Estimating splitting capability of modified flax fiber during quality control

Abstract

   The existing problem of cotton import substitution ensures the relevance of modified flax fiber production. Modified flax fiber has potential uses in textile manufacturing when mixed with cotton or similar fibers in order to produce non-woven textile materials, as well as armature for biocomposite materials. As such, it is necessary to alter the existing methods of determining modified flax fiber quality in order to pick new quality metrics corresponding to the changes to fiber's structure during processing. In particular, average thickness and length of the modified flax fiber suffer a degree of reduction during fiber's preparation for spinning, which needs to be measured and taken into account. As the result of the research there was proposed the way to estimate the fractioning quotient of modified flax fiber via sliding bending against rounded edges imitating the effects of actual fiber processing. When working parameters and edge geometry are constant, fiber thickness is reduced by ∆ = Torig - Tres. For fiber with thickness Torig in range of 0.109 to 0.135 micrometers the value of ∆ differes from approximately 0.010 to 0.098 micrometers. It was suggested to estimate the fractioning quotient according to value of D = 100·∆ / Torig. During experimental testing of this method using various quality fiber produced in Tver region and Udmurtia Republic the value of D was varying from 0.10...0.15 % to 7.3...7.7 %. It has been established that the suggested method with the use of standard indicator «fiber thickness» enables to take into account the strength of inter-fiber connections according to the currently accepted theory of their formation. Applying this method makes it possible to differentiate full-scale shipments of modified flax fiber using sliding bending stress performed under identical conditions.