Physico-mechanical properties of sustainable Sagwan-Teak Wood Flour/Polyester Composites with/without gum rosin

Wood polymer composite (WPC) recognized as sustainable green polymer composite is widely used for its high durability, low maintenance, acceptable relative strength and stiffness, economy relative to other competing materials, and the fact that it is derived from a natural resource. This paper recounts the fabrication and investigation of physico-mechanical properties of Sagwan Teak Wood Flour/Polyester Composites with and without gum rosin binder. Polyester/wood flour (Tectona grandis) composites with and without gum rosin were fabricated in a wide range of compositions by hand lay-up technique. Wood flour (WF) percentage was varied from 5 to 20% by weight and tensile, flexural, impact and three-body abrasive wear tests were performed to the as-fabricated composites. It was observed that WPC having 10 wt% WF had the best tensile and impact strength. At this optimum weight percentage of wood flour (i.e. 10 wt%), the polyester resin was further blended with various wt% natural gum rosin and the sustainable composites were further optimized for best mechanical properties. The ranking of all these composites has been evaluated by TOPSIS technique by optimizing the various properties. TOPSIS optimization demonstrated that the composite consisting 10% WF mixed with 15% gum rosin yielded excellent impact strength, high abrasive wear resistance and high ductility as demanded in sandwich composite material.