Natural fibre reinforced composites are predominantly being used in Fibre-Reinforced Plastic (FRP) industry because their light weight, non toxicity and comparable mechanical properties to that of glass fibre reinforced composites. Natural fibre reinforcement in the form of one dimensional preform, knitted fabrics, braided fabrics and woven fabrics are increasingly used in the composites. This is due to the high degree of anisotropy and formability offered by the textile reinforcements. Among the different preform, braided preform offer high strength due to its high degree of interlocking structure and fibre orientation. Even though a lot of research work has been carried out on braided reinforcements, only limited attempts have been carried out on usage of natural fibre in braiding. Hence in the present investigation, flax braided reinforced composites using epoxy resin were developed which can be used as fluid transmission pipes.

Mr. R. S. Vignesh Balaji is an M. Tech (Textile Technology) from Anna University, Chennai. He joined SITRA in the year 2010 as Scientific Officer and he is currently involved in research projects dealing with Advanced wound care dressings. He has published 14 research papers in leading Textile Journals.