Research on the use of lignocellulosic fibers reinforced bio-polyamide 11 with composites for automotive parts: Car door handle case study

Abstract

Most of the decisions taken during the early design and development steps of a new product compromise a large part of its cost, including its environmental footprint and energy consumption. This is of special interest for the automotive industry that has made an effort to increase its sustainability. Adjectives like bio-based, recyclable or biodegradable are commonly used as synonyms of greener; nonetheless, such materials must achieve the requirements of the industry. This paper researches the use of alternative materials instead of glass fiber reinforced polypropylene, a commodity material. The authors propose using a wood fiber reinforced polyamide 11 composite as replacement. The research discussed the mechanical properties of such composites, obtaining values similar to the currently used materials. Moreover, a case study was performed to assess the behavior of the composites when used to manufacture a door car handle. The materials with reinforcement contents ranging from 40 to 60% showed its ability to replace the commodity materials. Furthermore, a preliminary LCA analysis was performed to evaluate the environmental footprint of the researched materials. In was found, that, in terms of energy and carbon footprint, the PA11 composites were penalized by the energy cost of the PA11 monomer production.

Explorative Study on the Use of Curauá Reinforced Polypropylene Composites for the Automotive Industry

“…The interface conditions were obtained from the literature [13]. Use conditions were based on a normal use of a car door handle.…”

“…Figure 3 shows different views of the modeled component. A similar design was used by some of the authors in a recent study on the application of natural fiber-reinforced polyamide 11 composites [13]. The reference model was made of an uncoupled GF-reinforced PP composite, with a 20 wt % GF content.…”

“…These materials are used for globe boxes, door panels, seat coverings, seat surfaces, trunk panels, trunk floors, spare tire covers, insulation, headliners, or dashboards [9,12]. The use of natural fiber-reinforced composites has been limited to non-structural or semi-structural purposes, and usually as an alternative to glass fiber-reinforced materials [9,12,13]. The most common natural fibers used as reinforcement in the automotive industry are jute, flax, sisal, cotton, wood abaca and kenaf [9,13,14].…”

“…The use of natural fiber-reinforced composites has been limited to non-structural or semi-structural purposes, and usually as an alternative to glass fiber-reinforced materials [9,12,13]. The most common natural fibers used as reinforcement in the automotive industry are jute, flax, sisal, cotton, wood abaca and kenaf [9,13,14]. The studies on the use of curauá fibers as reinforcement in the automotive industry, to the best knowledge of the authors, are scarce [6].Curauá is a Bromeliaceae (Ananás erectifolius) common to the Amazonas region.…”

“…Nonetheless, the use of lignocellulosic reinforcements limits the range of polymers to be used as a matrix, mainly because cellulose starts to degrade fast when exposed to temperatures beyond 200 • C [23].The mechanical properties of a fibers-reinforced composite are mainly affected by the nature of its phases and its percentages, its compatibility, as the ability to create strong interphases between the reinforcement and the matrix, the morphology of the reinforcements and its dispersion and its main orientation against the loads. While all the above-mentioned aspects have importance, a composite will always fail due to its feeblest phase, usually the interphase [13,24,25]. Obtaining strong interphases in natural fiber-reinforced composites is hindered by the different natures of these phases.…”