A STUDY OF PHYSICAL PROPERTIES & SHOCK ABSORPTION ABILITIES OF STARCH POLYMER FOAM AS CUSHIONING MATERIAL FOR PACKAGING

This project involved in producing starch polymer foam to be used as cushioning material for packaging. To produce the starch polymer foam; starch, PVA, urea, citric acid, and dionised water are the selected materials. Water amount and, drying and curing process were the variables that were being manipulated to produce the best foam of cushioning material for packaging. After several changes of the variables, the best ratio of starch:pva:citric acid is 1:1:4. The amount of water used is 10 ml/gram of starch/PVA weight. The best foaming process was done at a speed of 1500rpm for 40minutes. Drying process was done at 70 ºC for 24 hours, and after that, the curing process was done at 100 ºC for 1hour to produce closed cell foam. The two best samples, open cell and closed cell foams produced were cut to 6cm x 6cm x 0.5cm. The density the foams were measured and then subjected to weight drop destructive test.