Enhancement of Physical and Mechanical Properties of Sugar Palm Fiber via Vacuum Resin Impregnation - Advanced Materials for Agriculture, Food and Environmental Safety - page 127

PF
UP

PF: y = 0.0206x + 1.1741
R 2 = 0.9576

UP: y = 0.0071x + 1.21
R 2 = 0.9615

1.8

1.5

1.24 a 1.25 a 1.27 a 1.29 b 1.33 c

1.22 a

1.26 a

1.24 a 1.25 a 1.25 a

1.2 2 a 1.22 a 1.23 a

1.2

0.9

0.6

0.3

0

Control 1000 900 800 700 600 500

Impregnation pressure (mmHg)

Figure 5.2 SG of PF- and UP-impregnated sugar palm i bers at various impregnation
pressures.

h e better penetration of PF than UP resin into the i ber could be related
to the slight increase of its specii c gravity (SG). It is shown in Figure 5.2
that the SG of i bers impregnated with PF statistically increased slightly
from 1.22 to 1.29 and 1.33 at er impregnation with a pressure of 600 and
500 mmHg, respectively. h e slight increase in SG of PF-impregnated i bers
was expected since it absorbed more resin, which also increased the WPG.
On the other hand, no signii cant increase in SG was observed for those
i bers impregnated with UP, as shown by the low value of WPG. According
to Deka et al . [30], in many cases of impregnation modii cation, impreg-
nation with low WPG usually results in no changes to SG. Nevertheless,
both results are acceptable since impregnation with these agents showed
that there was little or no weight gain resulting from impregnation. In the
case of i ber impregnated with UP, no weight gain was seen as shown in the
regression trends (where both show a horizontal slope). Since lightweight
material enhances low fuel consumptions, the results can be extremely
helpful when designing and producing a lightweight material that can con-
tribute to low fuel consumption.
h e relationship between moisture absorption rate and impregnation
pressure is shown in Figure 5.3. It can be seen that there is a signii cant dif-
ference in the rate of moisture absorption between the control samples and
the impregnated i bers in which the impregnated i bers show signii cantly
lower values of moisture content (MC) than those of the control samples.
h is indicates signii cant improvement in physical properties as a result
of MC reduction following impregnation with polymer resin. h e MC of
impregnated i bers was found to be signii cantly reduced at er impregna-
tion at pressures of 1000, 900, and 800 mmHg for both resin types (0.41
to 0.46% for PF; 0.44 to 0.53% for UP), while no reduction in MC was