Extraction and Mix Compatibility Study of Boehmeria Fiber with Cotton

Abstract

ABSTRACT Most of the textile industries widely use cotton as a raw material. This truth has elevated the demand and cost of cotton fiber throughout the world. Although they have relatively different properties to that of cotton fiber, Boehmeria fibers which are bleached and softened having competent moisture management to that of cotton can be used for the manufacturing of blend yarn. Optimum yarn quality can be manufactured by blending the promising properties of Boehmeria and cotton which reduces the limitations by compensating the limited attributes of one component with the positive attributes of the other component. Blending Cotton with Beohmeria fiber enables the production of optimum quality of yarn at a reasonable cost. This study focuses on the mix compatibility of cotton and Boehmeria fiber for the production of yarn. The Bohemia fiber used for the study was by chemical degumming. By the chemical degumming from 1500 gm decorticated Boehmeria 1370 gm of bohemia fiber extracted which 91.3% fiber yield. The color of the extracted fiber is reddish yellow due to the presence of lignin, pectin, wax, and other unwanted materials. To make the color of the extracted fiber compatible with cotton, bleaching using H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide) was carried out and the converted bleached fiber into staple length by chopping. To facilitate the mixing of the Boehmeria and cotton fiber; the first manual opening was carried out and further opening using waste feeder continued to open gently and to form a homogeneous mix. The mix Component ratio of 35% Bohemeria and 65% cotton was used. The mixed fibers were opened to individual fibers on carding. Finally, 33Ne (Ne = No of 840-yards yarn weighing in One pound) yarn was manufactured at a reasonable cost on a rotor spinning machine. The yarn has a strength of 10.822 tex (tex is mass in grams per 1000 meters), elongation of 5.026%, and a breaking load of 298.9 gm which is relatively low but reasonable. The results revealed the 35/65 blending of Boehmeria/cotton fiber can produce coarse to medium count yarn at a reasonable cost. The cost incurred to extract and prepare the Beohmeria fiber for the mix is relatively lower than that of cotton cost by 11% which in turn reduced the yarn cost by the same percentage.