Characterizing a novel method for blending regenerated cellulose structures with polyester filaments

The combination method of various manmade fibers with other fibers was developed to create special properties many years ago. Fibers can be mixed in a generation process, such as in solution or melt spinning, or in a fiber spinning process in the form of filaments, staple, sliver, yarn, and so on. Hybrid blended yarns are a common class of yarns in the textile industry, and the most are produced through cotton–polyester or viscose–polyester blending in the spinning process. The cellulose fibers blended in spun yarns should be at least 1 in. in length with appropriate surface properties. This causes limitations in the use of cheap materials. Cheap products owe their manufacturing to waste papers, wood trash, poor linters of cotton, spinning trash, and so on. In this study, a new method for combining regenerated cellulose structures with polyester filaments was examined; it is different from conventional hybrid polyester–viscose fiber production. In the first step, the viscose pulp was prepared and then coated on the polyester filaments in various forms. The properties, including the tensile strength, density, yarn count, moisture regain, static electricity, and dyeing, of the resulted hybrid fibers were evaluated with a variety of methods. The results show that almost all of the properties of the coated samples were improved, especially the moisture absorbance, static electricity, and dyeing properties. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013