A study of the development and properties of carbon fiber bulk yarns

Abstract

Initially, using carbon fiber tows as raw materials, the developed airflow dispersion method was adopted for bulking process. Subsequently, the bulk properties, the irregularity, the mechanical properties, the hairiness index and the ability to fix the resin of the carbon fiber bulk yarn were investigated. The results show that the basic variation range of the bulking intensity is 17.19–22.19%, the variation range of the irregularity is 21.65–29.11%, and the strength of carbon fiber tows after the blowing and spraying by the air is reduced by 18.7–25.6%. The tensile and breaking elongation of the carbon fiber bulk yarn is up to 13.80%; the length of the hairiness of the carbon fiber bulk yarn ranges between 1 and 3 mm. The hairiness level decreases dramatically with an increase of the hairiness length.

Keywords:

• Bulk yarn
• bulking properties
• yarn irregularity
• mechanical properties
• hairiness index

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the Project No. 18JCTPJC62500 and the Project No. 2017KJ070.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.