An investigation of thermal characteristic of mechanical crimp textured polyester yarn by Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC)

Abstract

Deficiencies related to the lack of bulk in flat continuous filament yarns make them unsuitable for apparel, home textiles as well as other applications such as car seat covering. Hence, texturising is employed to impart lofty and bulky characteristics to them. The two major texturising techniques employed for polyester yarn are false-twist and air-jet texturising. Out of these earlier technique depends on the thermoplasticity of the yarn being textured whereas the later one demands subsequent amount of compressed air to carry out cold fluid texturising. A new concept of mechanical crimp texturising has been designed to overcome these limitations of commercially successful techniques. In this new technique, pre-twisted FDY (Fully Drawn Yarn) flat multifilament yarn has been subjected to the higher false-twisting (depending on yarn fineness) action under the condition of underfeed (depending on ductility of parent yarn). The torque caused due to high level of false-twisting, forces the filaments to follow helical path at a certain angle (depends on magnitude of twist and denier per filament) to the filament yarn longitudinal axis. Internal stresses arising in single filaments tend to bend the filament and take the shape of spatial helical spring. After the yarn has passed through the false twisting unit, the initial twist would reassert itself and lock the already formed crimpy convolutions in position. Mechanical crimp textured polyester yarns with different pre-twist and false-twist levels have been subjected to thermal stress analysis using differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC) in heat-cool-heat mode. The samples were heated at a rate of 10°C/minute. Almost all samples appear to be crystalline in nature. However, the melting endotherm does not show sharp peak. Instead, the diffuse nature of the peak is a signature of a partial crystalline nature (48%) of the samples. After melting the specimens, cooling of the same leads to crystallization of the material. This is exhibited by the exotherm. Heating the so-cooled samples, in general, increases their melting point in almost all samples. Thus melting event is shifted towards higher temperature, except for one sample in which pre-twist level is appreciably high. Thus, DSC is a very useful technique to select and optimize the pre-twist level and may provide quite a significant insight into the thermal stability of the mechanical crimp textured yarn. © 2010 American Institute of Physics.