Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
10
Integrated Quality Management
for Bast Fibres in Technical
Applications
Jörg Müssig,
1
Gabriel Cescutti
2
and Holger Fischer
3
1
Hochschule Bremen - University of Applied Sciences, Bremen, Germany;
2
European Patent Office, Rijswijk, The Netherlands;
3
Faserinstitut Bremen e.V.,
Bremen, Germany
10.1 Introduction
the whole value-added chain, with reliable
proof of origin;
the objective determination of accurate
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In recent years, natural fibres have become
increasingly popular for use in industrial appli-
cations, for example as a reinforcement for
plastics. Thus, since 1996 the nova-Institut
GmbH has been documenting the rise in the
volume of natural fibres used by the European
automotive industry (Karus
et al
., 2006).
Priced at approximately 60 cents/kg, such
fibres are also economically attractive as re-
inforcement for plastics. In car interiors, natu-
ral fibres have already become established for
applications such as trim panels (with a market
share of approximately 40%), seat shells and
rear shelves (Gassan, 2003).
Due to environmental influences, the
properties of natural fibres show much greater
variation than synthetic fibres. This poses a
problem for software-based industrial design
processes that require reliable material data as
an essential prerequisite for numerical simula-
tion. According to Harig and Müssig (1999),
the conditions that material tests on natural
fibres have to meet in order to yield useful
results are:
fibre properties for calculating the proper-
ties of the finished product.
The main argument against the industrial use
of natural fibre reinforced plastics is that the
quality of the fibres depends on the year in
which they are grown. It is, nevertheless, pos-
sible to obtain fibres of consistent quality, as
well as reliable data enhancing the predict-
ability of the properties of natural fibre re-
inforced plastics by using a quality management
system that starts at the cultivation stage and
which is based on reproducible proof of origin
and harvesting parameters (Cescutti and
Müssig, 2005).
To demonstrate the possibilities offered by
quality control in agriculture, the results of cul-
tivation trials performed by the Chamber of
Agriculture Weser-Ems in Germany will be pre-
sented here. The test location lies in the
Wehnen district, in Bad Zwischenahn, near
Oldenburg in the north of Germany, close to
the North Sea. The experiments were carried
out in 1997 and 1998 (detailed information on
the experimental arrangement can be found in
Müssig and Martens, 2003). The experiments
were carried out with hemp variety Fedrina
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the supply of fibres with reproducible qual-
ities, based on a quality management
system that has been put in place along
