Feltability of coarse wool and its application as technical felt

摘要

In this study, attempts have been made to utilize the coarse wool for the production of felt for technical textile applications. The feltability of coarse wool is found to be very low due to larger fibre diameter, less number of scales per cross-section as compared to fine wools. Hence, it is blended with different proportion of fine wool for preparing the felt with acceptable norms. Effort has also been made to partially remove the kemp fibre by passing the coarse wool through a woolen breaker card. The blend level of such processed coarse wool and fine wool is optimized in terms of feltability behavior. Technical felts of three different qualities have been prepared using optimized blend of coarse and fine wools and their performance properties like thermal insulation, resilience and abrasion resistance are evaluated. The results show that coarse wool in blends with medium fine wool in the ratio of 60:40 can be utilized for the preparation of technical felts. The developed felts can be used as thermal insulation and sound absorption panels, and for oil and chemical absorption applications.