Composites
All biopolymer – microstructures
- Woven natural fibres, straw and mud have been used to produce crude composite structures for thousands of years.
- Hemp fibre is highly desirable among natural fibres on account of its high tensile strength which is four times that of cotton, tempered by the fact that fibre roughness places limitations on skin contact applications.
- Elsewhere fibre roughness is used to advantage enabling partial substitution of carbon fibre with derivatised hemp fibre in carbon fibre based composites, without compromising mechanical properties, but reducing overall carbon footprint (see references below)
- Hemp fibre can also be used in all-biopolymer structures in which fibre and binder can be the same material – eliminating interfacial weaknesses.
- Showing miniature components fabricated using non-woven hemp fibre bonded using a mixed polymer system
Thin Hybrid Hemp/Carbon Fiber Composites: Manufacturing, Flexural, and Impact Behavior
Luca Boccarusso , Fulvio Pinto, Kostas Myronidis, Dario De Fazio, and Massimo Durante
JMEPEG (2023) 32:3914–3922
Hybridization of Hemp Fiber and Recycled-Carbon Fiber in Polypropylene Composites
Niyati Shah, Joseph Fehrenbach and Chad A. Ulven
Sustainability 2019, 11(11), 3163;
Hemp Wood
- Historically, hemp has been fabricated into a variety of wood-like structures. Material and processing overheads placing a limit on application range development
- we have identified a number of novel fibre locking binder systems based on some of the most abundant natural materials – yielding sustainable wood like structures
- Showing a bonded shiv composite, which is planable, drillable and mimics the performance of normal hardwood – aligned fibre structures can mimic wood grain.
Hemp leather – Sourced from Hemp
- Our novel hemp leather, roughly surfaced as produced but soft and flexible once plasticized, is particularly robust to handling and wear
- Uniquely it can incorporate high and low density regions in the same structure – effectively integrating wear resistant and insulation in the same material
- Finding potential application in wearables, packaging, interiors and health
- Showing raw hemp leather as produced, 1mm and 300-400 microns thick without any plasticiser
- Typical unplasticised Hemp leather has a typical tensile strength of 55-65 MPa with near zero elongation
