Fiber

This study reports the latest research into alpaca and wool fibres. In particular, those properties that have received little attention in research literature have been examined. They include single fibre abrasion and bending fatigue, single fibre tensile properties, as well as resistance to compression behaviour. These properties are important because they affect the softness and pilling propensity of these fibres and the resultant fabrics. Clean wool and alpaca fibres were used in this study. Fibre abrasion/bending fatigue measurements were carried out using a Textechno FIBRESTRESS instrument. The resistance to compression (RtC) tests were carried out according to Australian Standard AS3535-1988. The results indicate that wool and alpaca fibres behave quite differently, even though both fibre types are of animal origin. Wool fibre resistance to compression decreases as fibre diameter increases while the opposite appears to occur for alpaca fibres. For both wool and alpaca the number of abrasion/bending cycles at fibre break increases with an increase in fibre diameter, it takes longer to break the alpaca fibres. Reasons for these differences have been postulated based on differences in fibre surface and structure between alpaca and wool. more »

Luxury fibers have great importance in the field of high added value fabric production, but the studies related to these fibers are very limited. One of these luxury proteinous fibers is alpaca wool. In this study, dyeing characteristics (dye-uptake speed, color efficiency and nuance of color, fastness properties, etc.) of alpaca fibers (Huacaya and Suri) were investigated by taking sheep wool as a reference. Furthermore, analysis such as scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy was also carried out. According to the experimental results it was found that both dye-uptake speed and amount was in the range of sheep > Suri alpaca > Huacaya alpaca for milling acid dye. Furthermore, when their fastness properties were compared with sheep wool, it could be said that there was no difference for washing and perspiration fastness, while rubbing and light fastness of alpaca fibers were lower than sheep wool. more »