Iris Publishers_Journal of Textile Science & Fashion Technology (JTSFT)

Investigation of the Water–Based Ink Hold onto the Thermoplastic Composites Reinforced with Sisal Fibers

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.

Methods

The chemical structures of the synthesized monomer were identified by FT-IR. The FT-IR spectrum was recorded on a Shimadzu 8303 FT-IR spectrometer (Shimadzu Corporation, Kyoto, Japan). The surface roughness of these bio-composite materials was measured using a portable MarSurf M 300 roughness measurement device (Mahr GmbH, Göttingen, Germany) with a 5.6mm traversing length according to DIN EN ISO 4288 [18], and the values of the surface roughness “a” (Ra; an arithmetic average of absolute values) and the surface roughness “z” (Rz; average distance between the highest peak and lowest valley in each sampling length) were recorded.

The contact angle of the PP and PE composite samples was measured using a PG-X Goniometer (Paul N. Gardner Company, Inc., FL, USA) based on TAPPI T 558 [19]. One- color printing with environmentally friendly water-based cyan ink was applied on the PP and PE composite samples through the screen-printing technique. The equipment operated for printing was a semiautomatic screen-printing machine. The mesh number was 120 threads per cm (tpc), and the dot per cm was 40 (dpc). The angle of the squeegee was 45°, and the hardness of squeegee was 75 Shore [20]. The density values of the PP and PE composite samples were measured by a Gretag Macbeth SpectroEye instrument (45/0°) (X-Rite, Inc., MI, USA). Also, the CIE L*, a*, and b* values of the PP and PE composite samples were measured by the D50 illuminant/2° observer values using the same instrument.

Scanning electron microscopy (JEOL JSM - 5910LV) was used to characterize the surface morphology of SF/PE and SF/ PP composites. The samples were coated with a thin layer of gold before observation under the microscope mark, in order to increase the sample conductivity.

The IPC-TM-650 Adhesion, Tape Testing Method was performed to test the ink adhesion on the bio-composite surface [21].

Finally, the digital micrographs were taken from using SZ60 – PT OLYMPUS Stereo Microscopes to magnify the composite layers.

Results and Discussion

Surface properties

Roughness: Table 3 showed the Roughness values of PE and PP samples, which are measured as a MarSurf M 300 roughness measurement. Ra values closer to zero indicate a smoother surface. A smoothness surface decreases dot gain and ensures prints, which contain sharp image [22,23].

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