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Production of thermally stable polypropylene fibers
Author(s) -
Qin Y.,
Brydon D. L.,
Mather R. R.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1097-4628(19960822)61:8<1287::aid-app8>3.0.co;2-g
Subject(s) - shrinkage , polypropylene , materials science , composite material , thermal stability , annealing (glass) , tenacity (mineralogy) , thermal , fiber , synthetic fiber , polymer , chemical engineering , physics , meteorology , engineering
Polypropylene (PP) fibers were made with a number of different processing conditions, such as one‐stage drawing, two‐stage drawing, and a combination of drawing, annealing, and relaxation. The thermal stability of these fibers in terms of shrinkage in length at 100, 130, and 150°C was studied. It was found that the thermal shrinkage can be greatly improved with multi‐stage drawing and with annealing. The fibers that were two‐stage‐drawn, relaxed, and then annealed remained stable at 130°C while still having a fiber tenacity in excess of 0.8 N/tex. Thermal stability at 150°C was more difficult to improve. However, the fibers that were drawn in three stages with a final drawing temperature of 185°C showed thermal shrinkage at 150°C of less than 10%. Finally, it was found that the thermal shrinkage of PP fibers at 150°C can be greatly reduced by blending a minor component of a liquid crystal polymer into the PP fibers. With two‐stage drawing and annealing, fibers with shrinkage at 150°C of only 2.9% were produced. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.