Abstract
Inhabitants chomp lot of chicken. All that chicken-ingestionhabits of inhabitants translates into stacks and stacks of chicken feathers.The feather quill and fiber are pure sources of the structural protein keratin.Since the demand for feather is low, most of those are burned, buried or usedas fertilizer. Economic pressure exists to find a more stable and profitable value-addedproduct from poultry feathers. So the waste chicken feathers were collectedfrom poultry units and are cleaned with a polar solvent like ethanol and dried.The quills are removed and the short fibers (10-30 mm length) are obtained.These fibers in pre-determined weight proportion are processed to make randomorientation and made into a composite using polypropylene as a matrix bycompression moulding technique. Chicken feather fibres are found to possesshigh toughness, good thermal insulation and acoustic properties, non abrasivebehavior, more hydrophilic & less hydrophobic in nature. Their low cost,low density and large aspect ratio can make them good reinforcing materials asa matrix composite. The hollow, light weight fibers naturally contain asignificant volume of air which made their dielectric constants lower thane-glass fibers. To aid the development of successful applications for chickenfeather fibres in composite making, this research work has been taken up. "WasteFeathers turn into a value added product"
About the Authors
Mr. D. Vasanth Kumar is Lecturer in Department of Textile Technology(MMFT) at Thiagarajar Polytechnic College, Salem, India and Mr. K. Saravananis Senior Lecturer in Department of Textile Technology at Kumaraguru College ofTechnology, Coimbatore, India.
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