel is reduced
either decreasing the pitch or increasing the screw root. There are several
sizes of screw that is used in the extrusion. For the thermoplastic materials,
the portion of compression zone is larger than other portion. The last zone is
melt zone which is to make sure that the granules are in the right molten
state for feeding to the die (Brydson 1990).
28
Figure 2.15 the extruder (Extruder 2008)
The overall process of extruder is to mixing the materials together

such as metals, plastics and polymers by putting the granules into the hopper
then they are fed into the extruder barrel and mix together after that the
materials which are mixed get out at the extruder die, which is calibrated to
the accurate size, to cool the melt, to prepare for a system for hauling the
granules and for collecting the granules (Brydson 1990).
2.4.2 Granulating Machine

This machine is widely used in the industry (such as food industry,
chemistry and pharmaceutical) as a granulation technique for the reduction
size of the composite into the powder form. This machine is mostly used to
adapt in plastic processing, for instance, particle of thermoplastic materials.
In this machine consist of rotary knife, the casing, sieve mesh and motor. It is
used to cut the material into predetermined degree of finesse (Roody 1945).
The principle function of this machine, the material is dropped into the feed
inlet after that the rotary knife play a whiling with the component, then throw
the granules into the sieve mesh by centrifugal force and the granules are
ground into the particle by shearing action that is produced from the rotary
knife and the sieve mesh. The figure below illustrates the granulating
machine (Granulating Machine or Multi Mill 2011).
29
Figure 2.16 the granulating machine

(Granulating Machine or Multi Mill 2011)

The compression molding machine is widely used in plastics material
industry as a method for molding the material. Compression molding is a
high
pressure
method,
high
volume
and
high
strength
fiberglass
reinforcement. The process of this machine is similar to injection molding but

compression molding is particularly used for thermosetting resins. The plastic
composite material, which is in the pellet or dry power form and it can be
mixed with a binder agent to provide strength, is used to put in the
compression molding (Bruce et al. 2004). To operate this machine, the first
step is preheated the machine for heat mold cavity, then the mold is closed
by top force and the pressure is applied to force the component into contact
all of mold area, while pressure and heat are maintained until the molding
material has cured (Compression molding 2011).
30
Figure 2.17 compression molding (Compression molding 2011)
Figure 2.18 compression molding (Compression molding for rubber

components 2010)
The advantages of compression molding are it can mold for large

materials and it can use for mold a little portion of material in the case of
expensive compounds. Especially, it is one of lowest cost for molding
process compare with transfer molding, rotational molding and injection
molding. On the other hand, compression molding also has some
31
disadvantages, for instance, it is not suitable for some type of materials and it
usually provides poor product consistency and difficult in controlling flashing
(Compression molding 2011). The process of compression molding is
suitable for making knobs and handles for kitchen utensils, whereas
thermosetting resin can be heated without becoming soft (Bruce et al. 2004).
2.4.4 Laser cutting

Bruce et al. (2004, p. 295) considered that laser is an acronym for light
amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. This is used electrical
technique of simulation atoms of certain materials. In the atom have
electrons, which can be temporarily displayed to higher electron shell energy
level positions within the atomic structure. Laser cutting machine is a new
technology which has high accuracy of cutting and it allows cutting metal and
non metallic materials.
Laser cutting machine is widely used with many materials such as
wood, paper, acrylic and form core. Moreover, it also uses cutting high
carbon and stainless steel. However, it is not the best method for cutting
material, it is not suitable cutting some material, for instance, cooper alloys
and aluminums because they have good light reflective and heat conductive
properties, these materials required high powerful laser. This machine is
suitable for cutting the materials that have thickness less than 12 mm (Laser
cutting 2011).
32
Figure 2.19 laser cutter head diagram (Laser cutting 2011)
According to the pros and cons of laser cutting machine, there are
several advantages of this machine, for example, it can be reduced the
contamination of materials because it is no real physical between cutter and
metals, it can be cut small point because it has high accuracy for cutting
materials and it can be reduced opportunity of wrapping materials when laser
cutting as a laser only generates for small area of heat. In contrast, the cost
to operate laser cutting machine is expensive because it used large amount
of power (Laser cutting 2011).
2.4.5 Tensile testing machine

This machine is used for testing the mechanical properties of materials.
Tensile test imply the relationship between tensile stress and strain. The
definition of stress is the resistance of material to external elements, for
example, weight, force or load. The definition of strain is the amount of
stretch or deformation which occurs over a standard original length. Tensile
stress can be measured by separate the applied load to a specimen by the
cross-section area. The specimen will stretch or deform when the result of
33
stress is applied. The standard sizes of specimens which are commonly used
with tensile testing have a diameter and area of 0.505 in, 0.200 in 2
respectively (Bruce et al. 2004).
Figure 2.20 the specimen (MECHANICAL PROPERTIES 2010)
According to Bruce et al. (2004), the machine which is used to perform

tensile test is called tensile tester. The specimens are tested on this machine
by pulled it until it stretches or deforms to the breaking point. The tensile
tester machine is operated manually by the handle in the side of this
machine. The load cell where is above the jaw is used to convert the pull of
tester into the voltage proportional to the pull and the electrical signal, which
is received from the load cell, is sent to the monitor which records the force
to plot the graph of stress. In order to determine the value of strain, the
machine that is used for testing the strain of materials is called extensometer.
It acts as a machine to stretch the specimens; it causes the strain gauge
mounted to send the signal to plot the graph of strain. The figure 2.21 and
2.22 shows the tensile tester machine and extensometer respectively.
34
Figure 2.21 tensile testers (Tensile Testing of Plastics 2011)
Figure 2.22 extensometer (United 2007)
35
According to the stress-strain diagram, this diagram is plot between

stress and strain by plot stress in the vertical axis (y-axis) and plot strain in
horizontal axis (x-axis). The result of tensile test is applied to plot the stressstrain curve. In the stress-strain curve can be divided into 3 main points that
are proportional limit point (A), yield point or elastic limit (B) and fracture point
(C).
The proportional limit point is the point that shows the constant ratio
between stress and strain, thus, the graph is in the straight line base on
Hooks law and therefore at this point is called elastic behaviour. The second
point is yield point which determines material status between elastic
deformations into plastic deformation after this point the stress will increase
due to the strain hardening then the curve of graph gradually increased and
the specimen cannot return to its original length. The last point is fracture
point, at this point the specimen will breaking that shows the highest force
which the material can receive (Bruce et al. 2004).
Figure 2.23 stress-strain curves for ductile metal (Structures 2011)
36
2.5 Application of bio-composites materials

In the recent year, bio-composite materials are wildly used in several
areas such as in automotive industry, aerospace industry and consumer
industry. The bio-composites materials are the reinforcement between the
natural fiber and the biodegradable polymers. The advantages of biocomposites materials, there are improved the properties of the polymers in
term of mechanical and thermal properties. Furthermore, the significant
factor by using these materials are it can be reduced the environmental
impact that is an importance problem at the present.
2.5.1 Automotive industry
In several automotive industries such as Mercedes, Volkswagen, Audi
and Daimler Chrysler, these major car manufacturers use the products which
are made from bio-composites in various applications. In many researches
are shown natural fibers reinforce composites are used in the interior of car
industry (John and Thomas 2008). The example of used bio-composites
materials in automotive industry follow by:
The bio-composites materials which are made from flax fiber

reinforce composites used to replace asbestos fibers in the c ar
disk brakes.
Mercedes-Daimler using natural fibers in the car component

instead of using glass fibers.
Jute-based bio-composite were used for the door panels in

Mercedes E-class vehicles.
In the last decade, coconut fibers were used in the commercial

vehicles.
Natural fibers reinforce polypropylenes are produced for interior

trim in the car components such as door panels and dashboards.
Flax /sisal mat reinforce polyurethane are used with the door trim
panels for Audi A2.
37
Figure 2.23 Floor protection of Mercedes A-class made from banana

fiber reinforce composites (John and Thomas 2008)
Figure 2.24 natural fibers reinforce composites in newest Mercedes Sclass (John and Thomas 2008)
In the recent studied, the natural fiber which is made from hem pbased natural fiber mat thermoplastics is now interesting to use in the
automotive manufacturers because of it has good properties in term of high
specific stiffness (Pervaiz and Sain 2003). Moreover, bast-based natural
38
fibers are used in automotive applications since it has several advantages

includes greatest strength, light weight and cost saving. The future trend of
using natural fiber in the automotive industry will increase (John and Thomas
2008). Peijs (2003) stated that 95% recyclable material of vehicles must be
constructed, mechanical recycling or reuse should have 85% recoverable
and 10% of thermal recycling or energy recovery in the vehicle by 2015.
2.5.2 Aerospace industry
In the last decade, bio-composites materials can be also used in
aerospace industry. Nickel and Riedel (2003) noted that the German
Aerospace center (DLR), which is the aerospace agency of German, this
company has main competences are in traffic management, space flight,
aeronautics and energy technology. This company has a project to develop
for the lightweight materials, thus, the bio-composites materials are selected
for use as a component in the aerospace field.
According to the advantages of bio-composites materials, these
materials have the properties similar to glass fibers composites but biocomposites materials have more benefits in term of eco-friendly, lightweight,
high strength and high stiffness. The benefits of bio-composites materials
above related to the requirement in the field of aerospace industry. The
applications of fiber reinforce polymers was original used in the aerospace
techniques, for example, glass
or carbon fiber materials reinforce
polyurethanes, epoxy resin and phenolic. The figure below illustrates the B-2
aircraft is applied the new composite material base on polyimide and high
temperature thermoplastic resin.
39
Figure 2.25 B-2 aircraft (Johnson 2010)
2.5.3 Consumer industry

The applications of bio-composites materials are widely used in many
areas including the house ware, flower pot and furniture (chair or table). The
examples of materials that are made from bio-composites materials, flower
pot is made from chicken feather fiber reinforce plastic replaced the
traditional plastics which can reduce the environmental impact and reduce
the cost effective commercial used for chicken feathers (Durham 2009).
Furthermore, the tabletop tray is made from edible flax seeds by using flax
fiber instead of carbon fiber reinforce with bio-resin. It can make more benefit
than using carbon fiber in term of low weight, strong and its renewable
(Alperovich 2011). Moreover, the electronic devices case such as i-phone
and i-pad are made from natural fiber (flax and hemp) reinforce composite
materials with the good properties of products, light weight and mechanical
resistance to slim (Ipad and smartphone cover made of flax fiber at JEC
composite Paris 2011).
40
(a)
(b)
Figure 2.26 a) i-phone case (Ipad and smartphone cover made of flax fiber at
JEC composite Paris 2011) b) tabletop tray (Alperovich 2011).
41
Chapter 3
Experiment (methodology)
3.1 The purpose of this experiment

The objective of this experiment is focus on the mechanical properties
of bio-composite materials which are made from chicken feature fibers and
human hairs reinforce polypropylene and biodegradable resin. According to
chicken feathers, there are the wastes from the poultry section that have high
amount of chicken feathers per year. In order to reduce these wastes and
improving the mechanical properties of the polymers, there are used as the
reinforcement of bio-composite material.
There are many researches in the area of chicken feather reinforce
composites materials to improve the mechanical properties of composites,
for instance, Cheng et al (2009) considered that chicken feather fibers (CFF)
reinforce poly (lactic acids) (PLA) to improve mechanical and thermal
properties. The result of this experiment is the elastic modulus of CFF/ PLA is
dramatically higher than the pure PLA and the stiffness of this composite also
increase.
In this experiment focuses on the product of bio-composites materials
which are made from chicken feather fibers reinforce biodegradable resin.
The influences of chicken feather fibers and human hairs on the composite
are explored especially in term of mechanical properties by testing the
product with tensile tester. Moreover, the structures of bio-composites
materials after the reinforcement are also observed.
The main machines which are used in this experiment are:
Extruder machine
Granulator machine
Compression molding
42
Laser cutting
Tensile tester
The main materials which are used in this study are:
Chicken feather fibers
Human hair
Polypropylene
Low density polyethylene
Biodegradable resin
3.2 Raw materials used for bio-composite material

3.2.1 Chicken feather fibers
Chicken feather fibers are obtained from the poultry section. The
structures of chicken feathers have 2 main parts that are quill and chicken
feather fiber. In this experiment, the chicken feather fiber which is used to
reinforce with biodegradable resin, thus, chicken feather fibers should be
separated from the quill for the great result of this study. According to Cheng
et al. (2009), the structure of chicken feather, it can be divided into 2 mains
parts that are quill and chicken feather fibers. In order to use chicken feather
fibers reinforce bio-composites, the chicken feather fibers are separated from
the quill with the length of 10-30 mm.
In addition to, the chicken feather fibers have 2 difference types which
are flight feather fiber and down feather fiber which can be obtained from
difference area of single chicken feather fibers. In order to have a good result
of the reinforcement between chicken feather fibers with polymers, the down
chicken feather fiber is selected for using as a reinforce bio-composites. Due
to, the structure of down chicken feather fiber is a solid core with small
protrusions at some intervals along its length (Cheng et al. 2009).
43
Figure 3.1 chicken feather used for the experiment
3.2.2 Human hair

The examples of human hairs are obtained from the salon in United
Kingdom. There are three main types of human hair that are African hair,
Asian hair and Caucasian hair, thus, the examples of human hairs in this
experiment are Caucasian hairs which has a moderately shape (Kajiura et al.
2006). In this experiment, the human hairs are used as reinforcement with
biodegradable resin for improving the mechanical properties of biocomposites materials and comparison with the chicken feather fibers
reinforce bio-composites.
44
Figure 3.2 Human hair
3.3.3 Biodegradable resin

Totally biodegradable resin is a 100% biodegradable material which is
consisted of natural starch (tapioca starch, potato starch, corn starch and
soybean starch) more than 60% of total weight, the other ingredients with this
material such as 20% of PVA, 15% of Glycerin and 5% of additive ingredients
(%by total weight). All of biodegradable resin comes from food-grade,
digestible and eatable, thus, this material is really green composite without
the petroleum oil and also free of PE/PS/PP/PVC/PET/EVA. The applications
of this material such as a golf tee, can-holder, toothpick, comb, hanger and
toothbrush (Totally Biodegradable Raw Material 2005).
According to the advantages of this material, it is eco-friendly and
cheap material after develop the newest biodegradable technology and the
unique processing facility then this material is chosen for this experiment
used as a reinforcement of chicken feather and human hair
. However , it has
some disadvantage that is the product of this material can be used at

temperature less than
60 c. The table and figure below show the technical
index of biodegradable resin and the biodegradable resin which is used in

this experiment, respectively.
45
Description
Result
Unit
white
Density
1.2-1.3
g/cm3
Natural starch
70
Biomaterial
98
Appearance
Table 3.1 technical index of biodegradable resin (Totally Biodegradable

Raw Material, 2005)
Figure 3.3 biodegradable resin
46
3.3 The ratio of materials in this experiment

In the bio-composite material, natural fibers are used as reinforce with
biopolymer to improve the stiffness and tensile strength, whereas the
biopolymers provide the shape of bio-composite materials, protect the fibers
from the aggressive and radiation and transmit the shear forces between the
fibers (Nickel and Riedel 2003). The majority of the total mass for biocomposite materials is biopolymer, in this experiment, biodegradable resin is
selected to use as biopolymer.
There are some previous researches in the field of chicken feather
reinforce composite, the ratio of chicken feather in composite materials
varied from 2 to 10 % by weight of total weight of composite materials. In this
experiment, it can be divided into 4 sample materials testing which are:
100% of biodegradable resin
5% of chicken feather fiber in biodegradable resin
10% of chicken feather fiber in biodegradable resin
10% of human hair in biodegradable resin
All of these sample materials are comparing together in term of

mechanical properties (tensile strength and stiffness) by using tensile tester
machine. The sample variation of this experiment is shown in figure 3.5.
Sample Materials
Pure biodegradable
resin
Biodegradable resin
contain 5% chicken
feather fiber
Biodegradable resin
contain 10% chicken
feather fiber
Biodegradable resin
contain 10% human
hair fiber
Figure 3.4 the variation of sample material

47
3.4 Material Preparation

The significant process before using the natural fiber reinforce polymer
matrix is the cleaning process of natural fiber for separate the fiber from
sources. In this experiment, chicken feather fibers are selected for reinforce
bio-composites, thus, this section will present the cleaning process of
chicken feathers.
There are three main processes for cleaning chicken feather follow by:
The first step is immersing chicken feather in alcohol for 24 hours

for sterilization process.
The second step, chicken feather is washed in a water soluble

organic solvent.
The last step is drying chicken feather at 60 c for 24 hours.
In this experiment, the biodegradable resin pellets are used to

reinforce chicken feather fibers. The process of mixing both materials before
feed them to the extruder machine is drying treatment by putting them in an
oven with heat applied at 80 c for 24 hours. The purpose of this process is to
remove the immoderate moisture of both material before go through the
extruder (Cheng et al. 2009).
In order to easy understand for the processes in this experiment, the
overall processes of this experiment follow by the flow chart below.
48
Cleaning processes
Dry treatment
Extruder
Granulator
Tensile testing
Laser Cutting
Compression molding
Figure 3.5 the flow chart of overall process
3.5 The procedure of bio-composite material

Extruder machine is widely used in the plastic industry for mixing
polymer before go through the other process. In this experiment, this
machine is used as the mixer between natural fiber and biodegradable resin.
After cleaning process of chicken feather fibers and human hair fibers and
dry treatment of both nature fiber and biodegradable resin, the raw materials
are fed into the single screw extruder for mixing between natural fiber and
biodegradable resin.
Due to this experiment has 4 sample materials testing then in each
sample need to separate feed into the extruder machine and when finish
each sample material, this machine need to clean by feeding pure
biodegradable resin in every time.
49
In this experiment the majority of mass is biodegradable resin, in order

to get the good result by using extruder machine, the process temperature of
biodegradable resin for extruder are required. The table below shows the
suitable condition for the extruder machine in this experiment.
Extruder
Process temperature
Speed
180
Unit
Zone1
_
Barrel
180
Zone2
Zone1
190
Die
_
Zone2
Feed
190
10
rpm
Table 3.2 the condition of extruder machine
After setting extruder machine follow the description above then waiting
the machine preheated until the temperature equal to setting temperature of
both barrel and die. The next step, the raw materials was prepared from the
first process are fed into the single screw extruder machine for the mixing
process between natural fiber (chicken feather fiber and human hair) and
biodegradable resin. The figures below illustrate extruder machine, the raw
material before feed in to this machine and the process during the
experiment.
50
Figure 3.6 extruder machine
Figure 3.7 chicken feather fiber and biodegradable resin
51
Figure 3.8 raw materials are fed to extruder

This machine is widely used in the plastic industry to granulate the raw
material into the power form. In this experiment, the components (chicken
feather fiber reinforce biodegradable resin and human hair reinforce
biodegradable resin) which are obtained from the extruder are fed into the
granulator for granulating them into the powder form before go through the
compression molding to make a sheet plate. The figure below shows the
granulator machine that is used in this study.
52
Figure 3.9 side view of granulating machine
Figure 3.10 top view of granulating machine
53

Compression molding act as the machine which is make a sheet plate.
This machine is widely used in the plastic industry and it is popular used for
thermosetting resin. The compression molding which is used in this study is
called Fontune Presses. In this experiment, the powder form of biocomposite are obtained from the granulator machine is used to make a sheet
plate for bio-composite materials, which are chicken feathers reinforce
biodegradable resin and human hair reinforces biodegradable resin, with
compression molding machine.
This machine operate vary to the temperature plate and the force by
using compression method. In order to achieve the great result of this
machine, the melting temperature of biodegradable resin is required.
Moreover, the thickness of the composites is also required for able to cut with
the laser cutting machine. The suitable thickness for the laser cutting
machine is 2 mm, thus, the weight of mass that is put in the compression
molding is required. The equation which is used to calculate the mass of the
component is:
Where: D = density
M = mass
V = volume
The length and width of mold that is used in this experiment is equal to
16 and 16 cm, respectively. The thickness of the component is set of 2 mm.
Therefore, the volume of mold can be calculated. The density of
biodegradable resin is 1.2 g/cm 3
54
V = 16160.2 = 51.2 cm 3
The weight of mass can be calculated from the equation above:
Therefore, the weight of mass which is put in mold for this experiment is
61.4 g.
According to, the melting point of biodegradable resin is approximately
200 c, thus, this machine set up at
180 c for both side of temperature plate
with force at 60 KN for 30 minutes. The figures below indicate the

compression molding machine and mold that are used in this experiment.
Figure 3.11 compression molding machine
55
Figure 3.12 inside mold
Figure 3.13 size of mold
56
3.5.4 Laser cutting

This machine is used to cut the material with high accuracy and good
quality for the products. In this experiment, the components, which are
obtained from the compression molding, are cut with laser cutting method for
make a specimen. In order to easy for laser cutting, the thickness of the
composite is of 2 mm. After cutting the composite, the specimens are used
for tensile testing to test the mechanical properties of bio-composites
materials. The laser cutting which is used in this experiment called EPILOG
MINI and the COREL DRAW program is used for laser cutting. Recycle
starch plastic type is selected for material cutting template. The figure below
shows laser cutting machine.
Figure 3.14 laser cutting machine
57
Figure 3.15 the prototype of specimen edit by computer program
Figure3.16 Corel draw program
58
Figure 3.17 Prototype of specimen
Recycled
starch plastic
Figure 3.18 Material cutting templates
59

Tensile testing is the method which is used to test the mechanical
properties of the composite. The specimens were prepared from laser cutting
are used to test with the tensile tester. Instron Model 3367 and Bluehill
program are used for tensile testing in this experiment. The main parameters
which are used for set up this machine for testing with sample materials
follow by:
Set the dimension of specimen in the program.
In control mode, extension with rate 20 mm/min is set in the set

up control-test.
In setup control- end of test set with, % peak load with load drops
and load threshold at 90% and 5 N, respectively.
The calculations of this test are set at set up calculations mode.
The graph title and number of curves per graph can be set at the
set up graph.
The figures below show tensile testing machine and parameter of this
machine in this experiment.
60
Figure 3.19 tensile testing machine
Figure 3.20 the upper and lower grips
61
Figure 3.21 Bluehill program
Figure 3.22 setup controls test for this machine
62
Figure 3.23 End of test
Figure 3.24 setup calculation
63
Figure 3.25 setup graph
Figure 3.26 setup document output

64
Chapter 4
Result and case study
4.1 Result of extruder machine

The extruder machine is used to mix chicken feather fiber and human
hair with biodegradable resin for making a bio
machine is operated at temperature of barrel zone
-composite materials . This

1 and zone 2 is 180 c and
the temperature of die zone 1 and zone 2 is 190 c with the feed of material at
10 rpm. Natural fiber and biodegradable resin are fed into the hopper and
then mixing in the barrel with single screw extruder then the composites are
fed from die. This experiment has 4 sample materials which are used to test
the mechanical properties of bio-composite materials follow by:
5% chicken feather fiber in biodegradable resin
10% chicken feather fiber in biodegradable resin
10% human hair fiber in biodegradable resin
Pure biodegradable resin
The results of all sample materials by using the extruder machine for
reinforce the composite are represented by the figure below.
65
Figure 4.2 biodegradable resins that is used to clean the machine
66
Figure 4.3 biodegradable resins contain 5% chicken feather fiber

67
4.2 Result of granulating machine

The next process after extruder material is granulating the biocomposite materials into the powder form. The composites are fed into the
granulator machine to make a powder form of raw materials for put them in
mold in the compression process. After finish each sample, the granulator
machine need to clean every time for protect other materials in the sample
materials. The figures below represent the result of granulator machine for
each sample material.
68
Figure 4.6 biodegradable resin contain 5% chicken feather fiber
Figure 4.7 pure biodegradable resins
69
70
4.3 Result of compression molding

After granulate bio-composite materials into a powder form, the next
process of this experiment is compression molding to make a sheet plate of
materials. In order to achieve the good result of compression molding, there
are 4 variations should be concerned which are:
The suitable temperature in compression process that is

depended on the materials.
Force which is used to compress the mold.
Time for operate this machine
Weight of material which is put in mold
According to, biodegradable resin is the newest bio- composite

materials then it is hard to find the melting point of this composite. As a
result, the composite from compression process is not good quality
. In this
experiment , mold is preheated before put the composite in there
. The results
of bio-composite materials at compression molding was set to be
180 c, force
at 60 KN for 35 minutes are shown in the figure below.
Figure 4.10 weights of bio-composites materials
71
Figure 4.11 the parameter of compression molding
Figure 4.12 pure biodegradable resins
72
Figure 4.13 biodegradable resin contain 5% chicken feather fiber
73
4.4 Result of laser cutting

Laser cutting method is selected for cutting the specimen of biocomposite materials in Dum-bell shape for this experiment. The Corel draw
program is used for the laser cutting machine. The results of products by
using laser cutting machine for cutting the specimen are illustrated in figure
below.
74
Figure 4.16 laser cutting
Figure 4.17 Specimen of 10% human hair fiber in biodegradable resin
75
Figure 4.18 Specimen of 5% Chicken feather fiber in biodegradable

resin
Figure 4.19 Specimen of 10% chicken feather fiber in biodegradable

resin
76
Figure 4.20 Specimen of pure biodegradable resin
4.5 Result of tensile testing

Tensile testing is the method which is used for testing the mechanical
properties of bio-composites materials. The tensile strength and the
elongation of bio-composite materials are measured in this experiment. The
elongation of bio-composite materials is an ability of material to stretch
whereas tensile strength is a capacity of bio-composites to take a load. In this
experiment, there are 4 sample materials which are used tensile testing
method to compare the mechanical properties of all sample materials. The 4
sample materials are pure biodegradable resin, 5% chicken feather fiber in
biodegradable resin, 10% chicken feather fiber in biodegradable resin and
10% human hair fiber in biodegradable resins. The figures below show the
results of tensile testing in term of mechanical of properties by graph
between load and extension of all sample materials.
77
Biodegradable resin
Figure 4.21 the result of pure biodegradable resin
5% chicken feathers
Figure 4.22 the result of 5% chicken feathers reinforce resin
78
10% chicken feathers
Figure 4.23 the result of 10% chicken feather reinforce resin
10% human hair
Figure 4.24 the result of 10% human hair reinforce resin
79
4.6 Case study: Chicken feather fiber reinforce PLA

The purpose of this research is improving the mechanical properties of
Poly (Lactic Acid) by reinforce with chicken feather fiber. Poly (Lactic Acid) is
a biodegradability, light weight and good mechanical properties. This
composite is widely used in automotive industry and medical sector. Due to
chicken feather is a waste product from poultry sector but it has many
advantages such as high strength, light weight and good mechanical
properties, thus it is used as reinforce with polymer matrix (Cheng et al.
2009).
In this experiment, the chicken feather fibers varied from 2% to 10% of
total weight content. The mechanical property of this composite has been
tested by divided into 3 main parts which are tensile strength, tensile
modulus and elongation. The figure below indicates the tensile properties of
CFF reinforce PLA composite.
Figure 4.25 tensile properties of CFF/PLA composite
According to tensile strength of this bio-composite, the results of

tensile strength of all sample materials are decreasing vary from increasing
per cent of chicken feather fiber content that mean pure PLA has highest
80
tensile strength and follow by 2%, 5%, 8% and 10% of chicken feather
content, respectively. This phenomenon that shows the fact of CFF is
insufficient strength. However, the decrement is less than 10 MPa, thus this
application is acceptable.
The next mechanical property is tensile modulus of this biocomposites material, the result of this experiment is CFF/PLA composite has
higher tensile modulus than pure PLA sample. The highest value of tensile
strength is at PLA contain 5% CFF with the tensile strength value of 4.2 GPa,
16% higher than pure PLA. The other mechanical property is elongation at
break of this composite, the highest value of this property is at PLA contain
2% of CFF with 56% higher than pure PLA sample.
The results of this experiment that show the ductility of PLA matrix is
productively developed by reinforce chicken feather fiber, which the amount
of CFF content less than 8% of total weight (Cheng et al. 2009).
4.7 Market Opportunities for bio-composites materials

presently, the market trends of bio-composites materials slightly
increased especially in automotive and construction sectors. With further
improvement and development in the performance of these composites.
These materials have essentially opportunity in the off-site construction
methods because they are environment materials. Moreover, these materials
can improve quality and comfort for build and installation. On the other hand,
the opportunity of bio-composites materials may be impeded by regulars
based on existing materials. The significantly market for bio-composites
materials is in the preservative treated wood. In order to reduce the
environmental impacts, bio-composite materials are selected for treated
wood instead of preservative which contains arsenic (Fowle, Hughe and Elia
2006).
According to the advantages of bio-composites materials, these
materials are well in mechanical properties. Recently, the improvement of
bio-composites materials by adding natural fiber and other adhesive
materials can improve the quality of these composites in term of mechanical
properties. Furthermore, cost of these materials are inexpensive compared
with existing materials, thus this is one of significantly opportunity in market
81
for bio-composites materials (Fowle, Hughe and Elia 2006).

In addition to, the marketing campaigns of bio-composites materials
such as promoting and advertising are needed for commercially successful.
Nowadays, training and education of these materials through more
widespread, thus this is an opportunity for these materials in worldwide
market (Fowle, Hughe and Elia 2006).
The figure below shows the market of bio-composites materials in
many areas. The majority market for bio-composites materials is in
automotive and construction sector.
Figure 4.26 bio-composites material used in 2002 (John and Thomas 2002)
82
Chapter 5
Discussion
5.1 The quality of bio-composite materials
According to bio-composite materials, this is a renewable and

degradability material, thus this material is eco-friendly. In the past few
decades, the improvement and development of bio-composites materials by
reinforce natural fiber for improving the mechanical properties of this
material.
In this experiment, bio-composites materials are tested with tensile

testing method for compare the mechanical properties of each sample
materials. Figure 5.1, 5.2 and 5.3 show the effect of fiber content on the
mechanical properties for each sample material.
Figure 5.1 shows the effect of natural fiber content in term of tensile
strength. The result of this experiment illustrates that pure biodegradable
resin has highest tensile strength follow by 10% human hair in biodegradable
resin, 10% chicken feather in biodegradable resin and 5% chicken feather in
biodegradable resin, respectively. The result of this experiment can be
described that the chicken feather fiber is insufficient strength. This
phenomenon has also been reported in other researches. However, human
hair fiber has high strength similarly with biodegradable resin. In this
experiment, tensile strength of chicken feather fiber and human hair fiber
reinforce biodegradable resin is less than pure biodegradable rein by 10
MPa, which is the acceptable value for the applications.
83
Figure 5.1 Tensile strength Vs Fiber content

Figure 5.2 shows the percentage of elongation at break for each
sample material. The result of this study shows that the highest per cent
elongation at break is at biodegradable resin contain 5% chicken feather and
10% human hair and follow by 10% chicken feather with higher than pure
biodegradable resin.
It can explain that natural fibers have influence to
improve the ductility of biodegradable resin.
Figure 5.2 %Elongation at break Vs Fiber content

84
The figure below shows the value of tensile modulus for difference
sample material. The result of this experiment illustrates that the value of
tensile modulus of chicken feather fibers and human hair fiber reinforce
biodegradable resin is higher than pure biodegradable resin. The highest
value is 0.372 GPa with the biodegradable resin contain 10% human hair
fiber follow by biodegradable resin contain 10% chicken feather fiber and 5%
chicken feather fiber.
Figure 5.3 Tensile modulus Vs Fiber content

The effect of chicken feather fibers and human hair fibers contain in
biodegradable resin can be increased the tensile modulus and per cent
elongation at break of pure biodegradable resin. On the other hand, the
tensile strength of pure biodegradable resin decrease by reinforce with
chicken feather fibers.
85
5.2 Marketing Plan

SWOT analysis
Johnson, Scholes and Whittington (2008, p.119) stated that SWOT
summarises the key issues from the business environment and the strategic
capability of an organization that are most likely to impact on strategy
development.
The objective of SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and
threats) is for develop the strategy plan to compare with the other
competitors. Moreover, SWOT analysis will help to focus on the future
strategy plan of the organization (Johnson, Scholes and Whittington 2008).
In order to successful in commercial market for bio-composites
materials. SWOT analysis is needed to use for the future plan of this product
and improve the quality of products. To improve the quality of the products,
training and studying in the structure of the products need to be concerned.
Moreover, the marketing campaign of bio-composite materials is needed to
promote this material for worldwide.
The SWOT analysis for the bio-composites materials in the market are
shown in the table below.
86
Strengths
Opportunities
Eco-friendly materials
Inexpensive materials
for this material slightly
Good properties in term of
increased in the future
mechanical properties
The prediction of market trend
This material is widely used in
Renewable and degradability
automotive sector which has
materials
high demand of the customers
Light weight material
This material is light weight

material and therefore it can
reduce the transportation cost.
This material has properties

similarly with existing materials
but it is cheaper than existing
materials
Weaknesses
Some properties is not good
It need to improve the quality
enough
for suitable to use with many
This material is new for
type of products
worldwide market then it may
Threats
The market trends of this
be impede by existing materials
materials only growth up in
This component still need more
developed countries
experiment for guarantee the

quality of products
Training and studying of this

material need to improve
Table 5.1 SWOT analysis for bio-composite material
87
5.3 The alternative parameter that can be affected the result

The first machine which is used to mix natural fiber and biodegradable
resin is extruder machine. This machine has to set the temperature when its
operates, thus the temperature of materials which are used in this machine
are required. The wrong temperature may be affected for the structure of
materials. The machine that is used in this experiment is very old and
therefore it used to use for many material that can be caused of has some
contaminates in our materials.
This machine is very dangerous machine because it contain sharp
rotating knife. The natural fiber which is used in this experiment is hard to
granulate with this machine because of weight and shape of this material.
Furthermore, the new material that is fed in to this machine may be
contaminated from the previous material which can be affected to the
structure of material.
According to the material which is used in this experiment is newest
material, thus there are not enough information to use with this machine such
as the melting of material, force that is used in the machine to compress
material and time for compress the material. As a result of this, the sheet
plate from the compression molding is not good enough because in some
surface of sheet plate is brittle.
88
5.3.4 Laser cutting

Corel draw is a program that is used for this machine to cut the
component. This program has material cutting template to select with suitable
material for cutting but it does not have biodegradable resin for the choice of
material cutting template and therefore biodegradable resin is hard to cut in
one time then it can be caused of inaccuracy of the dimension of the
specimens that are used to test with tensile tester.
5.3.5 Tensile tester
Tensile tester is the machine which is used to test mechanical
properties for sample materials in this experiment. This machine can be
caused of some error for the result in this experiment such as choose wrong
item in the program, error for the force of load and extension which should be
zero before testing material but sometime is not set at zero and the gap
between jaws and materials.
5.3.6 Human error
There are several errors could be made from the researchers such as
weight content of natural fiber which is used to reinforce polymer matrix, the
measurement of dimension and weight of materials in each step and the lack
of knowledge for the machines and materials. All of these errors can be
affected to the results in this experiment.
89
Chapter 6
Conclusion and Recommendation
6.1 Conclusion
In the last few decades, the environmental problems are concerned as
the big problems in the global, the renewable materials are selected to use
instead of existing materials. The one choice of renewable materials is biocomposites materials which have good properties in term of mechanical
properties, light weight and degradability materials. Moreover, this material
can be reduced the energy consumption and landfill wastes.
Nowadays, bio-composites materials are applied to use in many areas

such as construction, automotive, consumer,
marine and electronic
components sector. In the recent years, there are many techniques which are
used
to
improve
the
bio-composites
materials,
for
example,
the
reinforcement between natural fibers and polymer matrix for developing the
mechanical properties of the composites.
In this experiment, chicken feather fibers and human hair fibers are
used as the reinforcement with biodegradable resin for improving the
mechanical properties. According to the result of this experiment, the per
cent of elongation at break and tensile modulus of this composite is
increased in contrast the value of tensile strength is decreased when adding
the chicken feather fibers but slightly decreased when adding human hair
fiber.
Finally, the addition of natural fibers in polymer matrix can improve the
mechanical properties of bio-composites materials, thus this material can be
used replace the non-biodegradability materials to reduce the environmental
problems in the present.
90
6.2 Recommendation
Nowadays, there are several researches in the area of bio-composites
materials to development and improvement the quality of this composite.
There are many techniques that are uses for improving the quality of this
material. The popular technique is adding the natural fiber for improving the
quality of bio-composites materials in term of mechanical properties.
The natural fibers reinforce polymer matrix are needed to add the
adhesive materials such as couple agent for treatment the composite
materials but in this experiment the adhesive materials is not use as a
treatment for the bio-composites materials, thus the result of this research
may be improved when adding the adhesive materials. Moreover, there are
some more parameter which can be affected the result of this study, for
instance, the error of machine that is used in this experiment and human
error.
In addition to, the amount of sample material is one of factor to

improve the quality of materials by using more sample materials for testing
then we will know more information about the materials and also need some
more experiment to analyze the quality of this material such as the quality in
term of thermal properties by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and
FTIR equipment. Furthermore, training and studying of the machines and raw
materials is the significantly factor to improve the quality of bio-composites
materials.
According to the marketing plan, this material needs more promoting

in the current market to inform the benefit by using bio-composites materials.
In the future plan, the marketing plan of bio-composites materials should be
concerned for the other development in this material.
91
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95
Appendix
1. The result of tensile testing
1.1 Pure biodegradable resin
1
2
3
Width
(mm)
3.83
3.84
3.82
Thickness
(mm)
2.21
2.23
2.21
Area
(cm^2)
0.08464
0.08563
0.08442
1
2
3
Extension at Break
elastic limit(Cursor)
(mm)
0.066
0.029
0.233
Extension at Break
max(Cursor)
(mm)
1.933
1.600
3.033
Extension at
Maximum Load
(mm)
1.800
1.567
2.667
Maximum Load
(N)
Tensile stress at
Maximum Load
(MPa)
84.522
87.065
88.063
9.986
10.167
10.431
Tensile stress at
Break elastic
limit(Cursor)
(MPa)
0.90213
0.31425
2.10288
1
2
3
96
Tensile stress at
Break max(Cursor)
(MPa)
1
2
3
7.94860
10.05344
9.40836
1
2
3
Specimen label
pure resin 1
pure resin 2
pure resin 3
Tensile strain at
Break elastic
limit(Cursor)
(mm/mm)
0.00254
0.00111
0.00897
Rate 1
(mm/min)
20.00000
20.00000
20.00000
1.2 Biodegradable resin with 5% chicken feather fiber
1
2
3
Width
(mm)
3.88
3.90
3.87
Thickness
(mm)
2.04
2.06
2.07
Area
(cm^2)
0.07915
0.08034
0.08011
1
2
3
Extension at Break
(mm)
0.066
0.066
0.100
Extension at Break
max(Cursor)
(mm)
2.067
1.233
2.700
Extension at
Maximum Load
(mm)
1.967
0.967
2.633
97
1
2
3
Maximum Load
(N)
Tensile stress at
Maximum Load
(MPa)
71.579
56.601
80.180
9.043
7.045
10.009
Tensile stress at
Break max(Cursor)
(MPa)
Tensile strain at
Break elastic
limit(Cursor)
(mm/mm)
0.00254
0.00254
0.00384
1
2
3
7.99688
6.93912
9.88099
1
2
3
Specimen label
Sample 1
Sample 2
Sample 3
Tensile stress at
Break elastic
limit(Cursor)
(MPa)
0.74347
0.76238
0.89661
Rate 1
(mm/min)
20.00000
20.00000
20.00000
1.3 Biodegradable resin with 10% chicken feather fiber
1
2
3
Width
(mm)
3.86
3.86
3.85
Thickness
(mm)
2.01
1.96
1.91
Area
(cm^2)
0.07759
0.07566
0.07353
98
1
2
3
1
2
3
Extension at Break
(mm)
0.066
0.066
0.066
Extension at Break
max(Cursor)
(mm)
1.200
2.233
2.133
Extension at
Maximum Load
(mm)
1.167
2.133
1.833
Maximum Load
(N)
Tensile stress at
Maximum Load
(MPa)
60.689
77.413
75.871
7.822
10.232
10.318
Tensile stress at
Break elastic
limit(Cursor)
(MPa)
0.97621
0.80036
0.84896
Tensile stress at
Break max(Cursor)
(MPa)
Tensile strain at
Break elastic
limit(Cursor)
(mm/mm)
0.00254
0.00255
0.00254
1
2
3
7.80621
9.87268
6.13760
1
2
3
Specimen label
Sample 1
Sample 2
Sample 3
Rate 1
(mm/min)
20.00000
20.00000
20.00000
1.4 Biodegradable resin with 10% human hair fiber
99
1
2
3
Width
(mm)
3.87
3.84
3.87
Thickness
(mm)
1.90
1.92
1.95
Area
(cm^2)
0.07353
0.07373
0.07546
1
2
3
Extension at Break
(mm)
0.066
0.100
0.066
Extension at Break
max(Cursor)
(mm)
1.067
2.667
2.033
Extension at
Maximum Load
(mm)
0.933
2.200
1.767
Maximum Load
(N)
Tensile stress at
Maximum Load
(MPa)
61.958
82.510
78.775
8.426
11.191
10.439
Tensile stress at
Break elastic
limit(Cursor)
(MPa)
0.78037
1.39035
0.81206
Tensile stress at
Break max(Cursor)
(MPa)
Tensile strain at
Break elastic
limit(Cursor)
(mm/mm)
0.00254
0.00384
0.00254
1
2
3
1
2
3
7.84687
9.20565
9.16297
1
2
3
Specimen label
Sample 1
Sample 2
Sample 3
Rate 1
(mm/min)
20.00000
20.00000
20.00000
10
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Faculty of Arts, Computing, Engineering and Sciences

Improving Mechanical properties of

Supervised by: DR. ABDUL HOQUE

The dissertation IS CONFIDENTIAL and circulation should be restricted to those

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of Sheffield Hallam

Sheffield Hallam University

Nuttapol Mungcalachatikul 19044478

The submission of the report is in accordance with the requirements of the

Sheffield Hallam University

Nuttapol Mungcalachatikul 19044478

Sheffield Hallam University

Nuttapol Mungcalachatikul 19044478

Sheffield Hallam University

Nuttapol Mungcalachatikul 19044478

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.2. Statement of project

1.3. Aims & Objectives of this project

1.4. Materials and Machines which are used in this research

1.5. Project Chapter Outline

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATUE REVIEW

2.2. Natural fibers

2.2.1. Chicken Feather Fiber

2.2.2. Human hair

2.2.3. Plant fibers

2.3.2. Poly (lactic acid)

2.3.3. Thermoplastic starch

2.4. Technique & Theory

2.4.4. Laser cutting

2.4.5 Tensile testing

Sheffield Hallam University

Nuttapol Mungcalachatikul 19044478

2.5. Application of Bio-composites

2.5.1 Automotive industry

2.5.2 Aerospace industry

2.5.3 Consumer industry

CHAPTER THREE: EXPERIMENT (METHADOLOGY)

3.2. Raw materials used for bio-composite material

3.2.1 Chicken feather fibers

3.2.2 Human hair

3.3.3 Biodegradable resin

3.3. The ratio of materials in this experiment

3.4. Laser cutting

3.5. Tensile testing

3.5.1. SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy)

3.5.3 Compression molding

3.5.4 Laser cutting

3.5.5 Tensile testing

CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS AND CASE STUDIES

4.2. Result of granulating machine

4.3. Result of compression molding

4.4 Result of laser cutting

4.5 Result of tensile testing

4.6 Case study: Chicken feather fiber reinforce PLA

4.7 Market Opportunities for bio-composites materials

Sheffield Hallam University

Nuttapol Mungcalachatikul 19044478

CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION

5.3. The limitation of methodology

5.3.1 Extruder machine

5.3.2 Granulator machine

5.3.3 Compression molding

5.3.4 Laser cutting

5.3.5 Tensile testing