Light Fiber-Akund Fiber Spinning And Product Development

Akund fiber is a kind of pappus fiber which grows on the Calotropis gigantea plant. As a newkind of natural cellulose fiber, akund fiber has good luster, high hollow degree, light weight, goodhygroscopicity, good air permeability, green environmental protection and other features.Currently, kapok, a kind of lightweight fiber has developed yarns, fabrics, clothing and otherproducts. Fine polypropylene used in fabric and garment made polypropylene, the lightest fiber ofsynthetic fiber, goes far. Akund fiber is longer than kapok. It has better hygroscopicity and airpermeability than polypropylene and more natural and environmental which meet demands ofconsumers better. Therefore, akund fiber will have a widely and broad prospect for development.While its small fiber density, floating and breaking easily,small maximum static frictioncoefficient of fiber and small cohesion among fibers, all of these features make akundfiberdifficult to spin and more difficult to the higher count yarn.Some researchers have made apreliminary study on the performance of akund fiber, yarn and fabric. This paper introduces thespinning and process optimization of the60Sakund cotton fiber/cotton (35:65) blended yarn. Bycontrasting yarn performance testing, conclusions are draw following: the blended yarns havemuch hairiness, especially3mm below hairiness which can infer to be akund fibers by the verticaland horizontal section of yarn; Yarn evenness CV value is larger; The yarn strength is low,whichcan meet the requirement of yarn through optimizing process. On these bases, five kind yarnproducts, two kind of40S, two kind of60Sand a kind of80S, are researched and developed. Bytesting the yarns, conclusions are drawn that the same count yarns with bigger twist multiplierhave less hairiness, but larger CV value, higher yarn strengths and more thinness, thickness andneps. With the increasing of yarn count, the CV value is larger,Yarn hairiness, thinness, thicknessand neps all show a trend of increase, but yarn strength is reduced.According to properties of the60Sakund blended yarn, the method of two yarns piled intostrand, whose twist radio is0.8, is used for optimizing yarn performance before knitting. Theakund knitting fabric is plain stitch, because of lower breaking elongation and poorer elastic ofakund plied yarn, all loops of fabric are made of akund plied yarn and20D bare spandex. Then theknitting fabric is shaped, scoured and bleached, whitened, then drying stereotypes and printed using reactive dyes. The fabric would meet use requirement after steaming, washing and tenteringfinishing. Finally, by testing and analyzing the performance of knitting fabrics, results show thatakund knitting fabric has good drapability, anti-pilling, wrinkle resistance, warmth retentionandair permeability. The fabric is fluffy, soft and plump. Therefore, the akund fiber is suitable fordevelopment of lightweight warm underwear fabrics.