Specific of Hemp Fiber ’ S Plastic Composite Projection

In the report there are reflected research results of new board type biocomposites creation for furniture and equipment manufacturing for public segment, replacing traditional petroleum-based components with fully or partly renewable, biodegradable raw materials as one of the major global environmental problems today is non-renewable resource depletion and waste of petroleum-based plastic products. Performed research of biopolymer composites development shows that they are cheaper, environmentally friendlier, lighter, more easily to recycle and to dispose at the end of the product life cycle. For biopolymer’s reinforcement industrial flax and hemp fibers in terms of mechanical qualities are competitive with the glass fiber, they are strong enough in many applications, CO2 neutral, have a relatively low cost, low production energy requirements. By creating new biocomposites it is taken into account that the designed material mechanical properties are mainly dependent on the fiber mass in the matrix, orientation and adhesion to the matrix material. The maximum theoretical amount of fiber weight in composite can reach 91%, specific weight of the fiber component used in practice is usually between 45-65%, but can reach also 70%. For improvement of the adhesion the chemical treatment and drying of the fibers need to be done, also adjuvants that promote development of the hydroxyl group links should be incorporated in the matrix

POLY(VINYL ALCOHOL) AND POLY(VINYL ALCOHOL) /ZINC OXIDE COMPOSITE NANOFIBRE WEBS: QUALITY CONTROL WITH CONDUCTOMETER

In the market a wide variety of products are find that contains/releases metal nanoparticles, therefore topical become researches on it impacts on the environment and human health. In the textile industry important step is the development of testing methodology to monitor the quantity of nanoparticles that get into the environment from nanoparticles containing textile materials. In the study analyzed the method based on the use of conductometer for textiles testing with nano-size metal oxides content to determine the persistence of nanoparticles/ions in the water after textile soaking/washing. Compared results acquired in the experiments with nanofibre webs manufactured by electrospinning from pure polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and PVA/ZnO composite. The nanofibre webs were soaked in distilled water and obtained samples of water tested with conductometer. The results of the experiments confirm that measurements taken with the conductometer are fairly stable and repeatable; the equipment is suitable for measurements in distilled water for nanoparticles/ions detection. The measurements of the solution’s specific electric conductance allows to pinpoint the nanoparticles/ions concentration, but for this purpose, must be created the database that contains the resources needed for the calculations and methodology for sample preparation

Comparative Analysis of Hemp Fiber Grown in Year 2010

Annually increasingly all over the world is observed growing tendency to reduce the production of various products containing non-renewable component and replace them with natural fiber raw materials for textile and non-textile products as well. One of such raw materials is hemp. This paper discusses comparative study results of testing local genotype „Purini“ and commercial available ES registered industrial hemp variety „Bialobrzeskie” (Poland) fibers which were grown in Latvia, year 2010th. Studies have been carried out for small fiber bundles to determine the durability properties of hemp fiber

Nanolevel Finishing for Veneered Products

Wood veneer is mainly used for interior decoration applications in many different segments. It's ideal for residential projects, hotel projects, offices giving to the any interior a unique look and feel.  In addition, veneer is also processed to create a variety of products such as veneer parquet, flexible veneer sheets, wood veneer boards, wood veneer wallpaper, etc. From the other side, veneered surfaces will always to a greater or lesser degree could change color, particular upon exposure to natural and artificial light. The degree of color change will depend on such factors as the species chosen, the coating type used and intensity and period of the exposure to light. In addition, conventional finishes have a tendency to yellow with age which can have quite dramatic effects on the original color of the selected timber. To minimize these effects new finishes have to be developed. In the paper new, unvisible nanolevel coating for veneer finish based on the sol-gel process is offered. It is known that the sol–gel technique is an established industrial process for the generation of colloidal nanoparticles from liquid phase, which has been further developed in last years for the production of advanced coatings. It is well adapted for oxide nanoparticles and composites synthesis. The main advantages of sol-gel techniques are comparable low processing temperatures offering unique opportunities for access to organic and inorganic materials. The sol synthesis and application technology as well protective properties of coating will be discussed.

Steam Explosion Impact to Technical Hemp Fiber Diameter

Microfibers and nanofibers from natural products have high mechanical properties. For this reason researchers pay particular attention to the natural fibers and to the method how they are obtained. In the research samples with different treatments (alkaline pretreatment, steam explosion and water extraction) were investigated to evaluate treatment influence on fiber diameters. Fractionation does not provide actual results of fibers diameter as thinner fibers agglomerate to each other and around thicker fibers and cannot be sieved. Fiber diameter measurement with an optical microscope shows that pretreatment and treatment reduced the thickest fiber percentage and increase the number of fine particles. Dew-retted hemp gives 16% of thicker fibers and only 39% fibers with a diameters less than 63µm. 50% of alkaline pretreated and steam explosion treated fibers diameters are less than 63 µm and only 8% of diameters fall in range 160 - 630 µm

The Effect of Steam Explosion Treatment on Technical Hemp Fibres

As hemp is a renewable resource with the high biomass yield it could be considered as potential abundant local biomass material for a wide range of applications. In this article hemp fibres architecture as a source of high strength cellulose are analysed. In experimental part steam explosion technology is applied to disintegrate technical hemp fibres to elementary fibres with the aim to find out the best way of procedure without usage to environment harmful chemical pre-treatments and looking forward to solve problems on further nano-level environment friendly hemp cellulose disintegration

Natural Fibre Textile Nano-Level Surface Modification

A variety of applications requires production of textile materials with specially designed surface properties. Surface coating by metallic materials have attracted a lot of attention due to their special surface properties, such as UV-absorbsion, antimicrobial, anti-fungicidal and ect. The paper describes the process of vacuum evaporation and magnetron sputtering of copper layers on cotton textile materials and analysis of the metal coated textile surface morphology by laser laboratory complex. The textile samples have been finished by magnetron sputtering and vacuum evaporation technologies and tested for bonding strength, light reflection and light passing properties. The paper presents and discusses the results of the experiment

Comparative Technological And Commercial Evaluation of Flax Varieties For The Revival of Flax Growing In Latvia

As renewable raw material flax increasingly gain more importance as the range of its use is spreading more and more. Besides the conventional uses in home textiles, clothing and sails products, demand of flax raw materials for technical uses increases rapidly as flax fibers have high specific properties, become components of biodegradable composites, environmental friendly isolation materials, besides flax shives pay attention as well as components of environment friendly building materials. Unfortunately in Latvia during last decades flax crop production had decreased rapidly and nowadays reintroduction of flax growing traditions and conditions are become more and more actual. In spite of depression in sector, in Agriculture Science Centre of Latgale are not interrupted experiments on development of local flax lines. Field trials were sown at the Centre in 2010 and 98 flax lines investigated. In this article reflected analysis results of one perspective local fibers flax line from different aspects and its properties comparison with the standard fibers flax variety Vega 2

Thermal Conductivity of Hemp Based Boards

Energy and raw material costs, an increase in environmental pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, global warming, depletion of fossil raw materials stimulate to seek and study alternatives to the synthetic fibers and products made of them for full or partial replacement. Renewable raw materials, including natural fiber sources, are the future of storage resources with a variety of positive effects on both the planet ecosystem and the living and working environment, and the energy consumption of delivering the required functionality. One of the most important energy-saving types is to reduce energy consumption in buildings by insulating them.For Latvian conditions suitable crops are historically grown flax and hemp. Within the framework of the studies, hemp stems are being used. Hemp compared with flax, are less suffering from diseases and less damaged by pests, so hemp cultivation is practically free from use of chemical pesticides and herbicides reducing the risk to the ecosystem.One of the most frequently mentioned industrial hemp raw materials positive qualities are their very wide use, practically all plant parts can be used in production of different products. This work explores the possibilities and technologies within the Latvian grown hemp stems to work into board materials with insulation capability.Hemp fibers/shives mix boards can fulfill the main function of insulation materials, i.e., to reduce the transmission of heat, because they have a porous structure and low density. Material thermal insulation properties affect physical and structural properties of compounds. Cost effective particles board samples from chopped hemp stems with three types of adhesives and different thicknesses were produced and their thermal conductivity evaluated. The technologies applied and test results will be discussed in the paper.

Experimental study of using micro-encapsulated phase-change material integrated into hemp shive wallboard

Phase change materials (PCMs) are now widely known as potential additives for building insulation materials to provide a thermal mass effect that helps conserve energy and maintain a comfortable indoor temperature. Therefore, the study presented in this paper focuses on an experimental investigation of the specific heat capacity and thermal conductivity of hemp shive mixed with PCMs. Industrially manufactured organic PCM-S50 received from MikroCaps Ltd. (Slovenia) has been used to further enhance respective properties of the product samples. The experimental boards were made from hemp shive by directly mixing 5% encapsulate PCMs into the mass. Cold pressing was used to manufacture the boards with Kleiberit urea formaldehyde resin glue as a binding agent. The experimental boards were made as 25 mm thick single-layer parts with a density of 300 ± 20 kg/m3, which qualify them as low-density boards. By adding nanocapsules during the board manufacturing process, the heat capacity is increased by 62%. Based on the great potential of using latent heat, it becomes a possible solution for the development of new technologies related to the automatic regulation of an indoor microclimate