Bright future for Wood and Natural fiber-Plastics Composites is expected in the next 5 years

While most of the initial product developments have been in the Extrusion Sector, some efforts are being made to develop injection-moulded products for the furniture as well as construction and building industry (Door Components).

PP and HDPE are the major Polyolefins used for composites. PVC, on account of its widespread usage in the building industry, provides better weathering at a lower cost compared to the Polyolefins.

Wood as well as natural fibers require to be well dispersed in the polymer matrix. The coupling agents such as Maleated Polyolefins are essential not only to improve dispersion, but also reduce water absorption and thereby enhance the long-term performance of the composites. To provide good surface appearance, particularly at a higher output, lubricants are essential. While the commonly available Zn Stearate or EBS are generally used as lubricants, the newer specially developed lubricant systems from Honeywell Specialty and Struktol provide enhanced flow as well as improved mechanical properties when used with the Maleated coupling agents. For outdoors applications UV stabilizer such as HALS are essential. The most important aspect to be taken into consideration about these natural fibers is the prevention of growth of microbes like algae or fungi. The antimicrobial additives available from Ciba and Rohm & Haas are generally used in these composites to prevent physical disintegration due to the microbial attack during the life span of the products.

The predrying of the natural fiber or the composite compounds before conversion is absolutely essential since these natural fibers have inherently very high level of moisture.

During the last few years several leading machinery manufacturers like American Maplan, Cincinnati, Davis Standard etc have developed extrusion systems specifically designed for these types of plastics-natural fiber composites. Click here to read more about these machineries that was described in our earlier newsletter.

It is estimated that the market of more than half million tonnes of these composites has already been developed by 2001. It is expected that the demand would reach about 1 million tonne in the next 5 years.

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