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The weathering effect in natural environment on kenaf blast and unsaturated polyester composite Abstract.A Kenaf composite was prepared by using hand lay-up process. The effect of weather on mechanical, morphology and thermal properties of kenaf composite were studied. Tensile strength of kenaf compositewas found to be 60MPa. Unfortunately, tensile strength of thecomposite starts to decrease after the first weathering month through to the weathering periods with constant reduction of tensile, at the end of the wreathing period.,almost 85% the composite mechanical behaviour is lost. From the mechanical properties result obtained it clearly seen that natural fiber and their composites are not able to stand environmental condition because they have poor wettability, incompatibility with some polymeric matrices and high moisture absorption. Due to the high moisture absorption properties, there are formations of void in interfacial adhesion between fiber and matrix which can reduce the mechanical properties of composite such as flexural strength or flexural modulus this clearly supported by SEM results. Fortunately some modification can do towards improving the mechanical properties and it is good enough to achieve the high performance of the composite with proper system formulation during the modification processand the result of reinforced kenaffiber will be presented in our next publication.

This work is aiming at attaining the highest wear abrasion resistance of Hadfield steel, through using ceramic metal matrix approach. The metal matrix composite structure was attained through using honey comb method. Then, microstructure observations, wear abrasion resistance of the metal matrix composite structure were well tracked by using optical microscope, SEM, XRD, and wear test. Comparing with the reference Hadfield steel, it was found that wear abrasion resistance has been multiplied through using ceramic metal matrix composite structure, adding to the great enhancement of strain hardening property. These results refer to the possibility of using this new technique for producing the crusher components to be applied under severe mining conditions.

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