Introduction to Fibers I

What is a fiber?
• Fine
• Flexible
• High Aspect Ratio (length-to-width ratio)
How fine is fine?
• To get around the ambiguity of diameter (in
the case of nonround fibers) or thickness (in
the case of irregular shapes) fineness is
often expressed in units of linear density .
• In its most simple form, linear density is
merely the weight of a fixed length of fiber.
Systems of Measurement
• There are three major systems used to measure
linear density, denier, tex, and decitex (or dtex).
They're all equally good (or bad depending upon
your point of view!), but they are not consistently
used.
• The only difference among them is the fixed
length.
• The oldest is denier, the accepted SI unit is
decitex.
 Unit of linear Density Definition

denier[1] weight (grams[2]) of a

9000 m length

tex[3] weight (grams) of a

1000 m length

decitex or dtex weight (grams) of a

10000 m length

[1] Named after the small silver coin the denarius used as a weight standard.
[2] With apologies to purists, weight and mass are used interchangeably—Every
field has its embarrassments.
[3] Not named for the second largest state or any of its inhabitants
A word of caution
• There's another thing to keep in mind when
using linear density—it combines both the
fineness (cross-sectional area, actually)
and the mass density—more later.
Thought experiment
• Let's conduct a small 'thought experiment',
suppose we take the time to unwind 1000 meters
of a fiber (shape is unimportant), and we take this
fiber and weigh it; suppose it weighs 1 gram.
• 1000 m weigh 1 gram  linear density = 1 tex
• 9000 m would weigh 9 grams  9 denier
• 10000 m would weigh 10 grams  10 dtex
• Same fiber, just different systems of measurement.
  = WS/L
Unit System for  S
tex 1000
meters/gram
denier 9000
meters/gram
decitex 10000
meters/gram
An example
• Find the linear density, in denier, of a fiber for
which 500 m weigh 2 grams

• W=2g

• L = 500 m

• λ[den] = 2 g x 9000 m/g / 500 m = 36

• [note, all of the units 'cancel out']
For a round fiber only

 d S 2

4
Where  is the mass density of the fiber
* But not all fibers are round
Flexibility
• Ease of bending
• What is its cause?
• Material
• Fineness
• Inversely proportional to the fourth power of the diameter
• So if we have a two fibers with identical composition, but Fiber
A has twice the diameter of Fiber B, Fiber A is 16 times (24) less
flexible than Fiber A.
• Length
High Aspect Ratio
• How high is high?
• Usually l/d > 1000
Natural fibers
Manufactured fibers

Protein Metallic
ex. azlon Manufactured Fibers
ex. gold, silver

Regenerated Fibers True Synthetic Fibers Mineral Fibers

Nonmetallic
ex. nylon
Cellulosic ex. glass
polyester
ex. rayon, acetate
polypropylene
aramid
What’s next?
• Next time we’ll look at some of the
properties of the more important of these
fibers
• Chemical structure
• Affinity to moisture
• Strength
• Stiffness
Where can I get a copy of this?
• http://schwartz.eng.auburn.edu/2270