Injection Moulding Parameters Effect on Fracture Toughness of Polypropylene Nanocomposite Gigantochloa Scortechinii Using Taguchi Method

Mohd Hilmi  Othman; Mohamad Ariff  Sulor; Saliza Azlina  Osman; Shayfull Zamree  Abd Rahim; Mohd Amri  Lajis; Sabiha  Salim

doi:10.37934/mjcsm.16.1.224234

Authors

Mohd Hilmi Othman Department of Manufacturing Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, University Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, Parit Raja, 86400 Batu Pahat, Johor, Malaysia
Mohamad Ariff Sulor Department of Manufacturing Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, University Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, Parit Raja, 86400 Batu Pahat, Johor, Malaysia
Saliza Azlina Osman Department of Manufacturing Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, University Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, Parit Raja, 86400 Batu Pahat, Johor, Malaysia
Shayfull Zamree Abd Rahim 2 Center of Excellence Geopolymer and Green Technology, Kompleks Pusat Pengajian Jejawi 2, Taman Muhibbah, 02600 Jejawi, Perlis, Malaysia
Mohd Amri Lajis 3 Sustainable Manufacturing and Recycling Technology (SMART) Research Cluster, Advanced Manufacturing and Materials Center (AMMC), Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM), 86400, Parit Raja, Batu Pahat, Johor, Malaysia
Sabiha Salim 4 Faculty of Forestry and Environment, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Selangor, Serdang, 43400, Malaysia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37934/mjcsm.16.1.224234

Keywords:

Fracture toughness, Injection Molding, Nanocomposites, Taguchi Method, Polypropylene Nanoclay Gigantochloa-Scortechinii

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental study about injection moulding parameters effect on fracture toughness of polypropylene-nanoclay-gigantochloa-scortechinii nanocomposites with 0 wt.%, 3 wt.%, and 6 wt.% of bamboo fibre content. The selected parameters were melt temperature, packing pressure, screw speed and filling time. The composite samples were injection moulded from a material consisting of polypropylene, bamboo fibres, compatibilizer, and nanoclay. Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics method according to ASTM D5045 was used to evaluate the fracture toughness. The experimental design was made by adopting the Taguchi Method Orthogonal Array. Analysis of variance was used to determine the most contributing parameters and the plot of main effect diagrams were used to define the optimum factor values. The results showed that the composite with 6 wt.% bamboo fibres had the highest KIc value of 18.188 MPa.m^1/2, while the nanocomposite without bamboo fibres had the lowest KIc value, 11.693 MPa.m^1/2. It was found that the fracture toughness increased with the addtion of bamboo fibre. As for the samples made of 6 wt.%, the melting temperature was the most influential factor affecting the fracture toughness, but for samples made of 3 wt.% the packing pressure is the decisive factor. The combination of 175°C melt temperature, 50% packing pressure, 40% screw speed and 2 seconds filling time results in the sample with 3 wt.%, bamboo fibre content. The combination of 170°C melt temperature, 45% packing pressure, 30% screw speed and 2 seconds filling time, were the optimum values for the 6 wt.%, bamboo fibre content sample that produced the highest fracture toughness for this formulation. The knowledge from this research was useful for manufacturing industries that using injection molding process to produce their product, by using this new type of material. On top of that, the use of organic and natural materials such as bamboo fibres can acellerate the efforts in reducing the environmental footprint.