Optimization of the Hot Pressing Process for Preparing Flax Fiber/PE Thermoplastic Composite

Abstract

The hot pressing process parameters were optimized to prepare flax fiber reinforced polyethylene (PE) thermoplastic composite by the Taguchi method. The optimal hot pressing process parameters were determined to increase the tensile strength of the composite. The optimal parameters of the design include the following sections: hot pressing temperature, pressure, hot pressing time and coupling agent modification time. An L9 (3*4) orthogonal matrix based on the Taguchi method was created. By means of analysis of signal-to-noise ratio and analysis of variance, the optimal hot pressing process parameters combination was found, compared to the average tensile strength in the nine design experiments, and the tensile strength was improved nearly 10%.