Studies on Classically Harvested Linseed Flax Fibers for Bio-composite Reinforcement and Textile Applications

Abstract

Linseed flax is an oilseed producing crop but its stems are rich in high potential fibers. However, linseed flax is not highly promoted for fiber application purposes. It is mainly due to the lack of technical knowledge regarding good quality fiber extraction from linseed stems. In this study, a fiber extraction device has been used to extract fiber from the randomly aligned linseed stems. Linseed fibers extracted using the above device are further refined in a gill drawing mini system having six different drawing passages. The extracted fibers are then evaluated at different stages of fiber extraction and are compared with industrial hackling tow textile flax fibers. It is observed that the extracted linseed flax fibers are long and fine enough for various textile yarn manufacturing. Their mechanical properties are also very high and are comparable to good quality textile flax fibers. Thus, these fibers can be considered as a complement to textile flax for the production of composite reinforcement fabrics, technical textiles, or garments.

Keywords

• linseed flax
• natural fiber
• fiber extraction
• kink-band
• tensile properties
• fiber length