POLYMER ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE, vol.55, no.11, pp.2457-2464, 2015 (SCI-Expanded)
Several techniques and treatments have been developed for the production of high-performance nylon-6 fibers. The inherent problems of low productivity, high production cost, and high energy consumption, complexity of chemical reaction, mass transfer, and waste recovery systems make most of them inappropriate for industrial application. Horizontal isothermal bath (hIB) is an alternative ecofriendly simple treatment that can be used during melt spinning process for production of technical textile fibers. The efficacy of hIB in improving the mechanical properties of multifilament nylon-6 yarn is studied in this research. The results showed that such treatment can increase the molecular orientation of the amorphous and crystalline functions up to 0.54 and 0.983, respectively, and raised both the amorphous isotropy and fiber birefringence by 67 and 45%, respectively. Hot drawing of the yarn at a very low draw ratio of 1.38, increased the tenacity and modulus up to 10 and 43.9 g/den, respectively, and decreased the elongation to 27%. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 55:2457-2464, 2015. (c) 2015 Society of Plastics Engineers