Indian Journal of Fibre & Tex t i le Research Vol . 3 1 . December 2006, pp. 537-542

Processabi l i ty and properties of yarns produced from cornhusk fibres and their blends with other fi bres

Narcndra Reddy

Department of Texti les, C lothing & Design. 234 H E B u i ld i ng. U n iversi ty of Nebraska-Li ncoln . Li ncoln. Nebraska 68583-0X02. USA

Yiqi Yang"

Depart ment of Text i le. Clothing & Design and Department of B i ological Systems Engineering. 234 HE B u i ld ing, U n i versity of Nebraska-Li ncoln . Lincoln. N ebraska 68583-0802. USA

and

Davi d D M c A l i stcr I I I U n i ted States Department o f Agriculture. Cotton Qua l ity Research Station. Clemson. South Carol i n a 29633. USA

Receil'ed 5 Jllly 2005; rel'i.led re('eil'ed 26 Septelllber 2005; ({ccepted 21 October 2005

N atural ce l lu lose fibres extracted from cOl'nhusks have been blended with cotton and polyester and processed on the ring and rotor spi n n i ng machi nes. The processabi l i ty of cOl"nhusk fibres on the convent ional spi n n i ng systems. cOlllpat ibi l i ty w i th cotton and polyester. and properties of the blended yarns have been studied. The propert ies of cornhusk fibre blended yarns are also compared w i th those of the s i m i lar yarns produced from u lH.:onventional ribres. such as p ineapple and banana leaves. mi l kweed and kenaI'. I t is observed that the blendi ng of cornhusk fibres with cotton docs not adversely affect the properti es of yarns w h i l e the blending of cornhusk fibres with polyester i mprovcs the strength and elongation of the yarns.

Keywords: 13 iofi bres. Cornhusk fibres. Cotton. Lignoce l l u losic libres. Polyester. Spi n n i ng IPC Code: I nt . CI .R D02G3/00

1 Introduction Agricul tural byproducts arc annually renewable and

low cost source for natural cellulosic fibres. Lignocel lulosic agricultural byproducts, such as pineapple and banana leaves, coir and sugarcane rind, have been used as a source for natural cellulose fibres for textile applications. I ·) In addition, other agricultural products and byproducts such as poly(lactic acid), cornstalks and rice straw are also being used for textile appl ications. fl· " Corn is the largest food crop in the world and the United States produces about 40% of the world corn production. The production of corn also generates about 640 mill ion tons of l ignocellulosic byproducts every year. Cornhusks, one of the byproducts of corn production, coniains about 45-50% cel lulose which can be extracted in fibrous form for various industrial applications including textiles. Although textile applications offer a relatively high value addi tion and a huge market for consumption of the cornhusk fibres,

"To who III a l l thc correspondence should be addrcssed. E- Illai l : yyang2 @ u n l .cdu

they require fibres of high quality . The potential value addi tion, however, depends on the fibre costs, qual ity of the fibres that can be obtained and the end-usc appl ications of fibres. Apparel and other textile appl ications offer high value addition but demand fibres that have high qual ity and processabi l i ty . The pri mary test of the processabil i ty of cornhusk fibres is their spinnabil i ty i .e. the abi l i ty of the fibres to be spun into yarns. In addition, to be easi ly processable, cornhusk fibres should not adversely affect the properties or processabi lity of blends with cotton, polyester and other fibres.

Unconventional natural cellulose fibres, such as kenaf, pi neapple and banana leaves and mi lkweed, have already been processed on the conventional cotton spinning machinery. However. these fibres have only been processed ei ther into coarse count yarns or as small proportions in blends with cotton and other fibres. mainly due to the l imi tations in qual ity and processabi l i ty of the fibres. Sugarcane fibres have been reported to be used for nonwovens but there is no literature on the spinning of sugarcane fibres. Pi neapple leaf fibres have been processed on

538 INDIAN J . FIBRE TEXT. RES., DECEMBER 2006

semi-worsted, jute, dref and flax spinning systems and 1 00% pineapple yarns have been produced in coarse counts of about 70 - 492 tex. 4

For the first t ime, natural cellulose fibres with strength and elongation between cotton and l inen have been extracted from cornhusks.6.8 These fibres have the potential to be the cheapest available natural cellulose fibres for texti le applications and would be the second only to cotton in terms of availabi l i ty . 6 To real ize the value of the fibres and their ut i l i ty as a textile fibre, i t i s critical that the fibres should be processable on the conventional textile machinery and be compatible with other common textile fibres, especially the two most commonly used texti le fibres, cotton and polyester.

The present work is aimed at examin ing the processabi l i ty of cornhusk fibres and studying the cornhusk fibres compatabi l i ty with cotton and polyester fibres on the ring and rotor spinning machines. The effect of corn husk fibres proporti on on the strength and elongation of cotton/corn husk and polyester/cornhusk blends is also reported.

2 Materials and Methods

2.1 Materials

Dry cornhusks from fully grown corn were collected from the greenhouses at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln and from corn fields in Nebraska. The husks were manually cleaned to remove stubs and other materials collected along with the husk. Cornhusks were then cut i nto lengths of about 2-3 cm to extract fibre bundles with lengths suitable for blending with cotton and polyester and to make them processable on the short staple spinning machinery . The methods used to extract the fibres are reported elsewhere.6

2.2 Methods

Fibre bundles obtained from corn husks with an average of 40 denier were processed using a min iature spinning machinery according to the 50 g spinning test. Fibres were then hand blended w ith cotton in the weight ratio of 80/20, 70/30 and 50/50 (cotton/cornhusk). Cornhusk fibres were also blended with polyester in the rat io of 65/35 (polyester/ cornhusk). For comparison, 1 00% cotton yarns were also produced using the same cotton and processing conditions as used for the blends. To compare the polyester/cornhusk blended yarn, a 65/35 polyester/cotton yarn was also produced using the

same polyester and cotton as used to produce the cornhusk blends. The properties of the cotton and polyester fibres used are given in Table 1 .

The fibre blends were processed through a modified card and drawframe as explained earlier. 1 4

All samples were carded twice for uniform mixing and parallel ization of the cornhusk fibres. The 65/35 cotton/cornhusk blend was also spun on an open end (OE) spinning machine to produce a 84 tex yarn. The 80/20, 70/30 and 50/50 cotton/cornhusk blends were processed on ring spinning machine to produce 50, 42, and 30 tex yarns separately (Table 2). Ring spinning was performed on a direct sl iver-to-yarn ring spinning machine. 1 4 The process parameters used for ring and rotor spinning were: ring spinning (30-50 tex)- spindle speed 7000- 1 1 000 rpm, draft 1 03-1 06.6, traveler # 1 - #4, & twist multipl ier 4. 1 7-5.39; and rotor spinning (84 tex)- opening roller speed 7000 rpm, opening rol ler type s 2 1 ON, rotor speed 6000 rpm, rotor type 46U & twist multiplier 5 .3 .

Yarn strength and elongation were measured us i ng an Instron tensile tester according to ASTM method 1 240. 1 5 A gauge length of 254 mm was used and the cross-head speed was adjusted to obtain the breaking t ime of about 20 ± 2 s. Forty readings were noted for each type of yarn and the average of strength, elongation and CY% of strength was taken.

3 Results and Discussion Cornhusk fibre blends with both cotton and

polyester are found to be processable on the modified card, ring and rotor spinning machines wi thout any modification to the machines. I t is not possible to doff a web of 1 00% cornhusk fibres from the card. This i s mainly due to the low strength of the web, cornhusk fibres being coarse compared to cotton tend to be held by the wire points in the doffer, and also due to the l imi tations of the modified carding machine. Coarser and longer wire points on the card such as those in

Table I-Fibre properties

Property Cotton Cornhusk Polyester

Length. cm 3.65" 2.0-3.0 3.8 Fineness. dtex 1 .59 44.4 1 .66 Maturity ratio 0.9 1 NAh NA' Strength, g/den 2.9 2.0-3.0 6.8 Elongation, % 7.2 1 2- 1 8 20. 1

"2 .5% Span length measured using HVI. hNA-Not applicable. No test method for measuring maturity of corn fibre. 'NA-Not appl icable.

REDDY el al.: PROCESSABILITY & PROPERTIES OF CORN HUSK FIBRES & THEIR BLENDS 539

Table 2 - Yarn properties

Count. tex

Ring spun yarn 30 42 50 30 30 30

Open-end yarn 114

Ring-spun yarn 27

B lend proportion

Cotton/cornhusk 70:30 70:30 70:30 50:50 70: 30 80:20

65:35 Pol yester/cornhusk

65:35

Strength g/tex CV%

1 0.7 20 1 2 .2 1 6 1 2 .6 26 11.9 1 9 1 0.7 20 9.7 30

8.7 22

1 7 .6 24

Elongation % Per cent %

Retention" Retention"

97 4.6 I SO 90 4.9 72 87 6.6 92 8 1 4.2 1 36 97 4.6 1 50 811 4.3 1 40

64 6.9 113

1 1 7 1 5 .7 1 04 "Compared (0 1 00% cotton yarn of the corresponding count for al l cotton/cornhusk blends and to 65/35 polyester/cotton yarn for the polyester/cornhusk blends.

woollen and worsted cards would be more suitable to produce a web of 1 00% cornhusk fibres.

Cotton/cornhusk blends are found to be spinnable on the ring frame with up to 50% of cornhusk fibres in the blend. However, blends with higher than 50% of cornhusk fibres are not spinnable due to increased spinning breaks. The polyester/cornhusk blend spun on the ring frame shows a relatively lower end breaks than the cotton/cornhusk blends mainly due to the higher strength of polyester fibres. The 65/35 cotton/cornhusk blend is easi ly processable on the open end spinn ing machine at production level speeds.

Cornhusk fibres do not affect the processabil ity of blends on the small scale spinning machinery . However, a s shown in Table 2, the properties (strength and elongation) of the ring-spun cotton/cornhusk blended yarns are not proportional to the per cent of cornhusks in the blend. The actual amount of cornhusk fibres i n the blends after carding and the inherent variations i n the spinning process are the major reasons for the variations in the blended yarns. Therefore, the main aim of this study was to analyze the processabi l ity and compatibil i ty of corn husk fibres with cotton and polyester and not to study the effect of cornhusk fibres on the blended yarn properties.

3. 1 Ring-spun Yarn Properties

3. 1 .1 COl/llts SPIiIl alld Yam Properties

A 70130 cotton/cornhusk blend, spun into three counts (Table 2 and Fig. I ) , has strength loss ranging from 3 % to 1 3 % when compared to 1 00% cotton

1 6 1 4 1 2

� 1 0 .t::: OJ .:: 3 OJ � 6 Ci5 4

2 o

o Cotton!C ornhusi< • 1000/0 COttOIl

30 42 Yarn Count (tex)

50

Fig. I - Comparison of the strength of cotton/corn husk (70/30) blends at d i fferent cOllnts

yarns of that particular count. The strength loss in the blended yarns is mainly attributed to the lower strength of cornhusk fibres in the blend. However, the elongation of the blended yarns shows higher retention values and the 30 tex yarns show an increase in elongation of up to 50% when compared to a 30 tex 1 00% cotton yarn.

The increase i n elongation and relatively higher strength retention of the 30 tex cotton/cornhusk yarns is mainly due to the higher cohesiveness offered by finer count yarns. It is evident from Table 2 that cornhusk fibres are compatible with cotton and have good strength and elongation retention. The higher extensibil ity of the 30 tex cotton/cornhusk blended yarn suggests that cornhusk fibres would provide unique properties when blended with relatively i nextensible fibres such as l inen and jute.

540 INDIAN 1. FIBRE TEXT. RES . . DECEMBER 2006

3. 1.2 Blend Ratio and Yam Properties

Increasing the proportion of cornhusk fibres up to 50% in the cotton blend decreases the strength of the yarns by about 20% in a 30 tex yarn (Table 2) but increases the elongation of the blended yarns by up to 36%. It should be noted that even with 50% cornhusk fibres, the blended yarn has more than 80% strength retention indicat ing that corn husk fibres are compatible with cotton (Table 2 and Fig 2). The higher elongation of the cornhusk blended yarns is attri butable to the higher elongat ion of corn husk fibres as given in Table I . Cornhusk fibres have lower strength than cotton and wil l break more easily reducing the strength of the blended yarns. However, since fibres are stretched before breaking, the higher elongation of cornhusk fibres makes the yarns to have an increased elongation .

3.1.3 Polyester/comllllsk Blends

Unlike the cotton/cornhusk blends, thc polyester/cornhusk blended yarn shows an increase in strength in comparison to a polyester/cotton yarn (Table 2). A plausible reason for the increase in strength of the polyester/cornhusk blended yarns is the comparable elongation of cornhusk and polyester. During testing, both corn husk and polyester fibres stretch to s imi lar extent before the weaker cornhusk fibres would break. However, In a polyester/cotton blend, the lower strength and extensibil i ty of cotton would make the cotton to break first, leading to a lower elongation of the blended yarn.

The higher moisture regai n of cornhusk fibres relative to cotton and the higher strength and elongation retention of polyester/cornhusk blends in comparison to polyester/colton blends would makc cornhusk fibres preferable in polyester blends.6 It would be very interesting to study the effect of higher proportion of cornhusk fibres in a polyester/cornhusk blend which will be pursued in future.

3.2 Open-end Spun Yarn Properties

A 84 tex cotton/cornhusk blend (65 :35) produced on the open end spinning machine is about 35% weaker and has a elongation loss of about 1 7% in comparison to the 1 00% cotton yarn produced using the same conditions (Table 2). The lower strength and elongation retention is also due to the structure of open-end yarns that make them inherently weaker than ri ng-spun yarns and also because of some cornhusk fibre loss at the opening roller in the OE

J .-, 0 CottontCOlllllUsk • 10QCYo COttOIl

B lend rJtio (C otton /Co rnh u $ k)

Fig . 2 - COlllp3rison of the strength of colton/cornhusk blends at various blend mtios

spinning machi ne. It is important to note that the cotton/cornhusk blends were processed on the open-end spinning machine at production level speeds.

The qualities of the cotton/cornhusk and polyester/cornhusk blended yarns as discussed above demonstrate the ut i l i ty of cornhusk fibres for textile appl ications and their processabi l i ty on the short staple spi nning machinery. Cornhusks fibres are compatible with cotton and polyester s ince the blended yarns have high strength and elongation retention. Cornhusk blended yarns would provide unique propert ies to the blended yarns due to their higher elongation and moisture regain . The s ignificance of the processabi l i ty of cornhusk fibres and their uniqueness in a blended yarn is more evident when compared to the processabi l ity and properties of blended yarns obtained from other unconventional fibres. such as kenaf, mi l kweed, and pi neapple and banana leaves.

Processing corn husk fibres of 40 denier on the rotor spinning machines would require large diameter rotors, leading to high power consumption. However. rotor spi nning offers higher productivity (than ring spi nni ng) as compared to ring spinning, which could offset the costs due to h igher power consumptions, especially in countries with high labor costs. In addition, it would be relatively easier to produce yarns with h igher proportion of cornhusk fibres in cotton/cornhusk blends and 1 00% corn husk yarns on the rotor spi nning machines than on ring spinning machines.

REDDY t!! 01. : PROCESSAB ILITY & PROPERTIES OF CORNHUSK FIBRES & THEIR BLENDS 54 1

Table 3 - Comparison of cotlon/cornhusk blends with other fibres

Fibre blend Proport ion Count tex g/tex

Cotton/cornhusk 70:30 50 1 2 .6 Cotton/kenaf S 80:20 50 1 5 .0 Cotton/pineapple· 80:20 50 1 0.6 Cotton/milkweed 17 50:50 30 8.2 Cotton/corn husk 50:50 30 8.9

3.3 Comparison of Cornhusk Blended Yarns with Other

Unconventional Fibres

3.3. 1 Kenaf Fibres

Kenaf is commonly used i n the manufacture of sacks, ropes, cordage, nets and paper.5 . 1 6 Kenaf/cotton blended yarns have already been produced on both the ring and rotor spinning machines and made into knitted textiles and hand woven fabrics.s. 1 6 The quali ty of a 50 tex cotton/kenaf (80/20) blended yarn, which was also produced using the 50 g spi nning test, is compared with a 70/30 cotton/corn husk yarn (Table 3). The cotton/cornhusk yarn has strength and strength CV% values s imi lar to that of the cotton/kenaf blends. The cornhusk blended yarn shows higher elongation retention than the cotton/kenaf blend, possibly due to the higher elongation of cornhusk fibres. Even though it i s arguable that different cottons used in the two studies would influence the properties of the blended yarns, it should be noted that cotton/cornhusk blends have been processed i nto a finer yarn (30 tex) with higher proportion of cornhusk in the blend (50/50) than the cotton/kenaf blends reported i n l iterature.5. 1 6

3.3.2 Milkweed Fibres

Milkweed was blended with cotton i n the ratio of 67/33, 50/50 and 33/67 (cotton/mi lkweed) processed on the ring spinning to produce 30 tex yarns. 1 7 The properties of the cotton/mi lkweed blended yarn are compared with the cotton/cornhusk yarns (Table 3) . The cotton/milkweed blends have a strength loss of about 20-40% and elongation loss of about 20% in comparison to 1 00% cotton yarn. At 50% milkweed, the strength of the blended yarn reduces by about 20% but the strength loss i ncreases to about 40% with 67% milkweed I II the blend. Cotton/cornhusk blends give higher strength and elongation retention in comparison to the cotton/mi lkweed blends (Table 3) .

Strength Elongation Cyrlr) % Per cent % Retention

Retention

26 87 6.6 92 24 88 6.2 85 1 8 89 9.2 95 16 80 6.4 9 1 1 9 8 1 4.2 1 36

3.3.3 Pil/eapple Leaf Fibres

Of all the agricultural byproducts currently used for texti les, pineapple leaf fibres (PALF) are the most extensively used and widely reported.4. I S-2 1 PALF have been processed on the cotton, semi-worsted, DREF and jute spinning machines to produce 1 00% PALF yarns and also blends with cotton, wool, vi scose and polyester waste in count ranges of about 50-490 tex.4. I S.2 1 Properties of the 50 tex cotton/pineapple blended yarn are compared with a s imi lar cotton/cornhusk blend (Table 3) . The cornhusk blended yarns have simi lar strength and elongation retention as the PALF blended yarns. Here again, i t should be noted that the PALF yarns produced on the cotton system are e i ther in coarser counts or with low proportion of PALF in the blends.

3.3.4 Bal/al/a Leaf alld SlIgarcalle Fibres

Banana plant fibre has been processed on the jute spinning machinery to produce yarns of about 259 tex, sui table for hessian and sacking fabrics. I '!.:>:> There are no reports avai lable on the spinning properties of sugarcane fibres.

4 Conclusions Cornhusk fibres are abundant and low cost natural

cellulosic fibres with properties suitable for textile applications. It is found that cornhusk fibres are compatible wi th cotton and polyester and are processable on the conventional short staple spinning machinery . Both the ring and rotor spinning systems are suitable to spin the cornhusk fibre blends. Cornhusk fibres are the only fibres produced from an agricultural byproduct that can be spun into finer counts (30 tex) and with h igher proportion (50%) in blends. Cornhusk fibres have h igh strength and elongation retention in both cotton and polyester blends. The higher elongation of cornhusk fibres compared to cotton increases the elongation of the cotton/cornhusk and polyester/corn husk blends. These

542 INDIAN J. FIBRE TEXT. RES., DECEMBER 2006

properties in addition to the h igher moisture regain of cornhusk fibres compared to cotton would provide unique characteristics to products made from cornhusk fibres. It is expected that the h igher extensibil i ty, moisture regain and better processabil i ly of cornhusk fibres would provide unique properties when blended with l inen, jute and other fibres.

Acknowledgement The authors would like to acknowledge financial

support from the Univers i ty of Nebraska- Lincoln Agricultural Research Division and the support through the Hatch Act. They are also thankful to the Consort ium for Plant B iotechnology Research for their financial support (DOE prime agreement number DE-FG36-02GO 1 2026). Thanks are also due to the staff at USDA-CQRS, Clemson, South Carol ina, for their help in processing the cornhusk fibres.

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