Eco-friendly Flax Fibre/Epoxy Resin/Composite System for Surfboard Production

Abstract

A commercially available eco-friendly epoxy resin is proposed as the matrix for a flax fibre composite surfboard as a potential “sustainable” material for component production. The study develops a method for robust production of the surfboards using flax fibre and bio-epoxy resin. The objective of the work is to achieve a balance between economical product, low weight, mechanical performance, improved impact resistance and (outside of this paper) improved environmental credentials. This study seeks to achieve a complete mechanical and thermal characterisation of the flax/eco-epoxy system as an alternative material system to a conventional S-glass/polyester system. For this reason, both systems are completely characterised and their properties compared.