Effects of filler components on mechanical properties and machinability characteristic of palm oil based wax

Abstract

This thesis presents, a comprehensive study on the blends of palm oil based wax with filler components such as linear low polyethylene (LLDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE). The work targets the development of cheap industrial wax made from palm oil. The blends studied comprised of commercial industrial wax for prototyping Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machining purpose. Morphological analysis also has been carried out to investigate microstructure before composing filler and after filler compositions. The experiment results show that different kind of filler will affect mechanical properties and will attribute to strength of blends materials. The effectiveness of compatibility filler was evaluated using different techniques like thermal, mechanical and scanning electron microscopy via morphology study. Best compatibilization effect was found in the blend at loading of 30%wt LLDPE + 20%wt raw palm oil based wax + 0%wt palm oil fiber for LLDPE filler and 70%wt HDPE + 20%wt raw palm oil based wax + 0%wt palm oil fiber for HDPE filler where at these compositions, the tensile strength is at the highest level. LLDPE filler blends was awarded best smooth surface after obtain 1.966μm (Ra) value.