On engineering of properties of wood-polypropylene composite

Abstract

New materials based on wood have the advantage in the sense that their properties can be engineered so as to correspond to user demands. The properties which can be engineered are those relating both to their utilisation and machining, in particular - the tensile strength, elongation at break, modulus of elasticity and impact resistance. The research at the Faculty of Forestry and "Hipol" Chemical Industry related to the new type of wood-polypropylene composite. The content of wood filler was varied in the range between 40% and 70% mass contents of beech wood flour. After the highest tensile strength at 50% of filler content was determined, the effect of the wood filler origin was also examined at this content value. Therefore, wood flour of beech, poplar, acetylated pine and the waste MDF was used. The influence of the composition of the wood filler (beech combined with MDF, poplar and acetylated pine) in comparison with pure polypropylene matrix was also examined, as well as the effect of the type of coupling agent. Hopefully, the results obtained in this study might serve as the initial data for production of easily machined high-strength composites.Novi materijali bazirani na drvetu imaju tu prednost da im se svojstva mogu podesavati kako bi odgovarali zahtevima kupaca. Svojstva koja je moguce podesavati odnose se kako na koriscenje tako i na obradljivost, a to su zatezna cvrstoca, elongacija pri prekidu, modul elasticnosti i otpornost na udar. Istrazivanje na Sumarskom fakultetu i Hemijskoj industriji "HIPOL" odnosi se na novi tip drvno-polipropilenskih kompozita. Maseni sadrzaj punioca u vidu drvnog brasna bukve variran je u opsegu od 40-70%. Pri dostizanju najvece zatezne cvrstoce sa sadrzajem od 50% punioca ispitivan je i uticaj porekla drvnog punioca pri ovom sadrzaju. Zbog toga je korisceno drvno brasno od bukve, topole, acetilovane borovine i od MDF ploce. Takodje, istrazivan je uticaj sastava drvnog punioca (bukva u kombinaciji sa MDF, topolom i acetilovanom borovinom) u poredjenju sa cistom polipropilenskom matricom, kao i uticaj tipa kuplujuceg agensa. Rezultati dobijeni u ovom radu mogu da posluze kao inicijalni podaci za proizvodnju cvrstih i lako obradljivih kompozita.