Clevertex - Grado Zero Espace Srl
Clevertex - Grado Zero Espace Srl
Clevertex - Grado Zero Espace Srl
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Fig. 1 Diagram of the bundle drawing procedure [10]<br />
The thin cylinder is used to enable further drawing of the whole bundle, because the drawing of a<br />
single wire would lead to wire breakage. As the cylinder material is chemically less stable than the<br />
wires, is can be removed by dissolving the whole system in an acidic bath. Finally, the process results<br />
in individual and parallel fibres of adjustable diameter between 4 to 25µm. These can afterwards be<br />
spun to multifilament or broken into staple fibres with a length of 50 to 150mm [10, 12].<br />
The company Bekaert Fibre Technologies credits a U.S. patent with the description of the bundle<br />
drawing production process of metal fibres. Their product range includes BEKINOX ® VS, a 100%<br />
metal fibre in silver form or bulk, and BEKINOX ® VN out of 100% stainless steel that can be applied in<br />
antistatic textiles, for signal and power transfer, cut resistant fabrics, heat resistant sewing and thermal<br />
conductivity. Therefore, the yarn is suitable to be applied in the sector of protective clothing but also in<br />
fashion for the metal look [13].<br />
Besides using the bundle drawing procedure, Bekaert also produces metal fibres by shaving them<br />
endlessly off the edge of a rolled metal foil, as shown in Fig.2.<br />
Fig. 2 Fibre production using the shaving process [10]<br />
With this process it is possible to obtain several fibres per cutting section. Subsequently, the metal<br />
fibres are bundled into fibre skeins and spooled onto a roll.<br />
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