PENGARUH PENYUSUNAN PERBANDINGAN TEBAL LAPISAN TERHADAP SIFAT TARIK DAN IMPAK KOMPOSIT SERAT PANDAN BERDURI BERMATRIK UNSATURATED POLYESTER
Abstract
The rapid growing of industrial development demands the discovery of alternative materials that are environmentally friendly, economical, and recyclable. One of them is by optimizing natural fibers of spiky pandanous fibers as a composite material. This spiky pandanous has the potential to be used as raw material. This study aims to find out the comparison of tensile and impact characteristics to the layer thickness of spiky pandanous fibers as a material of composite material amplifier. Thus, the idea to process spiky pandanous as one effort to reduce the use of glass fiber came up. This study examines the effects of layer thickness of spiky pandanous with continuous fiber formation and random unsaturated polyester matrix on tensile and impact characteristics. The raw materials of spiky pandanous leaves were boiled at constant temperature of 80 oC for 3 hours. Then, the fibers were soaked in alkali (NaOH) with a concentration of 2.5% for 2 hours. Subsequently, the fibers were soaked in water for 3 days with a water change in every 6 hours. The fibers were rinsed with clean water and dried and then the fibers were printed using a glass mold, with a static load. The fiber formation used was continuous and random with different variations of unsaturated polyester material as the binder. The results of the tensile and impact tests performed by the researcher showed different results depending on the layers of fibers used. In the impact test, the highest toughness value in variation 1 was 0.233 J/mm2 and the lowest value in variation 5 was 0.047 J/mm2, and the highest absorbed energy value in variation 1 was 630 J, the lowest value in variation 3 was 0.077 J. In tensile testing, the highest value of tensile strength on variation 1 was 44.517 MPa and the lowest value in variation 5 was 18.653 MPa. The highest strain value on variation 1 was 0.0187 mm/mm and the lowest strain value of variation 5 was 0.0094 mm/mm. In the elastic modulus, the highest value of variation5 was 443.36 MPa and the lowest value of variation 1 was 431.94 MPa. From the test results, it can be concluded that the highest impact toughness test of variation 1 has an overall continues formation, while the lowestimpact is in variation 5 with a complete random formation. The highest absorbed energy of variation 1 has its overall continuous fiber formation, while the lowest was in variation 3 with the fiber formations of continuous, random, continuous, and random. In the tensile test, the highest tensile strength and strain value of variation 1showing that the fiber formation is all continuous, while the lowest value was in variation 5 since all fibers are arranged randomly. At the highest elasticity modulus value of variation 5, the fiber formation is entirely random, and the lowest value is in variation 1 with all continuous fiber formation