Impact Resistance and Shore Hardness of Barkcloth Reinforced Epoxy Composites for Interior Automotive Panels

Abstract

The global impact of the consequences of climate change due to an increase in Green House Gas (GHG) emissions are visible. With the implementation of EU directives on waste and end of life disposal strategies, there has been a surge of activity driven by the European automotive industry to introduce Natural Fiber Composites as a substitute to synthetic composites, where appropriate. This paper therefore reports the impact and shore hardness of composites reinforced with a naturally occurring non-woven fabric barkcloth. The composites were produced using a layering architecture; the impact properties show that samples with layering sequence I and IV had the best sequence for the impact properties. The shore hardness of the composites was 72 which is presentable. This further confirms the potential of barkcloth reinforced composites for interior automotive panels.

Hardness and flexural performance of 3D orthogonal carbon/glass fibers hybrid composites under thermal-oxidative aging

“…The flexural test is able to not only characterize the resistance of bending deformation, but also reflect the properties of the matrix and fiber/ matrix interface [17,18]. Besides, the hardness can effectively signify the deformation resistance of the composite against the concentrated force [19,20]. Moreover, the hardness test results in relatively minor damage to the composite.…”