Influence of the Fiber Origin on its Structure and Geometrical Indices

Abstract

ABSTRACTIt is known that surface characteristics of protein fiber are important in the functional properties of wool fabrics. Fiber diameter and length determine processing performance and end use of wool. This paper studied the structure and geometrical indices (diameter, length, and linear density) of German blackface sheep and different breeds of dog’s (Bobteil, Flemish Bubje, and Shih-Tzu) hair fiber.This study was aimed to analyze results of protein fiber structure and geometrical indices, obtained by different methods and to investigate the relationship between the kind of protein fiber and the structure of them. Three methods for measuring mean fiber diameter (MFD) were compared: optical microscope “Ascania,” Sirolan Laserscan equipment and scanning electron microscope (SEM). Results of structure, mentioned by “Diapan” microscope and SEM showed that sheep’s wool and dog’s hair fibers have different types of scale shape, cross-section, even some of them have medulla inside hair. It was found that MFD, mentioned in three different methods, was varied in small interval. So, each of investigated methods can be used for determining diameter of these protein fiber. Differences between the scale shapes, scale frequency, and scale edge size of sheep’s wool and dog’s hair fibers were explained in details. There were discrepancies between results of theoretical and experimental linear density of all mentioned fibers in this research. These discrepancies not exceed 15%. Results of this study show that there are the substantial differences between surface and cross-section of sheep’s wool and dog’s hair fiber. Moreover, it was observed that quality of measured fibers can also be optimized to produce blends, which could be used for woolen yarns.