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Ginning & fibre quality Series supported by ECOM Commodities Recycled textile fibre as a reinforcement for composites ■ Dr Menghe Miao 1 , Samuel Ello-Ekombo 1 and Dr Stuart Gordon 1 ABOUT one million tonnes of textile fibre waste is generated each year in Australia, of which about 900,000 tonnes goes to landfill. As 35–40 per cent of textile products are cotton, the cotton pipeline has a significant environmental responsibility to fulfil. Pre-consumer textile waste is manufacturing waste generated by processing fibres (be they natural or synthetic fibres) and the production of finished yarns and textiles, technical textiles, nonwovens, garments and footwear, including off-cuts, selvages, shearings, rejected materials and B-grade garments. Post-consumer textile waste consists of any type of garments or FIGuRE 1: Left – Natural fibres are used to make 50 Mercedes-Benz E-Class components. Right – Interior parts of the Mercedes A-200 made by Natural Mat Thermoplastic. household textile (such as sheets or towels) that the consumer no longer needs and decides to discard, either because they are worn out, damaged, outgrown, or have gone out of fashion. Recycling of textile waste gives the fibre a second life in a rejuvenated life cycle and thus increases the total value of the fibre. Much recycled fibre ends up in low-value product such as furniture fillers and under-lays. The development of new, higher value products from recycled fibres will encourage utilisation of this ‘waste’ material and contribute to the future sustainability of the cotton industry. In textile products, fibres are held together by friction and fibre length plays a very important role. The fibres recovered from cotton textile wastes are usually sound in mechanical properties although they are shorter than virgin fibres due to breakages occurred in the reclaiming process. But in fibre reinforced polymer composites, fibres are bonded together by the polymer resin and the fibre length required to achieve load transfer is much shorter than that in a friction-held textile structure. In recent years, bast fibres (fibres from outer bark of straws), such as flax, hemp, jute and kenaf, have been successfully manufactured into polymeric composites (known as natural fibre composites) and used as automotive parts, furniture, building and packaging materials. In comparison with glass fibres, natural fibres are lighter and cheaper and offer multifunctional properties such as thermal and TABLE 1: Fibre properties. Fibre Density Elongation Tensile strength Modulus g/cm 3 % MPa cN/tex GPa cN/tex Cotton [1,2] 1.5 7 400 30–40 5.5–12.6 500–700 Flax [3] 1.5 3 669 46 20 1377 Hemp [3] 1.4 2.2 645 44 17 1177 Jute [1,2] 1.3 1.8 393–773 31 26.5 1720 Kenaf [4] 1.3 1.6 430 33 26.9 2070 Polyester [2] 1.4 37 660 47 12 880 E–glass [1,2] 2.5 0.5 2000–3500 75 70 2940 Ginning & Fibre Quality proudly brought to you with the support of… A tradition of service since 1849 38 — The Australian Cottongrower December 2012–January 2013
acoustic comfort, which are important for interiors of buildings and transport vehicles. Cotton has traditionally been used in tyre cords (cotton/rubber composites). Current uses of virgin cotton in polymer composites are limited to some niche products, for example, cottonreinforced phenolic composites are used as electrical insulators. The main attractions of recycled cotton fibre as an alternative feedstock to composite materials are its low cost and reduced impact to the environment. Cotton fibre is similar in chemical composition to bast fibres (overwhelmingly cellulose). As shown in Table 1, cotton has similar tensile strength as jute and kenaf, but lower than flax and hemp. Cotton fibre is much more extensible than bast fibres, as indicated by its large elongation before breaking. Consequently, cotton has a considerably lower elastic modulus, or stiffness than bast fibres. CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering has carried out a preliminary study to look into the mechanical properties of polymer composites reinforced with reclaimed textile fibres, in comparison with similar composites made from virgin flax and hemp fibres. There are a wide range of commercial thermosetting and FIGuRE 2: Composite manufacturing process Cotton Trade Desk Matthew Bradd Scott Biffin Shipping and Logistics Manager John Burbidge Head Office Suite 801, Level 8 15 Castlereagh Street Sydney NSW 2001 GPO Box 29 Sydney NSW 2001 Ph: 02 9223 3631 Fax: 02 9233 6206 Agents: Reclaimed fibres ➜ Namoi Valley, Gwydir Valley & Macquarie Valley Steve Dalton AgVantage Commodities Pty Ltd Ph: 02 6792 2962 MacIntyre Valley Geoff Webb AgVantage Commodities Pty Ltd Ph: 07 4671 1225 Darling Downs Simon Donaldson Gebar Farming Ph: 0428 636 924 St George & Dirranbandi Kelvin Bella Our-Tek Pty Ltd Ph: 0428 717 284 Nonwoven mat ➜ Composite panel Central Highlands & Dawson–Callide Don Cooper Cooper Consulting Ph: 0428 794 698 Riverina/Lachlan Ross Harvie Rivcom P/L Ph: 0458 567 776 E: webcottonoz@ecomtrading.com www.ecomcommodities.com.au www.ecomtrading.com December 2012–January 2013 The Australian Cottongrower — 39
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cotton - Greenmount Press

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