DEVELOPMENT OF PALM KERNEL COMPOSITE-BASED EMERY POLISHING SHEET APPLIED IN METALLOGRAPHICAL LABORATORY OF WELDING AND FABRICATION ENGINEERING

Abstract

The emery paper used in metallographical laboratory had been successfully developed. It was developed from an agricultural waste product which was prepared into a composite. The developed composite was prepared using palm kernel shell, polyester resin, cobalt naphthalene and ethyl ketone peroxide. The composite specimen were subjected to mechanical testing techniques to determine its physical properties. The characterization tests carried out showed that the palm kernel consist majorly of 61.6% carbon and 30.48 oxygen .The hardness and wear rate tests carried out on the two grit sizes of 250μm and 420μm grains experimentally showed that the 250μm grit size grains had higher Rockwell hardness values and low wear rate than the 420μm grit size grains. Experimental yields showed that 18% and 38% of polyester resin attained wear rates of 1.5 mg/m and 0.7 mg/m respectively for the 250μm grit size while that for 420μm grit size yielded wear rates of 1.6mg/m and 0.8mg/m respectively. This was as attributed to the fine-grained nature of the 250μm grit size grain. An increase in the polyester resin resulted in high hardness values and low wear rate values which is as a result of the high binding strength of the resin.