The Use of Pineapple Fiber Composites for Automotive Applications: A Short Review
Published: 2020-10-30
Page: 367-373
Issue: 2020 - Volume 3 [Issue 4]
J. Sangilimuthukumar
Department of Automobile Engineering, Kalasalingam Academy of Research and Education, Krishnankoil–626126, Tamil Nadu, India.
T. Senthil Muthu Kumar *
Department of Automobile Engineering, Kalasalingam Academy of Research and Education, Krishnankoil–626126, Tamil Nadu, India.
Carlo Santulli
School of Science and Technology, Università di Camerino, Geology Section, 62032 Camerino, Italy.
M. Chandrasekar
School of Aeronautical Sciences, Hindustan Institute of Technology and Science, Padur, Kelambakkam, Chennai, Tamil Nadu 603103, India.
K. Senthilkumar
Center of Innovation in Design and Engineering for Manufacturing (CoI-DEM), King Mongkut’s University of Technology North Bangkok, 1518 Wongsawang Road, Bangsue, Bangkok 10800, Thailand.
Suchart Siengchin
Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, The Sirindhorn Thai-German Graduate School of Engineering (TGGS), King Mongkut’s University of Technology North Bangkok, 1518 Wongsawang Road, Bangsue, Bangkok 10800, Thailand.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Pineapple leaf fibers (PALF), as the part of a large productive system, based on the availability of fruits for the food industry, offer a large amount of possibilities in term of use of the fibers, which are almost exclusively dedicated to the field of materials, as the reinforcement of polymer matrices, either traditional oil-based ones or biodegradable ones. Pineapple fibers, due to their suitability to textile use, can be introduced into composites not only in the form of short fiber, although the latter remains the most frequent case. As the consequence of this, they are also of interest of the automotive industry, an interest, which is steadily and rapidly growing especially in the last few years. This review tries to elucidate what are the characteristics of pineapple fibers that are particularly important for the automotive industry together with trying to clarify which could be the possibilities in the next future for their wider introduction in this sector.
Keywords: Pineapple leaf fibers, automotive composites, biodegradable matrices.