Abstract

This research work describes the development of needle punched non woven fabrics from silk fibre waste and wool fibres. The nonwoven fabrics are developed using silk and wool fibres at five different proportions namely 100% silk, 70/30 silk/wool, 50/50 silk/wool, 30/70 silk/wool, 100% wool using needle punching technique. The influence of blend proportions of the silk and wool fibres on the comfort properties of the nonwoven fabrics such as air permeability, wick ability and thermal conductivity were studied. It is found from the results that the blend proportion has a significant effect on the comfort properties of the non woven fabrics. The 100% wool non-woven fabric has shown higher air permeability, wick ability and lower thermal conductivity. The 100% silk non-woven fabric has shown lower bursting strength.

Keywords: Silk waste; Wool; Needle punching; Thermal conductivity; Wick ability