Experimental study on the temperature measurement of melt blowing fibers through use of infrared thermography

ABSTRACT

The temperature of melt blowing (MB) and melt spun fibers is frequently measured using infrared thermography (IRT). However, measurements are affected by the size and curvature of the fiber and by reflected radiation from the nozzle. A procedure was developed to obtain accurate measurements of fiber temperature, which corrects fiber size, fiber curvature, and reflected radiation. This procedure is more general than the ones used so far to correct fiber temperature because it corrects the three abovementioned factors using a single correction formula, this being the first time that fiber temperature correction for reflected radiation has been accounted for. It is also more accurate because it uses the local fiber diameter to correct fiber curvature, instead of mean fiber diameter. The procedure was used to measure the temperature of MB adhesive fibers produced by two multi-hole nozzle designs, the results indicating that, in melt blowing applications, the distortion caused by fiber curvature and reflected radiation on the measurement proves to be far more significant than that caused by fiber size, while correction generally leads to an increase in fiber temperature. Considerations as to the effect of different parameters on temperature correction, as well as the quality of thermographic images, are also provided throughout the text. The conclusions emerging from this study allow more accurate temperature measurements of melt blown and melt spun fibers to be obtained.

KEYWORDS:

• Melt blowing
• temperature correction
• spatial resolution
• reflected radiation
• fiber curvature
• hot-melt adhesives

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for the support of Cátedra Fundación Antonio Aranzábal-Universidad de Navarra. The authors also wish to thank Juan Villarón for the immense help he provided in the laboratory.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

The authors acknowledge receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by VALCO MELTON.