Recycled shuttlecocks as particle boards / Muhammad Rafiee A. Rahim and Zarina Yasmin Hanur Harith

Sound pollution is a major concern to people. Conventionally expensive sound absorbing materials are used to achieve good quality of sound. The use of recycled material has many advantages compared to conventional which include in the reduction of product cost, good handling and environmental protection. Other studies have used rice husk, banana trees, coir fibre and many more. But only a few researchers’ focus on industrial waste such tyre, tea bag and some product that already available. Shuttlecock is one of the industrial wastes (sporting industrial waste) possessing good properties of absorption (duck/goose feather). The rapid deterioration of shuttlecocks causes it to be discarded fast. The project created particle boards with good sound absorbance which will have good market value either to use in the auditorium or in a good audio room. Thus, the waste produces from this sports activity might be utilized in creating particleboards and fully utilized shuttlecocks properties benefits to create sound absorbance material. This study was carried out using shuttlecocks as by-product. Main part of single shuttlecocks contains of cork (3 gram) and feather skirt (2 gram). The shuttlecocks are crushed into particles after which it is fabricated into low density particleboards (600kg/m3). The process of fabrication consists of bonding using phenol-formaldehyde (PF) and hot press 170 degree Celsius. Aim of this work was to reuse used shuttlecocks and fabricate them into panel. The panel was then tested for their sound absorption performances. The study shows that there is a possibility of using crushed shuttlecocks as a particleboards and it is lightweight. Good quality shuttlecocks was produced. The success of this sound properties using impedance tube-transfer function method accordance to ISO 10534 and it fall into Grade E out of 6 grades available. The improvement of this grade can be archived with further research. Next the study on its water permeability and its strength will be conducted.