Thermal, mechanical and comfort performance of various modacrylic fibre blended fabric

Abstract

In this study, various blended fabrics of modacrylic fibre with flame retardant (FR) viscose, and Nylon 66 have been manufactured and studied for their thermal, mechanical and comfort properties for workers of oil & gas industry. The ring spinning system is used to manufacture three sets of yarns. In the first set, three yarns are produced using only modacrylic, only FR viscose, and only Nylon 66 fibres. The second set of yarns is made using blends of FR viscose and modacrylic. These fibres are blended in three different ratios of 30:70, 50:50 and 70:30 for making yarns. The third set is made out of tertiary blends of FR viscose, nylon 66 and modacrylic. These are blended in two different ratios of 30:20:50 and 50:20:30 respectively. Fabric samples have been produced out of these yarns and evaluated for their flame, thermal and mechanical properties after 5 and 50 washes. The radiant heat transfer index and convective heat transfer index of blends of modacrylic fibre are found in the range 12 - 13.5 s and 5.0 - 5.7 s respectively. Multivariate test analysis has been applied to find out the effect of different fibre blends on various flame and thermal properties. The study shows that flame and thermal resistant properties are influenced by fibre blending ratio.