Fabrication and Mechanical Properties of Jute Spun Yarn/PLA Unidirection Composite by Compression Molding

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.