MDF fibre reinforcement of wood plastics composites
2006
Anderson, Ross | Fernyhough, Alan | Samir Shar | Warnes, Jeremy | Witt, Michael
The use of medium Density Fibreboard (MDF) fibre to reinforce thermoplastics is appealing since the fibres are of high aspect ratio and the MDF process is one of the lowest cost methods of reducing wood to individual fibres. However, MDF fibres are difficult to handle and feed into an extruder. At Scion, a novel method of converting MDF fibre into pellets has been developed to overcome these issues. The MDF fibre pellets have been found suitable for extrusion and injection moulding to form wood plastic composites (WPCs). In the commercially successful WPC market of North America, wood flour is generally combined with a plastic such as polyethylene, to produce a versatile material that is used in a range of outdoor applications, such as decking. A second category of natural fibre plastics has also emerged where high aspect ratio natural fibres are similarly used and have the potential for greater reinforcing performance. Examples of this can be seen where agri-fibres such as hemp,flax or jute are used as reinforcing fibres in automotive applications. A number of researchers have explored the potential for using high aspect ratio wood fibres for reinforcing but little commercial applications has been reported for a range of reasons, including logistics and handling difficulties.When using MDF fibre for reinforcing with a coupling agent, for example with polypropylene based WPCs, the MDF fibre gave approximately 50% improvement in strength over the coupled wood flour performance. Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy was used to investigate and understand the fibre polymer interactions in the MDF fibre reinforced (WPCs). Other high aspect ratio natural and glass fibres were evaluated for ability to reinforce polypropylene and compared with the MDF fibre, with the MDF fibre performing favourably in such comparisons.
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