Authored by Oguz Eryilmaz*
Abstract
In this study, the surface adhesion of the ink on composite materials was examined. For this purpose, composite materials were produced by adding polypropylene, thus polyethylene thermoplastic matrices were reinforced with sisal fibres. After the production of composites, the screenprinting process using water-based ink was applied to composite surfaces to investigate printing performance. As a result of these applications, the printability of the PE was found to be better than the PP. Also, the ink was adhered to the surface by forming a bond with the composite surface at polyethylene materials, but meanwhile not being able to hold onto the polypropylene composite surface.
Keywords: Sisal; Polypropylene; Polyethylene; Composite materials; Printability
Introduction
Over the last few decades, more attention is given to cellulosebased fibers as reinforcement fillers in the polymer composites owing to the environmental pollution caused by the extensive usage of synthetic fibers such as glass fibers to produce composite materials [1]. Unlike synthetic fibers, natural fibers possess lightweight, high strength, and are readily available, environmentally friendly and biodegradable. The utilization of natural fibers for the generation of composites has many advantages, for example, recyclability, eco-friendly products, etc. Many different types of natural fibers are being exploited for the production of biodegradable polymer composites [2-6]. More than a thousand types of natural fibers are already available [7]. Among these, sisal fibers (SF) are one of the best reinforcing materials for polymer composites owing to their higher cellulose content (78%), good tensile strength (>600 MPa), easy availability and low cost [8]. However, similar to other natural fibers, sisal fibers are poorly compatible with the matrices of thermoplastics, due to their hydrophilic surface which in turn reduces the thermal and mechanical properties of sisal fibers reinforced thermoplastics. Especially in the fiber-matrix interfaces, the hydrophobicity of the fibers causes poor mechanical strength and hence limits their applications studied the mechanical and rheological properties of different lignocellulose fiber materials reinforced polypropylene composites [9,10]. It has been observed that using different types of fibrous materials tensile modulus improved by more than 10% for fiber-reinforced polypropylene composites [11].
FRP is a composite material consisting of a polymer matrix embedded with high- strength fibers, such as glass, aramid, and carbon. Generally, the polymer can be classified into two classes, thermoplastics and thermosets. Thermoplastic materials currently dominate, as matrices for bio-fibers; the most commonly used thermoplastics for this purpose are polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (LDPE and HDPE), and polyvinyl chloride (PVC); while phenolic, epoxy and polyester resins as thermosetting matrix [12].
Polyethylene (PE) polymers have peculiar mechanical properties due to the high strength to weight ratios and stiffness to weight ratios. Because of these unique properties, PE polymers possess huge potential for the use of composite structures, especially where the crucial damping properties are required. Hence, sisal fibers are being utilized with the combination of viscoelastic PE to attain a high-quality balance of damping behaviour [13,14].
All information about the product in the package must be found on the composite surface to be employed as packaging material. According to other printing systems, Screen – printing technique is widely preferred as a printing system due to its advantages of low cost, controllable thickness, and film uniformity as well as effective printing quality on different printing surfaces. It is also an environmentally friendly printing system for water-based inks expended in printing and for recycling [15].
In this work, environmentally friendly water-based ink, which is demanded extensively in the industry, were each printed on the polyethylene and polypropylene (PP) composite materials reinforced with sisal fiber surface using the screen – printing technique. After the printing, the ink adhesion on the surface of the composite materials, their roughness was investigated.
Experimental
Materials
In this study, it was investigated the ink adhesion on the surface of composite materials using textile fabrics. For this purpose, polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) was exerted as a thermoplastic resin and reinforced with sisal fiber (SF) to produce composite samples. The properties of the materials for the production of the composites are given in Table 1.
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