Evaluation of structural integrity of needle punched banana fiber reinforced industrial safety helmets

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to fabricate and analyse a light weight, recyclable, and non-toxic natural fiber reinforced industrial safety helmet. The fibers were extracted from agro-waste pseudostem of nendran variety banana plant. A facile needle punching technique was employed on banana fibers to produce a needle punched non-woven banana fiber fabric of enhanced mechanical properties without any chemical treatment. Subsequently, the needle punched banana fibers were impregnated with general purpose helmet grade polyester resin in an ISI (Indian standards Institute) endorsed mold to fabricate a needle punched banana fiber helmet (NPBFH). Similarly, 30 mm random banana fiber helmet (RBFH) and glass fiber reinforced helmets (RGFH) were fabricated. The fabricated helmets of 10–50 wt. % fiber content were tested as per ISI standards. The results show that the better properties were achieved at 40 wt. % of fiber content for all varieties of helmets. Significantly, the results revealed that the shock absorption, penetration resistance, and water absorption of NPBFH are 245 kgf, 4.75 mm, and 0.61%, respectively, which is much better than RBFH and comparable with RGFH. This study concluded that the NPBFH (40 wt. %) can be a potential replacement of synthetic fiber reinforced helmets for industrial applications.