Environmentally friendly materials have become an important topic in practical research due to their importance to people's lives and the preservation of the environment. The use of wood plastics is of utmost importance in this field, as it is possible to obtain materials with properties that combine the strength of polymers with the properties of wood. The goal of the current study is to enhance wood-plastic composites by incorporating HDPE, PC, and teak wood to improve their hardness and physical properties. An injection molding machine is used to prepare the samples. The Taguchi Method was adopted for testing the experimental design and influencing factors (three variables, i.e., teak wood particle size, weight %, and polycarbonate content, respectively, which were measured as three independent variables for experimental analysis). Samples were tested for water absorption, swelling thickness, density, and Shore D hardness. The findings showed that an enlarged teak wood composition resulted in greater water absorption and increased swelling thickness, secondary to its porous structure. The incorporation of polycarbonate added in the ratio of 7.5–15% of polycarbonate however, resulted in better dimensional stability and decreased water absorption. Wood and polycarbonate were also added, which enhanced the hardness with respect to pure polyethylene. Through Taguchi method analysis it was found that teak wood content was the most contributing factor towards these properties, followed by polycarbonate content and particle size, being least. The results showed that the model L7 type provided the most balanced performance against mechanical and physical properties. It can be observed from the present work that the wood-plastic composites used have good mechanical properties and good moisture resistance, and are highly suitable for sustainable engineering applications.
Al-Arkawazi et al. (Sun,) studied this question.