How many people understand about the material called “Fibers”? Where the material came and where the material used, here is a short page about the natural fibers in our real life.
Natural fibers have been used for a variety of purposes since along long times ago. Textile applications for clothing are covered by archaeological discoveries as well as the use for utility items such as baskets, ropes or building materials.
Natural fibers were among the most important raw materials of mankind’s history. While in the 19th century natural fibers became even more important by industrialization, the interest in natural fibers was markedly reduced by the development of numerous synthetic fibers from the 1960s onwards. Note, some fibers type are dangerous, let say asbestos. If you find asbestos material in your house you should remove it adn first you need to take a test lab first, this article – asbestos testing Melbourne guide show how to do that.
2009 was proclaimed as an international year of natural fibers, which reminded us of the importance of natural raw materials in order to strengthen the awareness of natural fibers. Since then, its importance has increased again.
In the course of sustainability, environmental protection and, last but not least, by statutory requirements, natural fibers have again and again become more and more the focus of industry, with the natural fiber types cotton, jute, hemp and flax nowadays being the most widely processed fibers. Around 30 million tonnes of natural fibers were produced in 2013. Cotton accounted for 79% of the total, followed by the flax group, hemp, jute and ramie, which together accounted for 13% of the total volume. In the third place was wool with 4%.
In general, all those textile fibers and fiber materials are referred to as natural fibers which can be obtained without chemical changes from plant and animal material and can easily be converted into textile materials. The species bamboo viscose and lyocell are not used as natural fibers, but as regenerated fibers. Wood fibers are generally considered as a material group.
Natural fibers are found in numerous everyday products. The most famous natural fibers are cotton, linen / flax, wool and silk. Cotton is mainly used for the production of clothing, home textiles such as bed linen and towels. In addition to tree and wool wool for upholstery in the automotive sector, hemp and flax fibers are mainly used for the production of composite materials, for example in molded parts for the automotive industry.
Natural fibers are also experiencing a boom in the construction sector due to their insulating properties, their good compatibility and their biodegradability, and they are constantly finding new fields of application.
In the area of inorganic natural fibers, stone wool and basalt wool are mainly used for insulating and absorbing products.
The mechanical processing by needling of natural fibers can be difficult because, on the one hand, natural fibers are – as opposed to artificially produced fibers – relatively irregular in their structure. On the other hand, only very short fiber lengths can be produced in part.
In general, it is advantageous in the case of needling to use conical needles or needles with stepped notch sizes. Due to the different notch sizes, it is possible for a sufficient number of fibers of different fiber finenesses or diameters to be detected. In addition, smaller notches allow a reduced puncture force in the vicinity of the needle tip. This serves to protect the needles from overloading and prevents an increased load on the needling machine.