Today, man-made fibres have been noteworthy replaced with plant fibres in composite industry such as in automotive, housing, packing, medical, and other high value added applications industries due to their significant advantages such as low-cost, shortgrowth period, easy supply, recycling, low-abrasion to machine tools renewability and wider availability, non-toxic, good sound absorbing efficiency, good mechanical properties, environmentally friendly properties, and modest abrasivity during processing despite two drawbacks, substantial hydrophilicity and poor compatibility. As compared to glass fibre reinforced polymer composites, the natural fibre composites reduce the weight of the automotive interior components, which lower the required energy for the manufacture by 80%. With the increasing awareness of consumers towards the environment, their interest in sustainable environmentally friendly materials is increasing. Automotive industry have focused on the sustainable and cost-effective light-weight biocomposites because the energy consumption of a vehicle is mainly depended on its weight. Bast fibres such as flax, hemp, jute, and kenaf are widely used in automotive interior applications such as dashboards, door panels, parcel shelves, seat cushions due to their unique properties. This study reviewed recent studies on the automotive interior applications of natural fibre composites.

Authors: Nadir Ayrilmis, Alireza Ashori

Published in: World Congress on Sustainable Technologies (WCST-2021)

• Date of Conference: 7-9 December 2021
• DOI: 10.20533/WCST.2021.0007
• ISBN: 978-1-913572-41-9
• Conference Location: Virtual (London, UK)