Due to the increasing awareness on environmental impact and the needs towards sustainability, weight reduction of the vehicles is one of the most promising solutions to improve fuel efficiency towards achieving the reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. Fibre metal laminate is one of the lightweight material that inherits advantages of metal and fibre reinforced composite. Therefore, the drive of this study is to determine the effect of water absorption on tensile properties, thickness swelling and forming analysis of the natural fibre metal laminate. Fabrication of natural fibre metal laminate consists of two layers of kenaf woven fabric in polypropylene matrix and aluminium 5052-O as the skin. The results show that the natural fibre metal laminate absorbs 0.67% water and has 0.91% thickness swelling. The water content has minimal effect on the tensile properties of the natural fibre metal laminate. While for the forming analysis, the natural fibre metal laminate has higher formability compared to an aluminium sheet and has a higher potential to be formed into complex shape.

In recent, the efforts to reduce environmental pollution by developing biodegradable material has received wide interest. The aim of this paper is to investigate the effect of durian skin fiber (DSF) on the properties of thermoplastic cassava starch (TPCS) matrix as the biodegradable material. The composites were prepared by using hot press technique to convert the starch into thermoplastic starch polymer. The effects of incorporating different amount of DSF (0-50 wt.%) on the matrix was evaluated using several testings, i.e., water absorptions, water solubility, thickness swelling, moisture content, biodegradation analysis and density measurement. The results show that incorporation of DSF has reduce the water absorption characteristic of the material. Thickness swelling of the sample were increase following the addition of DSF into the TPCS matrix, indicating improve environmentally friendly properties. Water solubility of the composites showed a decreasing trend with increasing DSF content. The morphology of the samples shows adhesion of fiber and matrix which indicates good compatibility between this component. Meanwhile, there is no apparent changes on the density of the composites following the incorporation of fiber. Overall, this finding shows that DSF has potential to improve the functional characteristics of TPCS matrix as alternative green material.

The article paper presents a strategic tool used in maintenance strategy deployment using failure mode and effect analysis method in oil and gas semi hermetic compressor perspective. This research aims to study and formulate framework of maintenance strategy using Analytical Hierarchical Process and Failure Mode and Effect Analysis of HVAC semi hermetic compressor used at the offshore oil platform. The case study has been conducted systematically at a company involved in maintenance activities at regular basis servicing HVAC equipment and parts which in this case focusing on Semi Hermetic Compressors at case studies taken from two companies, both involved in oil and gas production. The ranking of severity associated with Risk Priority Number in Failure Mode Effect Analysis table for this case study is obtained from assessment on maintenance history report lodged on Semi Hermetic Compressor serviced by the company. The severity assessment also studied based on Pareto Analysis on occurrence from maintenance history report. Based on the Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) analysis, recommendations are made for semi hermetic compressor for maintenance strategy propositions to improve lifetime and reliability as FMEA output being used as input for synthesize using multi criteria method Analytical Hierarchical Process.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the effect of cogon grass fiber (CGF) on the thermal and mechanical properties of thermoplastic cassava starch (TPCS)/beeswax matrix. The alteration of TPCS/beeswax reinforced with cogon grass fiber was performed by incorporating various amount of CGF (0,10,20,30,40 wt.%) into the polymer matrix. The samples were then evaluated using thermogravimetric analysis and tensile test. The findings showed that the thermal properties of the composite were slightly improved as the CGF content increase. The mechanical test showed that the tensile strength and tensile modulus increased with the addition of the CGF. However, the elongation at break showed a decreased pattern following the increasing content of CGF compared to the 0% of fiber content. In general, the findings from this study have shown that the TPCS/beeswax reinforced with the CGF composite has improved the functional properties of the composites compared to the TPCS matrix.

This study is performed to characterize composite material of hybrid carbon glass reinforced polymer (C/GFRP) of two (2) types; namely balanced cross ply and quasi isotropic subjected to tensile and flexural loading. The mechanical testing performed on the hybrid composite as per ASTM standard and aimed to extract the mechanical properties related to tensile and flexural. The failure modes associated with the rupture of the composites/hybrid composites samples under tensile and three-point bending were assessed via JEOL 6010 Plus Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) instrument. The combination of GFRP lay-up at 0° at tensile side, GFRP lay-up 90° at compression side and ±45° lay-up of CFRP at shear/compression region enable the hybrid composite cross ply 8 to record the highest flexural strength. The substitution of 0° GFRP with 0° layup CFRP together with layup of 90° GFRP in hybrid composite cross ply 4, matrix/resin dominated layup acts as stress reliever in compression region during flexural loading taking place. This has induced to the increase of flexural strength, which observed to improve its original constituent of cross ply 2 (balanced cross ply GFRP). The factor of layup GFRP at transverse direction has enabled hybrid composite to possess a higher tensile modulus and to record considerably high tensile strength. The role of GFRP layup in enhancing the strain to failure in tensile and its role as a reliever in improving flexural strength during flexural loading has been tested and justified in this experiment.