Cars from bio-fibres

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Cars from bio-fibres

Bledzki, Andrzej K. / Faruk, Omar / Sperber, Volker E.

The use of bio-fibres for composite applications is being investigated throughout the world. Many automotive components (either interior and exterior) are now made from bio-fibre reinforced composite materials which are mainly based on polypropylen with reinforcing bio fibres. The principal fibres now being used for this purpose belong to flax and hemp and jute, kenaf, banana fibre, sisal and wood. Bio-fibres have a strong potential in the automotive industry as jute, flax and hemp is 40 % higher than glass fibres. In principle, the production techniques for natural fibre composites can be similar to those for glass fibres. The most important technology is undoubtedly compression moulding. In general, the differences lie in the way fibres and binding polymers are combined and brought into the mould. Johnson controls automotive presented an overview of the state of the art of the use of plastic-natural fibre composite materials for interior car parts and the technologies to produce such parts. These different processes are: FIBRIT process; Fibrowood; Fibropour, Natural fibre-EP, EcoCor, Polixil, FibreTec. These processes differ concerning fibres, resins and preferred body parts. Of primary importance to the automotive industry is the weight reduction of the components, which is possible up to 30 %when using bio-fibres. Cost savings is another important factor. Therefore the future opportunities of using biofibres as replacements for glass fibres in automotive applications are enormous.