Rapid tooling (RT) and additive manufacturing (AM) are currently being used in several parts of industry, particularly in the development of new products. The demand for timely deliveries of low-cost products in a variety of geometrical patterns is continuing to increase year by year. Increased demand for low-cost materials and tooling, including RT, is driving the demand for plastic and rubber products, along with engineering and product manufacturers. The development of AM and RT technologies has led to significant improvements in the technologies, especially in testing performance for newly developed products prior to the fabrication of hard tooling and low-volume production. On the other hand, the rapid heating cycle molding (RHCM) injection method can be implemented to overcome product surface defects generated by conventional injection molding (CIM), since the surface gloss of the parts is significantly improved, and surface marks such as flow marks and weld marks are eliminated. The most important RHCM technique is rapid heating and cooling of the cavity surface, which somewhat improves part quality while also maximizing production efficiencies. RT is not just about making molds quickly; it also improves molding productivity. Therefore, as RT can also be used to produce products with low-volume production, there is a good potential to explore RHCM in RT. This paper reviews the implementation of RHCM in the molding industry, which has been well established and undergone improvement on the basis of different heating technologies. Lastly, this review also introduces future research opportunities regarding the potential of RT in the RHCM technique.

Microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) was extracted from local agricultural residues, rice husk (RH). RH undergone alkaline, bleaching and acid hydrolysis treatments. Nitric acid was used in the hydrolysis process as a potential acid to replace strong acids such as hydrochloric and sulphuric acids. Hydrolysis of RH was carried out by using different molarity of nitric and hydrochloric acids (control). The properties of MCC obtained such as % yield, crystallinity index (CrI) and functional group present were studied. % yield shown a comparable result regardless of different acid used. Whilst Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy showed the progressive removal of non-cellulosic constituents. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis revealed that the crystallinity increased with successive treatments regardless different molarity and acids used. The results showed potential of nitric acid to be used in MCC isolation process.

In this research, unsaturated polyester/kenaf fiber (UP/KF) composites was prepared by using hand lay-up process. The effect of surface treatment of kenaf fiber on mechanical properties of kenaf filled unsaturated polyester composites were studied. Different concentrationsof stearic acid (SA) were applied, i.e. 0, 0.4, and 0.8 wt%. The Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra of kenaf fiber shows high intensity of the peak around 3300-3400 cm-1 , which is attributed to the hydrogen bonded O-H stretching. However, the treated kenaf fiber with stearic acid shows the elimination of O-H group and this peak is vanished. This is due to the reaction of (-COOH) group of stearic with (-OH) group of kenaf fiber. The results of water absorption study revealed that increasing the loading of KF in the composite will result is increasing the tendency to absorb water. However, the absorption was significantly decreased after treatment with stearic acid as well as the time to reach to the equilibrium state. 1.Introduction Recently, there is a drastic growing attention in utilization of natural fibers materials as reinforcingcomponent in thermoplastics as well as thermosets.Natural fibers seem to be a superior material which has emerged as an abundant and sustainable replacement for the nonrenewable and expensive synthetic fibers. The advantages of naturalfibres overtraditional reinforcing materials such as lower density, less abrasiveacceptable specific strength and stiffness, greater deformability and less irritation to skin and respiratory [1].Several natural fibers have been used as a reinforcement in composites materials for advanced applications such as banana, sisal, oil palm, jute, kenaf and coir. Among different types of fibers, kenaf fiber has been widely explored over the past several years [2]. Kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus, family MalvaceaeL.) is a perennial plant herb. Kenaf is a plant heatseason annual lane and can be used for several industrial applications. Kenaf fiber has several The

Microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) was successfully extracted from rice husk (RH) via acid hydrolysis process using nitric acid (HNO 3) in comparison with sulphuric acid (H 2 SO 4) and hydrochloric acid (HCl). MCC-RH extracted using HNO 3 produced the highest percentage yield at 83.5% as compared to H 2 SO 4 and HCl at 80.6% and 81.8% respectively. Analysis of Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy affirmed the successive elimination of noncellulosic material from RH cellulose resulting highly purified MCC-RH. X-ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis showed MCC-RH treated with HCl gives the highest crystallinity index value of 54.2% while HNO 3 and H 2 SO 4 produced comparable results of 52.4% and 49.7% respectively. The results indicate successive extraction of MCC-RH using HNO 3 that has great potential to replace strong acid such as H 2 SO 4 and HCl in acid hydrolysis.

The use of natural fibers in composite is rising in recent years due their lightweight, non-abrasive, combustible, non-toxic, low cost and biodegradable properties. However, in comparison with synthetic fibers, the mechanical properties of natural fibers are lower. Therefore, the inclusion of synthetic fibers could improve the mechanical performance of natural fiber based composites. In this study, kenaf bast fiber and glass fiber at different weight percentage loading were used as reinforcement to produce hybrid composites. Unsaturated polyester (UP) resin was used as matrix and hand lay-up process was performed to apply the UP resin on the hybrid kenaf bast/glass fiber composite. Effect of different fiber loading on tensile strength, tensile modulus and elongation at break of the hybrid composite was studied. It has been found that the highest value of tensile strength and modulus was achieved at 10 wt.% kenaf/10 wt.% glass fiber loading. It was concluded that addition of glass fiber has improved the tensile properties of kenaf bast fiber based UP composites.

In this research, unsaturated polyester/kenaf fiber (UP/KF) composites was prepared by using hand lay-up process. The effect of surface treatment of kenaf fiber on mechanical properties of kenaf filled unsaturated polyester composites were studied. Different concentrationsof stearic acid (SA) were applied, i.e. 0, 0.4, and 0.8 wt%. Tensile strength of untreated UP/KF composites was found to be higher for 40 wt% loading of kenaf fiber. The highest tensile strength value was obtained after treatment with 0.4 wt% concentration of stearic acid at 56 MPa and tensile modulus was at 2409 MPa. From the flexural strength result obtained, it is clearly seen that 40 wt% loading of kenaf fiber and treatment with 0.4 wt% concentration of stearic acid give the highest value at 72 MPa and flexural modulus at 3929 MPa.