The Effect of Rice Husk as Additive in Injection Molding Process

Abstract

This study investigated the moldability and the mechanical properties of bio-composite with rice husk as natural reinforcement. Natural materials that are abundant in nature can be used as reinforcement for polymer materials. Natural materials as reinforcement in plastic materials were used to obtain alternative materials in an injection molding process. With rice husk, polypropylene, and MAPP, four compositions of bio-composite materials were made and used as raw material injection molding process. The moldability from this material was observed through visualization of the product. The mechanical properties of the materials were observed by the tensile strength and impact test on the injection molding product. The result showed that these materials could be injected to form ASTM D638-03 Type V tensile test and ASTM D256-04 impact test specimens. Visually, the more rice husk on the bio-composite material, the darker the product color. The differences in tensile strength values decreased along with increased rice husk content. All bio-composite materials had roughly the same tensile strength value and were lower than polypropylene, except RH-5%. The impact value of bio-composites was lower than polypropylene impact value and tended to decline along with the increase in the rice husk content. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) analyzes were done on the fracture side of the impact specimen. Microscale voids decreased and were rarely found by adding rice husk to the material bio-composite. On the other hand, rice husk breakage and pullout phenomenon on bio-composite material were found.