Comparative Study of Vacuum Bagging and Hand Lay Up Methods for Coconut Coir Fiber Composite Materials as an Alternative to Wood Boards

The concept of green material has begun to be developed to make environmentally eco-engineering materials. The abundant availability of coco fiber can be used as reinforcement in composite materials. This experimental research was conducted to see the effect of making coconut fiber composite material using the vacuum bagging method and the hand lay-up method on the occurrence of voids in it. Then it will be used as an alternative material to replace wooden boards. From the tensile test, the vacuum bagging method obtained a tensile strength value of 53.16 Mpa, an increase of 47.17% compared to the other method. From this value, this material cannot be used as a substitute for wooden boards, but can be used for waterproof and termite-resistant board materials. The use of the vacuum bagging method is also good enough to reduce the possibility of hole defects that arise in the other method.