Evaluation of some physical properties of new developed "SaXcell" blended woven fabrics

Abstract

As consumer demands increase, environmental concerns also inevitably arise. Within the textile production chain, each processing step has its own environmentally harmful impact on nature. Every fiber, yarn bobbin, meter of fabric, chemical used, consumer lifecycle of each textile item, and recycling or waste stage of every T-shirt leaves its own footprint. Conventional natural fiber types such as cotton, wool, silk, and linen have their own environmental footprint related to their cultivation, processing steps, and consumer use. Similarly, traditional synthetic-based man-made fiber types have their own footprint in terms of raw material sourcing and degradation time in nature. Recycling in the textile industry holds paramount importance in the global pursuit of sustainability. Cellulose based recycled fibers have been preferred by the consumers lately as they provide sustainable products with high comfort and satisfying mechanical properties. There are different recycling methods currently discussed in various forums namely as "mechanical, thermo-mechanical and chemical recycling. SaXcell is a new cellulose based recycled fiber made from used cotton textiles. In the eco-friendly SaXcell process, the used cotton textiles are dissolved in a closed loop system where the water and chemicals used are chemically recycled during the process. The pulp obtained from SaXcell process is converted into fibers by lyocell wet spinning. Utilizing SaXcell based products are believed to be contributing to textile industry with a sustainable and circular production manner. This study has been performed in order to perform a comparative study for woven fabrics produced from new developed "SaXcell" yarns varying in different blend ratios in terms of some mechanical properties such as tensile strength, tear strength, seam slippage. As the results are satisfying , this study may encourage the producers and the consumers for utilizing of new developed 'SaXcell' fibre with different fibre blends which may create alternative sustainable textile products.