Grant: Applied Research and Development Grants - Level 1

In the composite material sector new resins and bio-based fibers are now being introduced by the raw materialproducer to reduce the usage of oil based materials. In the case of fibers, the plant based fiber materials have alot of variation in their quality, due to the nature of the plant and farming conditions, and these fibers arehydrophilic and have poor adhesion with the fiber. Biomid nanofibrils of cellulose based fibers are moreuniform because they are made from pure crystalline cellulose without the variability of the plant based fibers.Due to their lower density these fibers could potentially help to produce lighter mass transportation compositesparts and reduce the consumption of non-renewable resources by the usage of biodegradable carbon basedfibers. The purpose of this project is to determine if composites can be manufactured with cellulose fibers byrobotic projection of fiber and resins. Also, these materials are not presently used in mass production becausemanufacturers and producers have not been able to adapt their processes variables to meet each other specificrequirements. Furthermore, OEM that could use products made with these fibers do not have engineering testsresults to base any process changes in favor of these new fibers. This project will be generated basicengineering data to demonstrate the potentials benefits of these renewables fibers.