Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 207

3rd International Conference on Creative Media, Design and Technology (REKA 2018)

Experiment On Abaca Fiber And

Its Implementation In Product Making
Hafeezur Rahmaan Mohd Yassin Normaziana Hassan Hon Su Sean
Universiti Sains Malaysia Management and Science University Universiti Sains Malaysia
hafeezur@usm.my normaziana_hassan susean.hon@gmail.com
@msu.edu.my

Abstract Abaca falls under the same family with a banana plant called Musaceae. In Philippine, abaca fiber is widely used as raw
material for fabric and footwear. Meanwhile, abaca plant mainly found in Sabah, Malaysia and it grows without awareness of people.
Due to this situation, a research taken by exploring and developing the possibility of the abaca fiber into something that useful and
benefits. By using handmade papermaking method and product design approach, the abaca fiber will then be processed into paper
and its texture and translucency will be analyzed. After that, a selected paper will be developed into a lampshade and a prototype will
be made as the final product and named as II. The characteristic of II is inspired from the Senbon Torii in Fushimi Inari Taisha,
Kyoto, Japan. It is a floor and table lamp with structure or body made from wooden. The effect of the lampshade is to create a
relaxing and romantic ambiance in a room. The outcome of this research proving that abaca fiber has potential in contributing
economic development for local people in Sabah, Malaysia.
Keywords: Abaca fiber, papermaking, translucency, product design, economic.

INTRODUCTION translucency of paper and the results later will then be

Abaca plant is close relative to the banana plant. analyzed.
(Schlegel, 2010) They are under the same family, To propose and prototype. By using product
Musaceae. The botanical name of abaca is Musa design approach, design will be proposed and develop
Textilis. (FAO, 2018) Abaca plant is originated in the to suit with the outcome of the experiment. By
Philippines and have spread to Malaysia and Indonesia. implementing the selected experimented result of abaca
(Brink M, 2003) In Philippine abaca fiber is commonly fiber, the prototype will be the new form and area of
and widely been used as raw material for fabric, .product as compared to the existing abaca fiber based
footwear, cordage and craft industries. (FAO, 2018) In products.
Malaysia, abaca plants mainly found in Sabah.
(Jacobsen S.D, 2016) Abaca plants are less familiar to METHODOLOGY
the community because it does not produce edible fruit. This is a qualitative based research. The literature
Therefore, it grows without awareness of people. reviews used to support the issues that being
However, referring to the existing products that highlighted. Subsequently, experiments on abaca fibers
produced in Philippine, it also have the same potential will be carried out. On the experiments, handmade
to developed the abaca fiber into a product and will papermaking method will be used. Besides
create another business opportunity to the local people experimenting to make the abaca fibers into paper,
in Sabah, Malaysia. their translucency features will also be analyzed. While
There are research about processing banana plant the experiments are conducted, a design will be
into other uses besides than just harvesting its fruit. proposed by using product design approach and in the
In the research, banana fiber being processed into end; the design proposed will be prototyped as the final
paper by using papermaking process. (Utusan Melayu, result for the study.
2008) The banana papers later implied on craft and
product making such as paper bag, lamp fixture, FINDINGS
greeting card and gift box. (mStar, 2009) Through the literature review, found out that
Since abaca plants are under same family with existing products that produced based on abaca fiber
banana, which is Musaceae family, therefore the abaca are mainly made from the raw fiber by using weaving,
fiber will then be experiments to make it paper and twinning and braiding methods while most products
later will implement it on a product. The core purpose from banana fiber are made into a paper which later
of this research is to explore abaca fiber into a new being developed into few products. Therefore, an
form of material and turned it into a significant experiment on the abaca fibers carried out by using the
product. handmade papermaking method.
According to the news in mStar, 2009, found that
OBJECTIVES lamp fixtures made by banana fiber paper have high
To identify the existing of abaca fiber’s product commercial value than other products. Additional, the
produced in the market. The purpose is to identify the translucency and fibrous effect from the banana paper
potential area of new product to be developed. lamp shows the aesthetic aspect of this product. This is
To experiment and analyze the abaca fiber. The one of the factors that influenced the study being
Abaca fiber will be experimented by using handmade conducted, which by choosing lampshade as a medium
papermaking method and make it into certain to develop the abaca fiber into a product.
thicknesses of papers to get the texture and

Copyright © 2018, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). 375
 Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 207

Since the researcher is a product designer, the final Result:

outcome of the research will be designing a product. Table 1: Thicknesses Of Abaca Fiber Sheet (With Pressing)
Lighting fixture was chosen as the medium for
experiment and will focus on the lampshade effect. Thickness
Experiment on Abaca Fiber Thickness before
Sheet after drying
drying (mm)
Following is the experiment had been conducted to (mm)
complete the research:
A 1 0.29
i) Experimenting abaca fiber through
handmade papermaking process
B 3 0.45
Procedure:

C 5 0.76

Table 2: Thicknesses Of Abaca Fiber Sheet (With Pressing)

Figure 1: Abaca fiber handmade papermaking process Thickness Thickness

Shee
before drying after drying
t
(mm) (mm)
Result:

D 1 0.46

E 3 0.75

F 5 1.32

Figure 2: Result of abaca fiber – handmade paper

iii) Experiment on the translucency of abaca fiber
The experiment succeeded in demonstrating that sheets (different thicknesses) with various type of
abaca fibers can be processed into paper by using bulb. Procedure:
handmade papermaking method.
ii) Producing different thicknesses of abaca Sheets A, B, C, D, E, F were test with warm
fiber sheet (press and without press) white bulbs (4-watt, 5-watt and 8-watt) and cool
Procedure: daylight bulbs (5-watt and 8-watt).
Result:

Table 3: Result of sheets tested with warm white bulbs

Lea
transuen
Mot Ms
transu en transuen

Lea
Figure 3: Process of making paper with different thicknesses (press
transu en
and without press)
Table 4: Result of sheets tested with cool daylight bulbs
The thicknesses of papers were measure by using
digital caliper after drying. DISCUSSION ON THE EXPERIMENTS
Based on the experiments done, due to the
thickness, toughness, ability to shape and translucency
of sheet E (3mm, without pressing) has been selected
as a material for the lampshade design. The 4watt LED
warm white bulbs selected as to match with the
proposed design.

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 Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 207

design making. The research aimed are to develop

Design Concept another area of potential business for abaca fiber. It can
become an economy source especially for the local
people in Sabah, Malaysia. This support by; In
Malaysia, abaca plants mainly found in Sabah.
(Jacobsen S.D, 2016)
There is some recommendation for the further
research of abaca fiber. The abaca fiber can be dyed
by some natural dye as to make paper with various
colors. Paper with different color can provide more
choices for various products. The next suggestion is to
experiment on combination of abaca fiber with other
natural fiber to produce another new product for new
Figure 4: Final Prototype Figure 4: 3D rendering potential area of economic development.

The design concept of II is inspired from the REFERENCES

Senbon Torii in Fushimi Inari Taisha, Kyoto, Japan. Brink M, Escobin RP, editors. (2003). Plant Resources of South-East
The character repetition of vermillion torii gate which Asia No. 17: Fiber Plants. Leiden, Netherlands: Backhuys
Publishers.
run into thousand and resulting maze. The structure of Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2018).
torii gate is more to simplicity which only consist of Abaca. Retrieved from
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ABACA? Retrieved from
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table lamp which its lampshade is made from abaca kertas daripada serat batang pisang. Retrieved from
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CONCLUSION
The main objectives of the research are to
experiment the abaca fiber and imply it in product

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