Manufacturing and mechanical characterisation of unidirectional fique fibre reinforced polypropylene composites

New sustainable composites have gained considerable attention in recent years and implementing natural fibres as reinforcement in composites is growing faster in engineering applications. This work presents the development, processing, and characterisation of a new composite material by combining textile polypropylene (PP) and long Fique fibres (a South American Andes native fibre). The samples are made out using coated Fique fibres and compared with samples of only PP. The consolidation is carried out using hot pressing at 185°C and a pressure of 10MPa. Tensile, bending, Charpy and DSC tests are conducted to evaluate the thermo-mechanical properties of the new material. The PP-Fique composite with coated fique fibres shows a remarkable increment in the mechanical properties in comparison with PP. Implementing Fique fibres as reinforcement in PP will reduce the amount of plastic required keeping mechanical performance.