Development and Evaluation of Turbulent Air Mixing Process for Manufacturing Wood Fiber and Thermoplastic Fiber Composites

A new device that uses turbulent air for mixing wood fibers with thermoplastic fibers was designed and its mixing effectiveness was evaluated in wood fiber and polypropylene fiber composites. Composites made by the turbulent air mixing (TAM) process performed better than composites made by the conventional Rando-Webber forming or nonwoven web process with an additional needling step. Thus, the TAM process proved to be a simple and efficient method in mixing wood fibers with short thermoplastic fibers for the production of wood fiber and thermoplastic fiber composites.