Influential Parameters of Starching Process on Mechanical Properties of Yarns Intended for Multifunctional Woven Fabrics for Thermal Protective Clothing

Abstract

The investigation of influential parameters of the starching process on mechanical properties of yarns intended for multifunctional woven fabrics for thermal protective clothing was performed on four different yarn samples starched on an innovative starching machine, adapted to industrial starching conditions. The starching was conducted with two different processes with different starch mass concentrations: the standard starching process and a newer starching process (with yarn prewetting). Based on the results obtained, it can be concluded that starching positively affects all the properties of tested samples and that the increase of starch mass concentration is not accompanied by the improvement of those yarn properties. Synthetic polymer fibers that achieve satisfactory yarn strength need to be starched with lower starch mass concentrations in order to retain the breaking properties and to be protected from abrasion and static electricity, which occurs during the weaving process. The yarn prewetting starching process shows significantly better results than the standard starching process, especially for aramid yarns, where abrasion resistance increased from 42 to 135%. Therefore, we can conclude that the goal of starching such yarns is aimed at increasing the wear resistance. Linear regressions and correlations between the values of breaking properties and abrasion resistance obtained by the testing and their values that were estimated by the analysis show a high correlation coefficient.