THE NOVEL TECHNOLOGY OF FUNCTIONAL FABRICS COMPOSED OF POLYPROPYLENE NONWOVEN SELVAGE/POLYESTER/STAINLESS STEEL

Abstract

Nowadays, the Green Environment Protection is popular, and the synthetic fiber nonwoven is recyclable and reusable to fabricate functional products with high additional values. It is because that the synthetic fibers used in the nonwoven industry are almost thermoplastic polymer. In this study, we adopted stainless steel filament as functional metal fiber, polypropylene nonwoven waste as filled material and reinforced it with polyester filament. Our process and products were innovative and creative. In order to produce multifunctional fiber products, we combined two or more different kinds of fibers, instead of one single fiber, to spin the ply yarn and weave them into fabrics in the hope that the final products would meet our requirements. The process in this research was innovative and high technical. The ply yarn and fabrics we made possessed high performance and diversity, and they were recyclable and practical. The functional ply yarn and its fabric responded to the electrical functional demands. The products can be applied on the anti-electrostatic fabric or processed into artificial composites.

In this research, the functional ply yarn was produced with an innovative rotor-wrappingtwister. The yarn consisted of polyester filaments, stainless steel filament and polypropylene nonwoven selvages. The speed of the rotor-wrapping-twister and the wrapping counts were the parameters in the manufacturing process. Then the ply yarn was woven into plain fabrics with a rapier loom. Finally, we investigated the tensile properties and maximum breaking strength utilization factors of the fabrics. The maximum breaking strength and elongation of the PS group (core materials were polyester filaments and polypropylene nonwoven selvages, and wrapping material was a stainless steel filament) were better at higher rotor speed (8000 rpm). The influence of the wrapping counts on the tensile properties was different while we used different wrapping materials. After the measurement of electromagnetic shielding effectiveness, we found the fabrics that fabricated with the ply yarn could take as the electromagnetic shielding materials. The weight percentage of the metallic fiber was only 3.52 ∼ 4.58 wt % and the value of the shielding effectiveness was 10 ∼ 25 dB.

Citation

Lin, J.H. and Lou, C.W. (2002), "THE NOVEL TECHNOLOGY OF FUNCTIONAL FABRICS COMPOSED OF POLYPROPYLENE NONWOVEN SELVAGE/POLYESTER/STAINLESS STEEL", Research Journal of Textile and Apparel, Vol. 6 No. 1, pp. 29-38. https://doi.org/10.1108/RJTA-06-01-2002-B003