Within the cheese industry is used the milk of a specific species of sheep whose wool is not suitable for the fibre industry. Therefore, this fibre becomes a waste by-product. To take advantage of this waste, the formulation of a fibre-reinforced polymer based on a poly(lactic acid) (PLA) matrix plasticised with maleinised linseed oil (MLO) is proposed. The work began by evaluating the feasibility of four fibre-cleaning processes. Then, to study the composition and processing conditions of the material, a complete factorial design of experiment 2², improved with four centre-points, was considered. Afterwards, the mechanical and thermal properties of the formulations were assessed. The results showed that the most suitable washing method was the one similar to the industrial cleaning process. The reprocessing of the material increased its homogeneity due to an improvement in the fibre–matrix interface. The Pareto chart showed that there was no interaction between the wool content and the number of times the material was reprocessed. In general, the addition of sheep wool to a PLA/MLO matrix did not significantly modify the mechanical and thermal properties of the matrix. These results indicate a viable alternative to reduce the wool waste generated in the food industry by means of new bio-based material formulations.

中文翻译：

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一种新的生物基纤维增强聚合物，由绵羊毛短纤维和PLA制成

在奶酪行业中，使用了特定羊毛种类的绵羊的奶，其羊毛不适合纤维行业。因此，该纤维成为废副产物。为了利用这种浪费，提出了基于以马来酸亚麻籽油（MLO）增塑的聚乳酸（PLA）基质的纤维增强聚合物的配方。这项工作首先评估了四种纤维清洁工艺的可行性。然后，为了研究材料的组成和加工条件，完成了实验2 ²的完整析因设计。考虑改善了四个中心点。之后，评估制剂的机械和热性能。结果表明，最合适的洗涤方法是类似于工业洗涤的方法。由于纤维-基质界面的改善，材料的后处理提高了其均质性。帕累托图显示，羊毛含量与材料再加工次数之间没有相互作用。通常，在PLA / MLO基质中添加羊绒不会显着改变基质的机械性能和热性能。这些结果表明，通过新的生物基材料配方，可以减少食品工业中产生的羊毛浪费的可行替代方案。