화학공학소재연구정보센터
Journal of Applied Polymer Science, Vol.61, No.8, 1287-1292, 1996
Production of Thermally Stable Polypropylene Fibers
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 degrees 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 degrees C while still having a fiber tenacity in excess of 0.8 N/tex. Thermal stability at 150 degrees C was more difficult to improve. However, the fibers that were drawn in three stages with a final drawing temperature of 185 degrees C showed thermal shrinkage at 150 degrees C of less than 10%. Finally, it was found that the thermal shrinkage of PP fibers at 150 degrees 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 degrees C of only 2.9% were produced.