Heat-Resistant and Mechanical Property of Jute Continuous Fiber Reinforced PLA
Kazuto TANAKA, Takafumi KATSURA, Masahiro SHINOHARA, Yusuke MORITA, Tsutao KATAYAMA and Kazutaka UNO
Abstract:Due to the increasing of the environmental issues， in recent years， natural fiber reinforced biodegradable polymers， green-composites， has attracted attention. Within these green-composites， natural fiber reinforced PLA has attracted considerable attention. The disadvantages of natural fiber reinforced PLA are low heat resistant and low strength. Crystallization of PLA has been the subject of research and development in injection-moulding， which can be achieved by addition of nucleating agent and annealing process. The annealing process of PLA has not been applied to natural continuous fiber reinforced PLA， because it is difficult to control mould temperature during annealing process. In this study， jute continuous fiber and polylactic acid were used and moulded by electromagnetic induction heating system (IH system). This system allows heating and cooling of the mould surface instantaneously. Therefore the temperature of the mould surface can be arbitrarily controlled. The nucleating agent was added to the PLA to enhance crystallization. The IH system was applied to this PLA for maintaining the crystallization temperature. Heat-resistant and mechanical property of jute continuous fiber reinforced PLA were measured. As a result from the temperature of deflection under load， highly crystallized PLA composites had higher heat resistance than low crystallized PLA composites. Temperature of deflection under load of highly crystallized PLA composites was 123.5 ℃ and bending strength was 75.9 MPa. Key Words:Jute fabric，PLA nonwoven fabric，Heat-resistant，Nucleating agent，Electromagnetic induction