fibres Archive

Kenaf, Cars and Composites

Traditionally considered a coarse fibre, kenaf is finding its place in the automotive and electronics market thanks to its use as reinforcement in composites. Its combination with PLA, a bioplastic sourced from corn, may illustrate the new focus of materials’ development nowadays. 2009 has been declared by the FAO the International Year of Natural Fibres. This is post is the third in a series dedicated to natural fibres

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2009 International Year of Natural Fibres: Fique in Colombia

After my latest post, which was a brief intro on 2009 being the International Year of Natural Fibres, I’m writing today about fique and its fibre, cabuya (I’ve left these terms untranslated, but I’m open to suggestions). Fique, or Furcrae macrophyla, is grown mainly in Colombia. Much of the information used to write this post has been taken from this report, published by the Observatorio de Competitividad Agrocadenas Colombia

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2009 International Year of Natural Fibres

The FAO has declared 2009 International Year of Natural Fibres. Within natural fibres we can find materials as important for humanity as wool, cotton or flax, key in our development through history. They are used in a variety of markets, to produce textiles, paper and composite materials. The benefits of their production, sales and export significantly help farmers in deprived areas to secure an income, a rare advantage over other crops and lines of work. For this reason, mundomaterial wants to promote through 2009 the use of natural fibres in their many applications

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Plastics, natural fibres and cars

The automotive sector is being hardly punished by the crisis, both OEMs and tiers suppliers. For example, in 2008 in Spain both the automotive and the plastic markets suffered job losses of 39.080 y 11.480 respectively (Source: La voz de Galicia, 16 February 2009)

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Bicycles

let’s do a quick tour looking at materials used in the different parts of a bicycle, to then move to the newest trends in design. Of course, I’ll have some interesting examples of what you can do with the old but never aging bicycle

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