Natural fiber hybridization has been peaking across industries as it offers a promising approach for developing sustainable and eco-friendly alternatives. In this study, hybrid coconut coir and tiger grass fiber composites of weight ratio 1:1 were fabricated by encapsulating their strands into epoxy resin and hardener matrices. The hardness and flexural performance of the hybrid fiber composite were characterized based on ASTM standards D2240 Adapted and D790 Adapted and compared with composites reinforced with the individual fibers. Among the three fiber composites, the hybrid composite exhibited the highest flexural modulus (2.41 GPa), representing a 35.3% improvement over pure coir composites and an 11.6% increase relative to pure tiger grass composites. This improved flexural stiffness of the hybrid composite is attributed to the mechanical compatibility of coir and tiger grass, resulting in effective stress transfer upon hybridization. In contrast, shore durometer hardness results showed no significant differences among the composites, with the hybrid composite recording an average hardness reading of 71. These results support that the hybridization effectively mitigates the mechanical limitations of the individual fibers offering broader potential for sustainable industrial and structural applications.

Natural materials used in broom-making like tiger grass fibers and midribs of coconut leaves have potential use in composites as alternative reinforcements due to their biodegradability and availability at lower prices while offering some possible enhancements on mechanical properties. In this paper, tiger grass fibers and coconut leaf midribs from locally made brooms were reinforced in epoxy resin in a unidirectional orientation. No chemical treatment was applied to the reinforcing materials. A hybrid fiber reinforced composite was also prepared using a manual casting process. The mechanical characterization performed are flexural and durometer hardness tests. Results revealed that all sample types of composites obtained lower mean flexural strength and hardness than the unreinforced sample. This could be linked to the absence of surface treatment that possibly led to a weaker adhesion between the fibers and the epoxy matrix. Moreover, all composites obtained almost similar flexural strength of about 74 MPa which might be primarily influenced by the epoxy strength since the load applied is in perpendicular direction with the unidirectional reinforcements. Nevertheless, an improvement of about 22 % was obtained in terms of the flexural modulus of the composite with coconut leaf midrib.