The objective of this research is to compare tensile strength of oil palm fibre composite
produced from oil palm fibre of different configurations. Compressed random oil palm fibre and
uncompressed random oil palm fibre reinforced polyester composite were manufactured using
vacuum bagging technique. The volume fractions of the fibre to the resin were 6.6:93.4 and
17:83 for compressed fibre and uncompressed fibre composites, respectively. The ratio of the
polyester to hardener is 100:2. Tensile properties obtained via tensile tests as per ASTM D 638
specifications using Universal Testing machine INSTRON 5582. Load-displacement plots show
that the fracture load and the slope for specimens from the same plate vary with a significant
range. Stress-strain plots also have the same issue. With such data direct comparison of average
value may not be giving a conclusive comparison, with a big standard deviation for both sets of
specimens. Furthermore, there are two simultaneous factors in this study, namely the
configuration of the oil palm fibres used and the volume ratio of the composite. Further testing
and analysis is deemed to be necessary to further fine tune the fabrication process, for a
conclusive comparison
