Use of agricultural materials in flexible polyurethanes and composites for automotive applications

You are here: Homepage > Search

Use of agricultural materials in flexible polyurethanes and composites for automotive applications

Flanigan, Cynthia / Perry, Christine / Lee, Ellen / Houston, Dan / Mielewski, Debbie / Harris, Angela

The use of renewable materials in commercial products has gained attention over the past several years. Biomaterials can offer significant advantages over conventional materials such as: sustainability, reduction of petroleum dependence, lighter weight of components and potential lower cost. In our studies, we demonstrate the use of soy-derived materials in two primary thermoset applications: sheet molding compounds (SMC) and polyurethane foam. SMC composites were produced using soy resin in place of a portion of the vinyl ester resin, to evaluate mechanical performance, process capabilities and component performance. In addition, composite reinforcements of continuous hemp fiber, non-woven hemp mats, fiberglass, and hybrids (fiberglass/continuos hemp twine mixtures) were examined. Results indicate that the soy resin composites demonstrate equivalent properties to those of the vinyl ester resin composites and are equally able to be molded into complex geometries. While substitution of glass reinforcement with natural fibers was found to reduce the mechanical performance of the composites, hybrid composites of glass and hemp fibers provided promising results. Hydroxylized soy oil has also been used as a polyol in flexible, polyurethane foam formulations. Foam formulations have been optimized for mechanical and processing performance. One of the key technical challenges of soy foams are their inherent odor. Two odor reduction methods will be discussed, including a novel, low odor method to functionalize soybean oil.

Access

Access via TIB

Check availability in my library

Export, share and cite

Document information

Title :

Use of agricultural materials in flexible polyurethanes and composites for automotive applications

Additional title:

Die Verwendung von Agrarwerkstoffen in flexiblen Polyurethanen und Verbundwerkstoffen in Fahrzeuganwendungen

Contributors:

Flanigan, Cynthia (author) / Perry, Christine (author) / Lee, Ellen (author) / Houston, Dan (author) / Mielewski, Debbie (author) / Harris, Angela (author)

Published in:

Annual SPE Automotive Composites Conference 2006, 6 ; 270-287

Publication date :

2006

Size :

18 Seiten, 11 Bilder, 5 Tabellen, 9 Quellen

Type of media :

Conference paper

Type of material :

Language :

English

Keywords :