A versatile hot melt centrifugal spinning apparatus for thermoplastic microfibres production
Jason Gunther,
Jacques Lengaigne,
Mélanie Girard,
Valérie Toupin-Guay,
James T. Teasdale,
Martine Dubé,
Ilyass Tabiai
Affiliations
Jason Gunther
CREPEC, Department of Mechanical Engineering, École de technologie supérieure, 1100 Notre-Dame Street West Montreal, QCH3C 1K3, Canada
Jacques Lengaigne
CREPEC, Department of Mechanical Engineering, École de technologie supérieure, 1100 Notre-Dame Street West Montreal, QCH3C 1K3, Canada
Mélanie Girard
CREPEC, Department of Mechanical Engineering, École de technologie supérieure, 1100 Notre-Dame Street West Montreal, QCH3C 1K3, Canada
Valérie Toupin-Guay
CREPEC, Department of Mechanical Engineering, École de technologie supérieure, 1100 Notre-Dame Street West Montreal, QCH3C 1K3, Canada
James T. Teasdale
CREPEC, Department of Mechanical Engineering, École de technologie supérieure, 1100 Notre-Dame Street West Montreal, QCH3C 1K3, Canada
Martine Dubé
CREPEC, Department of Mechanical Engineering, École de technologie supérieure, 1100 Notre-Dame Street West Montreal, QCH3C 1K3, Canada
Ilyass Tabiai
Corresponding author.; CREPEC, Department of Mechanical Engineering, École de technologie supérieure, 1100 Notre-Dame Street West Montreal, QCH3C 1K3, Canada
The centrifugal spinning (CS) method could address common issues such as low production rate and high energy consumption in the industry of nonwoven textile fabrication. Similarly to cotton candy production, the high-speed rotating reservoir extrudes melt or solvent-based polymer from orifices to produce fibres. Using polymer melt avoids solvent elimination and toxicity, but the process is more difficult. Thus, a versatile lab-scale hot melt spinneret with the ability to pour pellets inside continuously to expand our knowledge of the CS method and investigating different extrusion geometries such as nozzlefree is developed. Among the controllable parameters are, the spinneret heating temperature (up to 300°C), its two interchangeable 3D printer nozzles. An Arduino code is used to stabilize the temperature. The system performance is investigated with polypropylene and polylactide. The results show that fibres under 15 μm in diameter are produced. This work is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0. To view a copy of this license, visithttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
