Amazing Pineapple Fique
Pineapple Fique is a completely natural fibre derived from a rainforest plant which is a member of the pineapple family and is native to South America.
Fique is available in a range of colours, is smooth to touch and easy to work with. With a slightly “hairy” appearance which adds gorgeous texture to your crafted product, use Pineapple Fique just like you would use raffia.
Whilst we love working with Pineapple Fique to craft gorgeous bags, hats, baskets, mats etc, Fique is a one of nature’s super fibres with a range of applications that will astound you!
The fibres extracted from the leaves of the Fique (Furcraea andina) plant are ultra-small, referred to as “nano” cellulous fibres. They are so tiny that 50,000 could fit inside the width of a single strand of human hair. Like fibres made from glass, carbon etc, nanocellulose fibres can be added to raw material to make plastics that are stronger and more durable.
Fique fibre has amazing properties including a high tensile strength, low weight and high heat tolerance (up to 220C) and the possible applications are almost endless.
The properties of Fique, combined with the environmental benefits of using plant-based products, has seen a drive to use pineapple fique fibres in engineering applications, such as polymer composites, building materials, automotive parts and insulation.
Pineapple fibre is now being used to develop a new generation of automotive plastics that are stronger, lighter, have greater resistance to damage from heat, petrol and oxygen and are more eco-friendly than the plastics currently in use. Parts of your car might soon be made from pineapple plants!
Another interesting area under development is using Fique fibres as a replacement for synthetic fibre in polymer composites. Synthetic fibre composites are widely used in applications from medical devices to aerospace components and there are significant environmental benefits (including reduction in energy and pollution) to be gained from the use of biobased polymers.
The low thermal conductivity of pineapple fibre has also identified it as a potential replacement for common building insulation materials.
Importantly, many of the impacts of the use of polymer plastics including the high dependence on oil for their manufacture and end-of-life management challenges are removed.
There you go! The Pineapple Fique plant is now being used way beyond crafts to deliver unbeatable environmental, cost and health benefits in so many applications
Take care,
Debbie x
See the beautiful Habu Textiles Pineapple Fique here
References:
