Indian Journal of Fibre & Textile Research Vol. 26, December 2001, pp. 414-417 Physico-mechanical properties of fabrics prepared from blends of sulphonated jute fibre with natural and synthetic fibres b b Mohammed Ali, A Jabber Mian", M Nurul Islam, Md Rabiul Awual , Syed Fazal-E-Karim & A M Sarwaruddin Chowdhurl'c Bangladesh Jute Research Institute, Dhaka 1207, Bangladesh Received 2 November 1999; revised received 26 December 2000; accepted 16 January 2001 The plain woven fabrics have been prepared from the blends of sulphonated jute fibre with natural and synthetic fibres, and their geometrical, physico-mechanical and drapping properties studied. It is observed that the blended fib re fabrics show improved textile properties, almost similar to those of the cotton fabrics. Keywords: Drape coefficient, Jute fibre, Sulphonation, Tensile strength 1 Introduction modified jute fibre in different combination with Jute is a hard and rough fibre containing about 60% cotton, rayon, acrylic and silk waste. The geometrical cellulosic fibrils and 40% non-fibrous ground properties of the blended yarn fabrics were favourably constituents, like lignin, hemicellulose and pectic compared with those of the cotton fabrics prepared substance, which are encrusted with the fibri ls making with same yarn count (30 tex)". them coarse and non-flexible. Hence, jute as a textile The present work was, therefore, undertaken to fibre suffers from inherent defects which limit its prepare the fabrics from the blends of sulphonated spinning to coarse yarn for producing coarse jute fibre with natural and synthetic fibres, such as packaging cloths. It has been reported 1-7 that some coUon, rayon, acryli c, polyester and silk waste and to chemical treatments improve the fibre characteristics assess their geometrical, physico-mechanical and of jute, modifying its physico-mechanical and drapping properties, namely bending length, flexural physico-chemical properties. This purpose of rigidity, tensile strength and drape coefficient. producing fine yarns ensures the diverse use of this 8 9 modified fibre in the field of various textiles . 2 Materials and Methods Blending of fibres with different fibres having dissimilarity in their properties is usually done to 2.1 Preparation of Fabrics achieve or improve certain characteristics of the yarn Seven different plain weave fabrics (length, 10 m or its processing performances 10. and width, 1m) were prepared on the ordinary Fabric produced from the blended fibres may have powerloom (Jutton Project, Bangladesh Jute Research better characteristics than what could be obtained in a Institute). The weaving was done as per the one up fabric produced from a single fibre. Sometimes, the and one down principle. Some of the fabric cost of fabric production is also reduced through the properties, such as stiffness, flexural rigidity, tensile blending of cheaper fibre with a costly one. strength and drape coefficient, were evaluated as per Different plain weave fabric samples have been the standard procedures. prepared from the blended yarns of chemically 2.2 Cloth Cover "Present address: Department of Chemistry, Dh aka University, The cloth cover was calculated from the following Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh. relationship: bpresent address: Department of Applied Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Faculty of Science, Dhaka University, Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh. eTo whom all the correspondence should be addressed. Phone: 9661920 Ext. 6014 (Lab); Fax: 880-2-86 15583; where Kc is the cloth cover; K I , the warp cover factor; Email : sarw [email protected] and K2, the weft cover factor. ALI el 01.: PHYSICO-MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF FABRICS 415 The fraction of space per inch of cloth covered by supported on a circular disk of about 5 in . diameter of yarn, known as warp cover factor (K), was calculated the drape meter. The circular specimen was drapped using the following relationship: over the circular disk supporter of the drape meter and K = Threads/inch = _11_ assumed some folded configuration. The line of the Count .IN projection from the periphery of the fabric was not circular, rather it took the shape of the fo lded Similarly, the weft cover factor was calculated. The configuration. The drape was measured as the drape threads/ inch (n) were counted with the help of a coefficient (F) which is defined as the ratio of the travelling thread counter. projected area of the drapped specimen to its undrapped area after deduction of the area of the 2.3 Stiffness and Flexural Rigidity The stiffness of a fabric is a measure of resistance supporting disk. to bending of a strip of the cloth of unit width into F = A, - Ad unit curvature in the absence of any tension. A strip of AD -Ad cloth (6 in. x I in.) was cut to the size of the template where, As is the actual projected area of the specimen; of the tester and slide into the direction parallel to its AD, the area of the specimen; and Ad, the area of the length, so that its end is projected from the edge of the supporting disk. horizontal platform of the tester. The length of the overhang cloth was measured when the tip of the test 3 Results and Discussion specimen was depressed under its own weight to the The plain weave fabrics made from the point where the lines joining the tip of the horizontal sulphonated jute fibre and its blends with cotton, platform make an angle of 4l.5° with horizontal rayon, acrylic, polyester and silk waste show a very plane. good prospect of performance as they are comparable The bending length (C) was then calculated using to the structure of cotton fabrics. the following equation: The particulars of the fabrics made from 100% sulphonated jute fibre are given in Table I. The C=L 2 details of the fabric samples prepared from the where, L is the overhang fabric length. sulphonated jute yarns blended with or without The flexural rigidity (G), which is a measure of cotton, rayon, acrylic, polyester and silk waste are stiffness associated with the handle of cloth, was shown in Table 2. The physico-mechanical properties determined from the following relationship: of the fabric samples are shown in Table 3. The structure of a fabric plays an important role in G = WC 3 mN mm determining the fabric properties. The plain weave Table I-Paniculars of fabrics made from 100% slphonated where, C is the bending length; and W, the cloth jute fibre 2 weight/cm . Yarn Count" Threads/ Cover Cloth Weight composition tex cmb factor" factor g/m2 2.4 Tensile Strength The tensile strength of the fabric samples was determined on a tensile strength tester with a clamp Sulphonated 276 6.0 10.5 17 .06 206 speed of 30 mm/min and specimen length of 5 cm. jute fibre Two specimens per sample were prepared for the test. Sulphonated 140 8.3 10.3 16.82 172 2.5 Drapping Properties jute fibre Drape may be broadly defined as the ability of a fabric to give a graceful appearance. The warp and Sulphonated 70 1l.0 10.0 16.43 158 jute fibre weft way characteristics of a fabric interact and produce graceful folding of cloth when it is draped Sulphonated 50 13 .5 10. 1 16.56 145 over any circular support. The draping properties of jute fibre the fabric specimen were measured following the 3 11 standard procedure • • The fabric sample was cut into "The values are same for both warp and weft yarn s a circular specimen of about 10 in. diameter and ~he values are same for ends and pi cks 416 INDIAN J. FIBRE TEXT. RES., DECEMBER 2001 Tabl e 2-Construction details of fabrics made from suphonated jute blended with other fi bres Yarn composition Yarn count, tex Threads/cm Cover factor Cloth cover Weight Warp Weft Ends Picks Warp Weft g/m2 Sulphonated jute/cotton 30 30 15 .8 15.8 9. 1 9. 1 15 .25 138 (65 : 35) Sulphonated jute/rayo n 30 30 15.8 15 .2 9. 1 8.8 15.0 140 (65: 35) Sulphonated jute/acryli c 30 30 15.8 15 .0 9. 1 8.5 14.8 142 (65: 35) Sulphonated jute/polyester 30 30 15.8 15 .0 9. 1 8.5 4.8 134 (65: 35) Sulphonated jute/silk waste 18 18 21.0 2 1.0 9.5 9. 5 15 .7 102 (65: 35) Cotton 30 30 2 1.0 2 1.0 9.4 9.4 14.5 11 0 structure was chosen for th e fabric construction from Table 3-Physico-mechanical properties of diffe rent sulphonated jute fibre and its blends with other fibres. fabric samples Tables 1 and 2 show that each type of fabric is woven with equal set of warp and weft, maintaining the Fabric Yarn Bending Flexural Tensile Drape compositi on count length ri gidity strength coeffi cient optimum spacing in the intersection of the yarn s. The tex cm mN mm kgf % variation in number of threads per unit length of fabric was in correspondence to th e yarn tex, but the Sul phonated 30 1.9 9.3 19.8 38.09 cover factors for both warp and weft and their jute/ cotton resulting effect on the fabric were kept almost (65/35) identical. The fabric samples prepared from 100% sulphonated jute fibre have cover factors of warp and Sulphonated 30 2.0 10.8 20.0 39.12 j ute/rayon weft at about 10 with 16 cloth cover and those (65/35) prepared from bl ended sulphonated jute fibre show th e valu es of about 9 and 15 for cover factors of warp Sulphonated 30 2.2 14.8 2 1.0 4 1.1 0 and weft and cloth cover respectively.