Fabrication and Mechanical Evaluation of Pressed Wood Powder Compounds Reinforced with Alpaca Wool and Ichu

Abstract

Composites are a group of materials that for several years have been attracting the attention of the international scientific community, these materials combine the properties of two or more types of materials to make a new one with better properties than those of their precursors, without them react chemically. This paper presents a study about the manufacture of new composite materials of wood sawdust dust, obtained by hot pressing at 180 ° C and reinforced with natural fibers from Peru (alpaca wool and ichu). The mean apparent density found for all the compounds was around 1.21 g/cm3 and the values of maximum stress and modulus of elasticity reported were in the range of 77 - 95 MPa and 3.5 - 4.1 GPa, respectively. The microstructures found for all the compounds consist of a continuous and homogeneous matrix of lignin (from wood) with short fibers of alpaca and ichu wool, dispersed in the continuous matrix.