Manufacturing flax fibre-reinforced polypropylene composites by hot-pressing

The renewable characteristic of natural fibres, such as flax, and the recyclable nature of thermoplastic polymers, such as polypropylene, provide an attractive eco-friendly quality to the resulting composite materials. Common methods for manufacturing natural fibre-reinforced thermoplastic composites, injection moulding and extrusion, tend to degrade the fibres during processing. Development of a simple manufacturing technique for these composites, that minimises fibre degradation, is the main objective of this study. Flax fibres were conditioned, cut into lengths ranging from 1 mm to 30 mm with scissors and a pelletiser, and shaped into randomly oriented mats using a drop feed tower. Polypropylene in sheet form, was added to the fibres to furnish polypropylene/flax/polypropylene sandwiches with a fibre mass fraction of 25%, which were then consolidated by the hot pressing technique. Tensile, flexural and impact properties of these composite sheets were determined as functions of fibre length and processing temperature.