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Currently, automobile industries are paying more attention on fabricating light weight materials for making vehicle body parts. So lots of research work is been carried out on natural fibers owing to their light weight and eco-friendly nature. In this current research, composites were fabricated by reinforcing treated Bauhinia vahlii bast fiber (BV) fibers with Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) thermoplastic polymer for making light weight automobile parts. Various properties like static and dynamic mechanical properties, thermal as well as morphological properties were studied. To get a better compatibility with ABS matrix, surfaces of fibers were treated with various chemicals. An enhancement in mechanical properties was noticed with the increase in treated BV fiber loading till optimum (23 wt%) thereafter declines. The highest mechanical properties obtained at optimum fiber loading was recorded as 68.94 MPa of tensile strength, 7.02 GPa of young's modulus, 95.27 MPa of flexural strength and 33.25 kJ/m 2 of impact strength. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used for analysis. Overall, the results show that reinforcing ABS matrix with BV filler improves the characteristics of the manufactured composite materials effectively. It was found that composites fabricated from 23 wt% fiber content shows superior static and dynamic mechanical properties as well as thermal properties as compared with other fabricated composites and can be used for making lightweight automobile parts.

This research focuses on developing a new material by reinforcing chemically treated Calotropis gigantea bast fibers (CG) with epoxy resin as matrix. Composites using varying wt% of treated CG fibers were fabricated taking epoxy as matrix. The effect of chemical treatment and fiber loading on various mechanical properties, thermal, water absorption properties, and morphology using scanning electron microscope (SEM) were investigated. An increasing trend in the values of mechanical properties was observed till optimum fiber loading and then declines. The optimum properties were found at 20 wt% of fiber loading. At this fiber loading the composites were characterized by Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric (TGA) and compared with untreated fiber reinforced composites and neat epoxy. When comparing untreated and treated composites, it was discovered that composites containing 20% treated CG fibers produce better outcomes. The findings provide manufacturers and engineers with a general concept of how to employ the composites to make low-weight automotive parts for improved fuel efficiency.

In this research work, fibers from rattan plant stem (RA) were selected as reinforcing material with widely used thermoplastic polymer acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS). The extracted fibers were chemically modified with NaOH followed by benzoylation and bleaching. Then they were used as reinforcement in ABS polymer matrix by different weight percentages (0, 10, 20, 30, and 40 wt%) for fabrication of composites. It was observed that chemical treatment changes the surface texture of the fibers enhancing the surface roughness which helps in proper fiber-matrix bonding. Various properties like static and dynamic mechanical properties, thermal and morphological properties were investigated. The mechanical properties of the composites were observed to increase at beginning phase with increase in filler content till optimum (24 wt%) fiber loading and from there on declines. Highest tensile strength of 74.98 MPa, 4.80 GPa of young's modulus, 90. A total of 10 MPa of flexural strength and 31.42 kJ/m 2 of impact strength were obtained at optimum fiber loading. Further characterizations in terms of Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) on composites with optimum fiber loading were conducted and compared with untreated composites. These fabricated composites can be an alternative material for automobile industries due to its high strength and low weight advantage.

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