Physical Properties of Shock-Absorbing Materials Made of Pulp Fibers for Packaging

Styrofoam as shock-absorbing materials for packaging has been regarded as one of non-biodegradable products leading to soil contamination at a landfill and release of dioxine during its incineration. For avoiding severe burdens on our environments by styrofoam, it must be replaced by environment-friendly materials. In order to evaluate availability of pulp fibers as a substitute for styrofoam, various extrusion processes were applied for making optimal biodegradable products. Then thermomechanical pulp fibers made of Pinus radiata and Pinus rigida were uniformly mixed with other additives such as starch and polyvinyl alcohol prior to expansion. The physical properties of the final products were examined by measuring expansion efficiency, compression strength, and elastic modulus. Wheat starch played a key role to maintain optimal flowing conditions within the barrel of the extruder irrespective of addition of soluble starch and polyvinyl alcohol. However, as the amounts of wheat starch in raw-materials increased, the elastic modulus of the expanded materials greatly increased. High elastic modulus is not suitable as shock-absorbing products for packaging. Thus the wheat starch must be added at a minimum if possible, that is, below 20% based on oven-dried weight of pulp fibers. the elastic modulus of the expanded products was decreased as their moisture contents increased. For the products containing 20% wheat starch, the lowest elastic modulus, 844.64 kPa was obtained under 10% of the moisture content. This was similar to that of styrofoam.

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