Application of Chicken Feather Waste as a Material of Nonwoven Insulator

This study observed the potential application of chicken feather waste as main material of nonwoven insulator. The experiments were conducted by varying the comparison of the orientation of chicken feathers to produce the optimal insulation material which is evaluated from thermal properties of the material and area density. Chicken feathers have a lightweight, strong, porous and hydrophobic, it is potentially used as a textile insulation material. In this research, the chicken feather waste is sorted and cleaned by chemical process then processed into nonwoven fabric with polypropylene net with thermal bonded method. The weight fraction of chicken feather and polypropylene adjusted at 10 : 4.5 according to previous experiment. Chicken feather in various orientation and polypropylene web sheet processed by thermal bonded nonwoven machine in 150 degrees C processing temperature, heating pressure was 10 psi and heating time adjusted automatically for 6 minutes. Produced insulator nonwoven than used to cover thermocouple (thermal sensor) and placed inside Tomori Total Refrigerating Equipment with 0.5 degrees C and Autcomp Electric Oven with 40.0 degrees C. The result of tensile test showed that nonwoven fabric made from chicken feather waste with unidirectional orientation was 6 tunes higher than tensile strength of commercial insulator material. Hot air insulation test result for unidirectional chicken feather showed best performance compare to commercial insulation material. In cold air insulation test, the best performance achieved by random orientation chicken feather. Based on the application testing to hot and cold air resistance, it can be seen that nonwoven fabric made from chicken waste with unidirectional orientation is able to maintain better temperature and better heat conduction resistance than commercial insulation material.