Authors:
Liu, Xin, Hurren, Christopher and Wang, Xungai

Date of Publication:
2005

Publication:
Proceedings of the 11th International Wool Research Conference, The University of Leeds, Leeds, England

Summary:
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.

Read the rest of the article: http://dro.deakin.edu.au/view/DU:30014416