Abstract :
Natural fiber composite is one of the environmentally friendly composites.
Natural fibers such as palm midrib, hemp, banana and kenaf fibers can be good
reinforcing materials for thermoset or thermoplast composites. Composites that
use natural fiber reinforcement can be improved by adding pressing time in the
formation process. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of adding
variations in holding time to the mechanical properties of the composite material
of oil palm fiber - PP. Palm midrib fiber material is processed by a simple hot
press method. The temperature used in the pressing process is 200ºC with an
emphasis of 1.5 tons. The variation of holding time is 20 minutes, 25 minutes and
30 minutes. The mechanical properties that have been tested are impact and
density tests. The highest toughness strength was obtained at holding time of 30
minutes with an average value of 10 Joules and the highest density value was also
obtained at holding time of 30 minutes with a value of 1.321 g/cm³.