USE OF Luffa cylindrical AS REINFORCEMENT COMPOSITES WITH POLYESTER RESIN
An environment of humanity with the preservation of the environment and the use of renewable resources, has provided a great interest in compounds reinforced with natural fibers, mainly to be used in the replacement of synthetics. In view of the above, the work sought to develop a composite with orthophthalic polyester polymer matrix, for this, reinforced with plant tissue fibers and hybrids with E glass fibers) of Rockwell strength composites. The manufacturing process was carried out by cold pressing in a closed mold. A completely randomized design (DIC) was applied with two replications for each treatment evaluated, and the analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey's mean comparison (95% confidence) tests were applied. The results promote the increase of the vegetal loofah, being a density of the composite, being 1.01 g/cm. In the tensile residency tests, the bushing reinforcement promoted an increase in strength, but in the bending tests, they showed an interesting value of 18.04 MPa. When the bushing reinforcement is used in the formation of hybrid composites, the results showed excellent performance when the bending was high, with a value of 105.12 MPa. In general, reinforced composites with physical and hybrid properties have different physical and mechanical properties that can be used in different applications, according to their characteristics. This material also has the advantage of having a biodegradable component, is light and has a low maintenance and processing cost.