In the production of composites, due to the amount of plastic waste, some stringent policies have been forced on the industries to use more biodegradable, less harmful reinforcements. Reinforcements such as natural fibers have been encouraged instead of traditional inorganic reinforcements to manufacture composite material. Due to this, in the recent decades the use of natural fibres in the making on composites have increased dramatically. Some examples of natural fibres could be jute, sisal, hemp, coconut, coir, flax, wood, pineapple and many others In the study conducted, pure Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) and cotton fibre reinforced composites were produced via a custom-made single screw extruder. The aim is to understand and determine the optimum parameters such as screw speed and processing temperatures on the mechanical properties of the composites with different cotton fiber (12.5 %wt and 25 %wt) content. For this purpose two screw speed levels (15 and 30 rpm) and two temperature set levels (145, 150, 155, 160 and 165, 170, 175, 180) for zone 1, zone 2, zone 3 and die were chosen. The effects of the parameters on mechanical properties were studied using tensile and three-point bending tests. According to pioneering results, it is worth noting that tensile and three point bending properties are highly dependent on the extrusion parameters with respect to cotton fiber content.
Anahtar Kelimeler: Recycling, Polymer-Matrix Composites, Mechanical Properties, Extrusion parameters
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