Abstract :
Indonesia is a country that has a lot of natural resources but there are still
many of this resources that hasn?t been optimized. For example, plant waste which
has fiber gets less attention and is simply wasted. if it is utilized, the waste produced
can be recycled into a multipurpose material to meet human needs and can provide
a higher economic value. Natural fiber composite is a development of material
science which is currently being developed because of its strength, lightweight,
inexpensive and environmentally friendly properties. The aim of this research is to
determine the effects fiber orientation in the sandwich composite skin with
paraserianthes falcataria sawdust cores on the bending strength of the composite
sandwich with a polyester matrix.
The research materials used were arenga pinnata fiber, unsaturated
polyester resin 157 BQTN-EX and paraserianthes falcataria sawdust with skin
thickness of 2 mm and core thickness of 10 mm. Then it continued to do the
composite sandwich bending test refers to ASTM C-393-03 standard. The method
used in the process of making this composite was the hand lay-up method.
The results of this research showed that the fiber orientation of arenga
pinnata in the skin with paraserianthes falcataria sawdust affect the strength of the
composite sandwich. The 0° variant has bending strength value of 27.12 MPa ,and
decreased at 45° variant with value of 45.87 MPa and decreased at 90° variant
with value of 15.26 Mpa. At all variant it was found the existence of voids and
delamination between the skin and the core caused by lack of adhesive in the
composite