Effect of processing sequences on the physical and mechanical properties of kenaf fibres as short staple material / Marina Marzuki

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of fibre processing sequences on the fibre physical and mechanical properties. The processes involved are mechanical softening and carding for the purpose of refining the coarseness of the kenaf raw fibres. The coarseness of the raw fibres is the major obstacle for carding process. Both processes functions to open the fibre bundles and further segregate the raw fibres to become the individual fibre. The fibres after softened become finer. The softening fibres were attempted for carding. It was found that the softened fibres were successful to become short staple material for carding process. 100% kenaf carded web was successfully formed as the output. Fibres after each processing sequences were characterized for the fibre physical and mechanical properties. A comparative analysis was made for the properties of raw fibres, softened fibres and carded fibres. The outcomes showed that the fibre properties were improved accordingly to the fibre processing sequences. For the physical properties the raw fibres reduced in diameter and gave better fibre surface appearances thus became finer that was suitable for carding. For the mechanical properties, the fibre tensile stress, tenacity and tensile modulus also showed improvement accordingly to the fibre processing sequences. The carded fibres are quite comparable in fibre diameter and fineness with other fibres from reported in literatures. The strength of carded fibres in the meantime can be said to be lower than the other fibres from literatures. Generally, the fibre processing sequences only enabled raw kenaf fibres to become a short staple material for carding but the fibre improvement in mechanical properties remains far from expectation.