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Energy Procedia 34 (2013) 830 – 838

10th Eco-Energy and Materials Science and Engineering

(EMSES2012)

Fabrication and Mechanical Properties of Jute Spun

Yarn/PLA Unidirection Composite by Compression Molding
Anin Memona*, Asami Nakaib
a
Department of Advanced Fibro-Science, Kyoto Institute of Technology,Matsugasaki, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8585, JAPAN
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Gifu University,1-1 Yanagido, Gifu, 501-1193, JAPAN

Abstract

The unidirection composites of jute spun yarn/Polylactic acid were fabricated using compression molding. The
reinforcement fibers were paralleled with matrix resin fiber and were used as intermediate materials to prepare the
unidrection preforms. The parallel yarn was winded onto the metallic frame. The wound paralleled yarns were dried
in convection oven before molding. The metallic frame containing the paralleled yarns was placed in heated mold for
consolidation to produce the unidirection composite specimens with various molding temperature. The heated mold
was cooled by the cooling system of the compression machine. Consolidation process involved three stages. At first,
under certain temperature, the solid fibrous matrix materials became softened and then the matrix in the liquid form
soaked and infiltrated the reinforcing fibers and finally during cooling stage, the matrix turned into solid form to hold
the fibers in a definite position. The molding temperature was affected to the mechanical properties of the
unidirection composite. The jute spun yarn/PLA composite were characterized in the term of mechanical properties
and the fabrication quality was examined by cross-section observation. The impregnation quality and dispersion of
fiber bundle were increased with increasing the molding temperature and achievement ratio of elastic modulus
increase. While increasing the molding temperature, the achievement ratio of tensile strength was decreased because
of deterioration of jute fiber. The optimum compression molding temperature was 185 - 195 C for fabricated the jute
spun yarn/PLA unidirection composite.

© 2013
2013The
The Authors.
Authors. Published
Published by Elsevier
by Elsevier B.V. B.V.
Selection and/or
Selection and peer-review
peer-review under responsibility
under responsibility of COE of Energy
of COE of Sustainalble Sustainable Energy
System, System,
Rajamangala Rajamangala
University of Technology
Thanyaburi (RMUTT)
University of Technology Thanyaburi(RMUTT)
Keywords: Biodegradable composite, Unidirection composite, Natural fiber, Compression molding

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +8181 4485 2516; fax: +81 75 724 7800
E-mail address: anin.memon@gmail.com

1876-6102 © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Selection and peer-review under responsibility of COE of Sustainalble Energy System, Rajamangala University of Technology
Thanyaburi (RMUTT)
doi:10.1016/j.egypro.2013.06.819
 Anin Memon and Asami Nakai / Energy Procedia 34 (2013) 830 – 838 831

1. Introduction

Environmental and economical concerns are simulating research in the design of new materials
focusing the recyclability or biodegradability product at the end of life. Natural fiber offer good
opportunities as a reinforcement material for composites provides the positive benefit to the ecological
and environmental advantage and the attractive mechanical properties [1-4]. Biodegradable polymers
have recently been introduced various fields as alternatives to traditional materials. Jute fibers are the
natural fibers superior on light weight and environmental friendly. Polylactic acid (PLA) is attracting
attention as candidate of non petroleum based biodegradable polymer materials with high mechanical
properties, thermal plasticity, processing properties and biocompatibility. It has been proposed as a
renewable and degradability for uses as service ware, grocery, composting bag and films [5-6]. The
combination of thermoplastics and renewable natural fiber such as jute as reinforcement in composite will
answer the demand for environmentally friendly [7-10]. Many researchers have already indentified the
possibilities for new fully biodegradable polymers with jute fiber reinforcement [6, 11-12].
Generally unidirection fibers are easy to impregnate with low viscosity thermosetting resin. In contrast
to thermosetting resin, thermoplastic resins contain very high melt viscosities which make in-process melt
impregnation of reinforcement difficult. For this reason, many researchers have been developed various
kind of intermediated materials to overcome these problem. David Plackett et al. [6] used PLA films
combine with jute fiber mats to generate composites by a film stacking technique. The examination of
composite fracture by scanning electron microscope showed voids in the composite. O.A. Khindker et al.
[10] study processing technique for thermoplastic manufacturing of unidirectional composites reinforced
with jute yarns. The intermediate materials were prepared by using tubular braiding technique which the
jute spun yarn were straightly inserted axial reinforcement fiber and polymer matrix fiber being braided
around the reinforcing fiber called micro-braided yarn (MBY). The composites were fabricated by
compression molding. H. Katogi et al. [11] fabricated the unidirctional jute spun yarn reinforced PLA by
using the resin impregnated into jute fiber. The prepregs were unidirctionally laminated and hot pressed.
The objective of this study was to investigate the fabrication and mechanical properties of jute spun
yarn/PLA unidirection composite. The parallel yarn configuration as shown in Figure 1 was used as
intermediate materials to prepare the unidrection preforms for compression molding. This process would
significantly reduce the cycle time of intermediate preparation and improve the unimpregnation and void
content in the unidirection composite. The jute spun yarn/PLA composite were characterized in the term
of mechanical properties and the fabrication quality was examined by cross-section observation.

a) Schematic of Pararelled yarn b) Pararelled yarn

Fig. 1. The Pararelled yarn configulation
832 Anin Memon and Asami Nakai / Energy Procedia 34 (2013) 830 – 838

2. Materials and Experiments

Jute spun yarns were paralleled with polylactic acid fiber. The jute spun yarn having a fineness of
~400 tex were used as reinforcement fibers. The continuously PLA fibers in a tow configuration were
used as resin fiber, having a fineness of ~56 tex. Figure 2 shows the parallel technique with using winding
machine. The fabrication of jute spun yarn/PLA unidirection composites involved twofold processes. The
first step was performed by initially winding parallel yarn 20 times onto the metallic frame as shown in
Figure 3. The metallic frame had a spring mechanism enabling it to adjust the tension caused by thermal
shrinkage of fiber during processing. Before fabricate the specimens, the wound paralleled yarn were
dried in convection oven at 80 C for 2 hours. The second step involved placement of the metallic frame
containing the paralleled yarns in heated mold for consolidation to produce the specimens. The heated
mold was let to be cool by water through the cooling system of the compression machine. Figure 4
showed the compression machine in this study.
Consolidation process involved three stages. At first, under certain temperature, the solid fibrous
matrix materials became softened and then the matrix in the liquid form soaked and infiltrated the
reinforcing fibers and finally during cooling stage, the matrix turned into solid form to hold the fibers in a
definite position. The second step was considered to be the most important because the liquid resin of
PLA were impregnate into jute spun yarn. Therefore the effects of molding temperature were
investigated. Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) were carried out on jute spun yarn and PLA by using
analyzer (TA Instrument 2950) over the temperature range of 40-600 °C with heating rate 50 °C/minute.
The measurements were performed in the air atmosphere. According to the TGA data of jute and PLA
(Figure 5), the thermal resistance of the jute degrades at ~240 °C and PLA degrades at ~320 °C.
Meanwhile the melting temperature of PLA was ~175 °C. Therefore, the processing window of molding
temperature could be ~175-240 °C. In this study, the compression molding temperature was design at
185, 195, 205, 215, 225 and 235°C. The compression molding time was conducted with the pressure 1.33
MPa for 8 minutes.
The jute spun yarn/PLA unidirection composite specimens were fabricated with the dimension 200 x
20 millimeter. The middle part of specimen was cut in the transverse direction with the length of 10
millimeter. They were embedded in epoxy resin and then polished in order to observe the fiber
impregnation by microscope. The tensile specimens with fiber axis long the loading direction were use in
this study, they were clamped over the length of 50 millimeter at each end leaving a gauge length of 100
millimeter. Each end of tensile specimens was attached with the aluminum tab in the gripped area. The
tensile tests were conducted on an Instron Universal Testing Machine under the test speed of 1
millimeter/minute.. In each molding condition, five unidirection composite specimens were used for
tensile test.

3. Results and discussion

The unidirection composite specimens were fabricated as shown in Figure 6. While the molding
temperature was varied in molding pressure 1.33 MPa and molding time 8 minutes, the thicknesses of
specimens were changed and as a consequence the fiber volume fraction content (Vf) was changed. Since
the increasing of molding temperature led to decreasing the thickness of specimens, the volume fraction
in composite specimens could be different as shown in Table 1. Thus, the achievement ratio was used to
compare the tensile properties among the specimens with different molding temperature. The
achievement ratio was calculated by normalizing the experimental value with theoretical value. The
theoretical value was calculated by rule of mixture [13].
 Anin Memon and Asami Nakai / Energy Procedia 34 (2013) 830 – 838 833

Fig. 2. The parallel yarn with winding machine

Fig. 3. The fabrication of jute spun yarn/PLA unidirection composite

Fig. 4. The compression machine

834 Anin Memon and Asami Nakai / Energy Procedia 34 (2013) 830 – 838

Fig. 5. The TGA data of Jute and PLA

Fig. 6. The fabricated unidirection composite specimens

Table 1. The thickness and volume fraction content (Vf)

Specimen Molding Thickness Vf

No. temperature (°C) (mm) (%)
1 185 1.47 37.39
2 195 1.38 40.32
3 205 1.28 43.09
4 215 1.19 46.16
5 225 1.51 48.00
6 235 1.03 53.65
 Anin Memon and Asami Nakai / Energy Procedia 34 (2013) 830 – 838 835

The relationship between achievement ratio of elastic modulus and molding temperature are showed
in Figure 7. The achievement ratio of elastic modulus at molding temperature 185 C are similar to the
molding temperature 195 C and slightly increase when the molding temperature above 195 C. It is
possible that the reduced viscosity of the resin at higher temperatures and hence better flow properties
may have helped to improve fiber impregnation and therefore led to trend of increasing achievement ratio
of elastic modulus as the function of heating temperature. Although jute spun yarns were dispersed in the
bundle at higher temperature may also contribute.
Figure 8 showed the relationship between achievement ratio of tensile strength and molding
temperature. The achievement ratio of tensile strength of molding temperature 185 and 195 C are similar
and decrease when the molding temperature above 195 C. Here, the effect of temperature on jute spun
yarn was clarified. From the TGA measurement of jute fiber, the reduction rate of weight of jute fiber
became more than 5% at temperature around 200 C. Therefore the achievement ratio of elastic modulus
was decreased due to heat deterioration of jute spun yarns while increased the molding temperature. Jute
spun yarn still remain the strength at molding temperature 185-195 C and decrease the strength at higher
temperature. It was clarified that the molding temperature effect to the mechanical properties of
unidirectional composite. Also, the colors of specimens were changed with increasing the temperature as
shown in Figure 6.
The cross-section observation was performed to investigate the internal structure of unidirection
composite. All specimens showed good impregnation as shown in Figure 8. At the temperature 185 and
195 C, the fiber bundles were impregnated enough with PLA resin. Meanwhile, the crosses-section with
molding temperature 205, 215, 225 and 235 C showed better impregnation and jute spun yarns were
dispersed in the bundle more than the specimens with molding temperature 185 and 195 C, hence the
achievement ratio of elastic modulus was increased. Although the impregnation of resin into fiber bundle
was enough and the fiber bundle was dispersed, the achievement ratio of elastic modulus was decreased
due to heat deterioration.

Fig. 7. The relationship between the achievement ratio of

elastic modulus and molding temperature
836 Anin Memon and Asami Nakai / Energy Procedia 34 (2013) 830 – 838

Fig. 8. The relationship between the achievement ratio of

tensile strength and molding temperature

From these results, the impregnation quality and dispersion of fiber bundle were increased with
increasing the molding temperature and achievement ratio of elastic modulus increase. While increasing
the molding temperature, the achievement ratio of tensile strength was decreased because of deterioration
of jute fiber. Therefore the optimum compression molding temperature was 185 - 195 C for fabricated
the jute spun yarn/PLA unidirection composite.

4. Conclusion

The jute spun yarn/PLA unidirection composites were fabricated. The molding temperature was effect
to the mechanical properties of the unidirection composite. It was clear that the impregnation quality and
dispersion of fiber bundle were increased with increasing the molding temperature, hence the
achievement ratio of elastic modulus increased. While increasing the molding temperature, the
achievement ratio of tensile strength was decreased because of deterioration of jute fiber.
 Anin Memon and Asami Nakai / Energy Procedia 34 (2013) 830 – 838 837

a) Molding temperature 185 C

b) Molding temperature 195 C

c) Molding temperature 205 C

d) Molding temperature 215 C

e) Molding temperature 225 C

f) Molding temperature 235 C

Fig. 9. The cross-section observation of jute spun yarn/PLA unidirection composite with
varying the molding temperture
838 Anin Memon and Asami Nakai / Energy Procedia 34 (2013) 830 – 838

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