Fibers from urea–formaldehyde resins

✍ Scribed by V. Rogers-Gentile; G. C. East; J. E. Mcintyre; P. Snowden

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 217 KB
• Volume: 77
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0021-8995
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-4628(20000705)77:1<64::aid-app10>3.0.co;2-m

✦ Synopsis

The preparation of fibers from aqueous urea-formaldehyde resins has been investigated; a dry spinning process has been developed based on the extrusion of catalyzed resin into a drying chamber at 180 -220°C, producing a multifilament yarn at spinning speeds of up to 600 m/min. A range of UF filaments was produced with diameters between 10 -70 m; the tenacities of spun filaments were 6 -10 cN/tex, initial moduli were 220 -340 cN/tex, and elongation at break was 4 -10%. The best tensile properties resulted from conditions that produced the smallest diameter fibers. Postspin heat treatment improved the tenacity to 14 cN/tex and the elongation to 20%. Spinnability improved with increased viscosity of the spinning solution and increased cell temperature, while tenacity and elongation increased with increasing cell temperature and spinning stretch. A correlation was found between TGA weight loss (between 105 and 200°C) and fiber tenacity.