DEVELOPING A COMPOSITE WALL TILE USING TEXTILE WASTE

Abstract

The generation of textile waste has increased rapidly during the last few decades, and it has become a significant problem in the countries where apparel manufacturing is a major industry. The main objective of this research study was to develop a novel composite material for wall tile applications using textile waste. Textile waste, appropriate composite size was 12 inches x 12 inches, and the thickness was 8 mm. Four (04) composite samples were fabricated for each selected weight ratio of textile resin type, weight ratios of textile waste to resin, suitable composite manufacturing method and evaluation tests were selected to conduct the study. The selected sample waste to resin, amounting to a total of twelve (12) samples. The developed composite samples were evaluated for water absorption, modulus of rupture and impact resistance to determine the suitability for wall tile applications. According to the results, with the increase in the textile waste component, the water absorption of composite samples increased. Water absorption values show that the results are acceptable for using the developed samples as wall tiles. During the modulus of rupture testing, no failures were observed in any of the developed composite samples. As there were no failures, it can be suggested that the samples have a higher modulus of rupture. All the developed composite samples, regardless of their different material compositions, exhibited no visible cracks during the impact resistance tests. Therefore, all the developed composite samples showed a satisfactory level of impact resistance. The overall experimental results indicated that the developed composite samples showed encouraging results in water absorption, modulus of rupture and impact resistance, suggesting their potential for use in wall tile applications. As per the findings, all the test results were within the acceptable range for the tested parameters. Further studies should be carried out to determine the optimum range for the textile waste to resin weight ratio using an increased number of textile waste-to-resin weight ratios.