63 *Corresponding author: kannan@pmm.edu.my 1 Effect on Mechanical Properties of Hybrid Blended Coconut Coir/Paraffin Wax/LDPE Kannan Rassiah 1,* , Mohd As’ri C. 1 , Mohd Yuhazri Y. 2 and, Haeryip Sihombing 2 1 Department of Mechanical Engineering. Politeknik Merlimau. KB 1031, Pejabat Pos Merlimau, Melaka, MALAYSIA 2 Faculty of Manufacturing Engineering, Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka, Hang Tuah Jaya, 76100 Durian Tunggal, Melaka, MALAYSIA Received 1 March 2011; accepted 30 October 2011, available online 24 December 2011 1. Introduction Polymer is a long chain of repeated atoms and produced by joining the molecules which are known as monomers. The Low Density Polyethelene (LDPE) is a first grade of the Polyethylene group which was produced in 1933 by Imperial Chemical Industries by using high pressure and ‘free radical polymerisation’ techniques [2], while the wax is an organic compound which is categorized into two types, that is natural wax and modified wax. Both types of wax create higher potential as the reinforcement agent in polymers. Coir is a fiber that covers the entire palm. Prior to the lack of abaca in the early 19 th century, coir is a key ingredient used by European manufacturers because of the rope coir rope light, high tensile force and resistance to sea water [4]. Coconut shell is one of the most important natural fillers. Many works have been devoted to use of other natural fillers in composites in the recent past and coconut shell filler is a potential candidate for the development of new composites because of their high strength and modulus properties [8]. Composites of high strength coconut filler can be used in the broad range of applications as, building materials, marine cordage, fishnets, furniture, and other household appliances [10]. Scientific studies involving coir fibers date back to the early 1980’s while the majority of the work in this area has been done in the past 10 years [7]. The reason to choose the natural wax and coconut coir in this research due to the cost of manufacturing as well as it widely used for consumer products [6]. 2. Material and Method This research use low density polyethylene as the matrix material in the form of pallet and the wax and coconut coir as reinforcement material. The wax material was obtained from the candle sticks that have been processed by the manufacturers. Chemically, a candle contains of various compounds such as alkanes, esters (contains acid and alcohol), polyesters, low hydroxyester alcohol, and fatty acids. The wax differs from fat because it lacks triglyceride ester glycerine propan 1,2,3 triol and three fatty acids. High melting point and hardness of karnauba candle occurs when ester is added [1]. Abstract: The use of natural fibers as the fillers for plastic has been rapidly expanding, especially wood fibers. This is due to materials of wood offers many advantages as inorganic fillers (such as low price, biodegradability, renewability, recycle-ability, low density and others). In addition, this is also due to the dramatic increasing of interest of using biomass materials as the replacements for glass fiber into reinforced thermoplastic composites. In this study, wood plastic composites used are the filled thermoplastics which primarily consisted of wood fiber and thermoplastic polymer. While, the purpose of this research is to find out the optimum conditions of the wax and coconut coir produced by inducing LDPE. The experiment carried out is by mixing the wax, coconut coir and LDPE into eight new polymer compositions, in which the higher value of the tensile strength and hardness are obtained by mixing between 6 wt. % coconut coir with 4 wt. % wax, rather than to pure LDPE, that is 9.236 MPa and 3HV. Although the strength impact is decreased with value as much as 60.95 % compared to original conditions, the SEM analysis proved that the composition of 90 wt. % LDPE, 4 wt. % wax and 6 wt. % coconut coir is the best weight ratios for mechanical characteristics and bonding between reinforced material and matrix material. Here, the LDPE, wax and coconut coir mixture produces a new hybrid polymer and alters the properties of pure LDPE. Keywords: LDPE; paraffin wax; coconut coir; optimum conditions; new hybrid polymer *Corresponding author: kannan@pmm.edu.my 2011 UTHM Publisher. All right reserved. penerbit.uthm.edu.my/ojs/index.php/ijie International Journal of Integrated Engineering, Vol. 3 No. 2 (2011) p. 63-67