URABILITY CHARACTERISTICS OF COCONUT FIBER MODIFIED PLASTIC CEILING TILES USING SAWDUST AND LOW-DENSITY POLYETHENE IN PRODUCTION OF PLASTIC CEILING TILES

The advancement in technologies and systems for the collection, sorting and reprocessing of recyclable waste are creating new opportunities for recycling, and with the combined actions of the public, industry and governments it may be possible to divert the majority of these waste from landfills to recycling the next decades. The aim of the study is to investigate the suitability of using coconut fibre and sawdust as composite material reinforcement to modify and enhance the durability characteristic properties of low-density polythene (pure water sachet) in the production of plastic ceiling tiles. The plastic ceiling tiles of 30 samples were produced following the Material sample combination used in fabrication of the propose plastic ceiling tile produce from table 1-6. The plastic ceiling tile produced was by compressive moulding by increasing the percentage of LDPE from 200 to 240 wt% with interval of 10 wt% at a temperatures of 150 to 2100°C, pressure load of 5kg to 12Kg and pressing time 30 min to 11/2 hrs. From the study conducted on the durability characteristics of coconut fibre modified plastic ceiling tiles using sawdust and low-density polyethene in production of plastic ceiling tiles. A number of conclusions were drawn from the research. The distribution of the sawdust and coconut fibre with recycled LDPE was observed to be influence by the compounding of the particles and the binder and has good interface bonding. Secondly the microstructure study also reveals that they were small discontinuity and reasonably uniform distribution of sawdust /coconut particle and the recycled LDPE. The sawdust/coconut fibre particle phase is shown as white phase while the recycled LDPE phase is dark. It can be seen that the sawdust/coconut fibre particles are not detachable from the resin surface as the weight fraction of the sawdust increases in the resin. Finally the result obtain from table 3.1 -3.6, it was observed that, the higher the coconut fibre sample in the composite variable used in material sample preparation, the higher the tensile strength and impact test. It was also observed that the higher in temperature, pressure, time and thickness in mold size, the higher in stiffness of the fabricated plastic ceiling tiles. The increase in the tensile strength may be due to the fairly good interfacial bonding. The pressing pressure and time has a positive effect on the tensile property because it strengthen the interfacial bonding between the sawdust particle, coconut fibre and LDPE, which result in good stress propagation and improved the tensile strength. The improvement in the impact strength of the composite plastic ceiling tile was attributed to the presence of sawdust and coconut fibre well bonded by the resin.