Natural Composites Reinforcement of Empty Bunch Palm Oil Powder for Blower Impellers Manufacturing

The purpose of this study is to design and build a composite blower impeller from natural fiber material of empty oil palm bunch powder with resin as a binder. The designed and built composite blower impeller consists of 3 variables, namely variables 5%, 10% and 15%. Variable 5% uses 5% empty oil palm bunch powder and 95% resin, variable 10% uses 10% powder and 90% resin, while variable 15% uses 15% EFB powder and 85% resin. The method used to determine the characteristics of empty oil palm bunch powder is done by tensile test and impact test. The results obtained from the maximum tensile stress test on the 15% powder variable are 16.127 MPa and the highest elastic modulus value is on the 10% variable of 170.85 MPa. Then in the impact test, the casting results are obtained that are able to absorb the greatest energy on the 15% variable with a value of 31.201 J/cm2. The conclusion obtained from this study is that the more powder is mixed, the higher the tensile and impact test values.