Natural-Fiber Thermoplastic Composite Manufacturing

Lead:

Norplex

Partners:

Arkema, Western Washington University

% cost share:

IACMI: 55%
Industry: 45%

Duration:

August 2023 – June 2024

Problem statement:

Composite materials with natural fibers exist. Composite materials from recyclable thermoplastic resins exist. Combining these two materials is not common, and this project looks to put a full life cycle, natural fiber reinforced composite, into the hands of engineers and designers. 

Project goal:

Demonstrate feasibility of impregnating natural fibers with Elium resin in a continuous process to develop a new, lower embodied energy composite

Technical approach:

There were four tasks & results for each.

1. Complete a proof of concept for manufacturing processes and characterization of natural fiber reinforced Elium organosheet and other product forms for future scale
2. Develop the optimal curing parameters for the continuous process of producing Elium organosheet
3. Gather data and information pertaining to the quality of the manufactured prepreg
4. Gather data through mechanical testing of flax prepreg tensile, flexural, and short beam shear

Results:

1. The process proved to be feasible, and the next step is to scale this technology at an industrial scale at Norplex-Micarta.
2. The teams at WWU discovered that the UV photoinitiated/polymerized skin was effective at preventing MMA volatilization using a S5064 8 m/W/cm2 UV lamp.
3. Photo-initiator in the resin mix posed too much of a gumming issue. Approximately 50% resin-to-fiber ratio was maintained with thermal initiator only. The prepreg process parameters from treater run #4 were suitable for the flax fiber material. The team plans on using these key takeaways to further develop the PMMA prepreg pilot-production process.
4. In comparison to fiberglass, the flax fibers with a PMMA matrix showed some need for further process study to more closely achieve the theoretically possible values. Some of this optimization is related to the consolidation process, which was outside the scope of this project.

Potential impact:

This material not only serves as a transformative technology that paves the way for advances in composite recycling, but the insights gained during its development will also enrich the understanding of processing techniques for other thermoplastic resins with natural fiber materials. This project will also improve process techniques using continuous glass fiber with the Elium resin, which will be used for benchmarking comparative data and has broad application in industrial and electrical markets.