Comparative Analysis of Molded and Drilled Holes in Jute Fiber Reinforced Plastic Laminates

Natural Fiber Reinforced Composites (NFRCs) are an important class of materials that have the potential to facilitate the global goals of sustainability and environment protection. In order to fully realize the potential of these materials, it is important to ascertain their good quality and cost-effective manufacturing. Although the primary manufacturing techniques for fabricating the products based on NFRCs are well developed, their secondary manufacturing in terms of machining and joining still requires extensive research efforts. Drilling induced damage is the major cause of rejection of composite products with holes. In the current experimental investigation, the efficacy of producing the holes during the molding stage has been investigated. The mechanical performance of the molded holes has been compared with the drilled holes in jute fiber reinforced epoxy/polyester composite laminates, in terms of open hole, filled hole, and bearing tests. The values of the maximum tensile load recorded during the tests have been compared and it has been found that the molded holes perform better than the drilled holes for both types of materials (jute/epoxy, jute/polyester). Also, the load extension curves suggest that the molded holes undergo larger extension as compared to the drilled holes.