fiberforming

Fiberforming refers to processes that produce continuous filaments, or fibers, from polymers or other materials. In fiberforming, a material is shaped into slender strands and solidified so they can be drawn, wound, or woven. The term covers several techniques that differ in how the starting material is melted or dissolved, and how it is solidified and oriented. Fiberforming underpins textile production, composite fabrication, filtration media, and biomedical engineering.

Common methods include melt spinning, where a polymer melt is forced through spinnerets and cooled to solidify; wet spinning, where a polymer solution is extruded into a coagulation bath; dry spinning, in which solvent evaporation occurs in air; and electrospinning, using a high-voltage field to produce ultrafine fibers, often as nonwoven mats. Each method controls temperature, solvent/air exposure, and take-up speed, affecting fiber diameter and properties.

Process control and properties: parameters include spinneret design, extrusion rate, draw ratio, and post-treatment such as heat setting. Drawing aligns polymer chains, increasing strength and stiffness while potentially reducing extensibility. Additives, crosslinking, and copolymerization tailor crystallinity, dyeability, thermal stability, and abrasion resistance.

Materials and applications: widely used polymers include polyester, nylon, acrylics, and polyacrylonitrile, along with cellulose derivatives and polylactic acid. Inorganic fibers such as glass or silica are produced by specialized processes. Fiberforming yields products for textiles, fiber-reinforced composites, filtration media, nonwovens, medical textiles, and tissue-engineering scaffolds.