Appropriateness of Water Hyacint and Rice Husk as Filler Materials for Resin Polymer Insulation

Abstract

The use of natural fibers as a filler in the industry still continue to be developed, given its eco-friendly and contains material which is great. This research was conducted to find out the influence of boiled water and rice husk as filler material in epoxy resins. The making of the specimen using the method of hand lay-up with each variation of filler 10%-40% of the total weight of material test and the specimen without filler 0% for contrast. Polymer materials used i.e. epoxy resins. Testing is done namely pull-test, test volume resistivity and surface resistivity. Pull-test is performed using standard ASTM D-638 and resistivity test using standard ASTM D 257. The test results showed that the maximum volume resistivity values reached in the levels of water hyacinth 20% whereas on rice husk volume resistivity increase continues to occur until levels of 40% of the epoxy resins. Surface resistivity continues to increase in the levels of water hyacinth reaches 20% on epoxy resins as well as the addition of a filler rice husk. The tensile strength of the epoxy resins materials has decreased with the addition of water hyacinth and rice husk. The value of the maximum attainable tensile strength on the composition of the filler is 20%. With increasing levels of water hyacinth and rice husk in epoxy resins, the nature of the material brittle epoxy resins increase or an increase in the hardness of epoxy resin resulting in fragility.