Antistatic Fibers for High-Visibility Workwear: Challenges of Melt-Spinning Industrial Fibers

Abstract

Safety workwear often requires antistatic protection to prevent the build-up of static electricity and sparks, which can be extremely dangerous in a working environment. In order to make synthetic antistatic fibers, electrically conducting materials such as carbon black are added to the fiber-forming polymer. This leads to unwanted dark colors in the respective melt-spun fibers. To attenuate the undesired dark color, we looked into various possibilities including the embedding of the conductive element inside a dull side-by-side bicomponent fiber. The bicomponent approach, with an antistatic compound as a minor element, also helped in preventing the severe loss of tenacity often caused by a high additive loading. We could melt-spin a bicomponent fiber with a specific resistance as low as 0.1 Ωm and apply it in a fabric that fulfills the requirements regarding the antistatic properties, luminance and flame retardancy of safety workwear.

Bicomponent melt spinning of polyamide 6/carbon nanotube/carbon black filaments: Investigation of effect of melt mass-flow rate on electrical conductivity

“…Furthermore, the pilot-scale line was equipped with a novel filter innovation that allows fabricating fibers with high filler (above 5 wt%) content. 17 The revolver-based spinning filter setup comprises seven parallel filter cylinders (one for the core and six for the sheath) with a pore size of 75 μm, allowing increased filter surface and longer filter stability times compared to a disk surface filter. This technology allows a maximum polymer mass throughput of 2.5 kg/h.…”

“…To overcome this disadvantage, bicomponent fibers containing a conductive compound are one of the essential approaches. [17][18][19] The structural configuration of the sheath and core components, the properties, and the ratio of the fillers affect the fiber spinnability and fiber conductivity synergistically. The process parameters, such as the melt flow rate (MFR) of the bicomponent composite polymer, also play an essential role, besides rheology parameters such as shear rate and viscosity.…”

Melt-Spun Fibers for Textile Applications

“…In melt-spinning, the most convenient approach to overcome the intrinsic resistivity of man-made fibers is to add carbon black in high concentration to the matrix polymer. Since fibers with fillers have a reduced tenacity, antistatic fibers are usually melt-spun as bicomponent filaments to ensure sufficient tensile strength ( Figure 12 ) [ 213 ].…”