composites reinforced with carbon fiber

 Obviously, the mechanical properties of carbon composites were superior to jute composites. However, the mechanical properties of jute composites were better than neat PLA. A 3D printed dog bone tensile specimen is shown in Fig. 9. Fig. 8 Schematic diagram of fused deposition modeling 3D printer (Mohamed et al. 2015) Date Palm Fiber Composite Fabrication Techniques 173 Fig. 9 3D printed tensile specimen (Matsuzaki et al. 2016) Another study by Le Duigou et al. (2019), investigated the potential of 3D printing composites reinforced with flax fibers using fused deposition modeling. Flax compos- ites were printed longitudinally and transversally and their properties were investi- gated. The mechanical properties of the printed composites were comparable to continuous glass fiber/polyamide. 2.9 Extrusion Extrusion is a continuous process during this process; thermoplastic raw materials are melted and shaped into continuous length of polymeric products with fixed cross section profile. The products can be cut into the desired length by certain post-die equipment. The extrusion products cover many applications such as textile fibers, pipes, tubes, sheets, and insulated wire. Also profile shapes such as window frames and doors can be manufactured. The major extrusion equipment is the extruder, which consists of three major components: feeding section, melting section, and finally head box which comprising a die to form the required profile (Yang et al baby shower net dress. 2016). 2.10 Injection Moulding Injection moulding is a technique used to shape polymers into various structures. 

Injection moulding process can be divided into three main stages: filling, packing- holding, and cooling. Process starts with filling which starts after complete closing of mould. During the filling stage, injection screw pushes the molten polymer into the mould cavity until the mould is completely or nearly completely filled. Then the packing-holding stage begins, during this stage additional material is “packed” into the mould cavity under pressure to compensate any the shrinkage can be associated with cooling and solidification. The packing-holding stage continues until the mate- rial at the mould gate diy shower pouf, a narrow entrance to the mould, is frozen and the material inside the mould is no longer influenced by that at the injection nozzle. The cooling stage begins, and the material is cooled down inside the mould until it is rigid enough 174 A. H. Hassanin et al. Fig. 10 Injection moulding process to be ejected. Simultaneously with the material solidification in the cooling stage, plastication takes place inside the barrel, in this process polymer melt is conveyed to the screw tip by the screw rotation. The screw rotation stops after a sufficient amount of melt is accumulated in front of the screw. When the part in the mould becomes rigid enough, the mould is opened, and the part is ejected (Yang et al. 2016) (Fig. 10). Composites reinforced with date palm fibers have been made using extrusion followed by injection moulding or compression moulding using thermosets and thermoplastics (Elseify et al. 2019). Date palm midrib fiber composites have been extruded with HDPE and LLDPE then hot pressed (Mahdavi et al. 2010; Mirmehdi et al. 2014). Moreover, some researchers used PP as a matrix with leaflet, spadix stems, and mesh fibers; the fibers were first extruded into pellets then used in injec- tion moulding (Abu-Sharkh and Hamid 2004; Alawar et al. 2009; Zadeh et al. 2017; Boukettaya et al. 2018). Additionally, date palm leaflet fibers were used with recycled matrices like PETr, RLDPE, and RHDPE; the manufacturing techniques were extru- sion followed by injection moulding (Dehghani et al bath pouf knit pattern. 2013; Zadeh et al. 2017). Other natural fibers like coir and bamboo fibers were also manufactured tusing extrusion followed by either injection moulding or compression moulding silicone loofah. 

Bamboo fibers in emulsion form were used with PLA in composite fabrication using extrusion followed by compression moulding (Li et al. 2019). Also, coir fibers were used with PP using extrusion then injection moulding (Haque et al. 2010). 3 Manufacturing of Date Palm Fiber-Based Composites In a previous study, biodegradable polymer was used as a matrix reinforced with date palm fibers. Starch based biodegradable polymer was used with a fiber to matrix weigh fraction equals to 20:80. Prior to the compression process, date palm fibers Date Palm Fiber Composite Fabrication Techniques 175 and flax fibers were chemically treated using 5% NaOH. Date palm fibers were cut into length ranged between 20 and 30 mm and flax fibers’ length ranged between 15 and 30 mm. The positive mould was coated with steric acid as release agent to facilitate taking out the sample off the mould. Hybrid fibers of date palm and flax were distributed in the mould and then the prepared thermo plastic starch (TPS) poured over the fibers. TPS was mixed with water in ratios of 1:1, 1:2, 1:3, 1:4, and 1:8 for 0, 20, 40, 50, 60, and 80 wt% respectively and then poured over the hybrid fibers. After that, mould was closed and hot pressed in two stages. First, mould with pressed and preheated at 140 ± 3 °C for 30 min followed by hot pressing under 5 MPa at 160 ± 3 °C for 30 min. Then mould was cooled down (Ibrahim et al. 2014). In another study, date palm fiber reinforced recycled plastic was investigated as an environmentally friendly artificial wood. Three different types of plastic were collected namely; Polycarbonate (PC), Polystyrene (PS), and Polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Collected plastics were soaked in diluted 5% Clorox solution for 60 min and then washed with detergent and left to air dry. Washed and cleaned plastics were shredded into length ranged between 1 and 4 mm. Collected date palm fibers left to dry and cut into length ranged between 0.63 and 4 mm. Then, recycled plastics were mixed with date palm fibers at ratios of 1:1. Each mixture was pretreated with coupling agent to enhance the interfacial adhesion between date palm fibers and matrix. Table 1 illustrates the mixture and the used coupling agent. Pre-treated plastics and date palm fibers were mixed in a mixer at speed of 40–50 rpm for 3– 4 min and then air dried, this process was repeated two times. 

After mixing process, mixed pellets of each sample were extruded in single extruder machine equipped with single screw 25 mm bath sponge crossword clue. Three different heating profile were used based on plastic type. For the PC-mix, the extruded heating profile ranged between 120 and 240 °C, for the PVC-mix the extruded heating profile ranged between 100 and 220 °C, and for PS-mix the extruded heating profile ranged between 120 and 180 °C. Extruded mixture was then pressed using hydraulic press of 119 tons. During the compression moulding, the mould temperature for the PC and PVC-mix kept at 185 and 160 °C for the PS-mix (Binhussain and El-Tonsy 2013). Another study was made to evaluate the effect of chemical treatment using HCL shower sponge on a stick, NaOH, and CH3COOH for their effect on the mechanical properties of date palm fiber reinforced composites (Abdellah et al. 2019). Compression moulding was used to fabricate the composite samples. Date palm fibers were washed and cleaned from dust and left to air dry. Fibers were chopped using electrical mixer for 15 min. Following the chopping process, grinding date palm fibers are chemical treated using the three different chemicals. Mixture of date palm fibers and epoxy resin (2:1 resin Table 1 Material mixture with coupling agent (Binhussain and El-Tonsy 2013) Mixture Coupling agent for pre-treatment PC-mix Saturated solution of polycarbonate in methylene chloride PVC-mix Pre-treatment with mixture of acetone + carbon disulfide + PVC polymer PS-mix Saturated solution of polystyrene in chloroform 176 A. H. Hassanin et al. to hardener) was poured into 300 mm × 200 mm × 10 mm mould. Aluminum foil was used on the top and bottom of the open mould to prevent the sticking of the mixture to the mould surface. Mould was then placed under 3-ton manual hydraulic.