Page 20 - Handbook of Properties of Textile and Technical Fibres

P. 20

Introduction to the science of 1

ﬁbers

Anthony R. Bunsell
MINES ParisTech, Centre des Matériaux, Evry Cedex, France

1.1 Introduction

This book has the intention of presenting the science of ﬁbers. It has been inspired by
the ﬁrst edition but has been greatly extended to cover a much larger number of ﬁber
types as well as expanding the information on their properties (Bunsell, 2009). There
are other books, of course, which have dealt with ﬁbers, and the reader is referred to
Morton & Hearle (4th edition, 2008), which is a classic and which deﬁned an approach
based on the physics of ﬁbers. The present book however presents ﬁbers as being of
interest not just to the textile community but also to the materials science and related
engineering communities, in which the subject has now taken a central role. The sci-
ence of ﬁbers is multidisciplinary as it encompasses botany, zoology, organic chemis-
try, the physics of materials, and all of material science from polymers to ceramics.
Fibers are ubiquitous and can be found all around us, not only in clothes but also in
our very makeup. They are ﬁne though, so it is the shirt that is usually seen and not
the cotton ﬁbers from which it is made and it is the case of the most modern airliners
where it is the plane that is seen and not the carbon ﬁbers that reinforce the composite
material making up the fuselage and wings. For that reason ﬁbers are not generally well
understood and even specialists tend to concentrate on certain groups of ﬁbers. This
book presents a wide range of different types of ﬁbers.
All ﬁbers share the distinction of possessing properties that do not occur with the
same material in bulk form, indeed some ﬁbers do not exist in bulk form. Fibers are
an extraordinary form of matter. Some are used because of their softness and textile
characteristics whilst others possess engineering properties that approach the limits
that the physics of materials indicates are possible. These latter, synthetic, ﬁbers
were developed in the second half of the 20th century and are now taking centre stage
in modern technology.
However, natural ﬁbers, from plants and animals, have been used by man since the
mists of time, both for traditional textile and technical applications. This subject rep-
resents therefore both the oldest technology developed by man and also the most
recent.
The manufacture of clothes is clearly a traditional use of ﬁbers and it is no accident
that the industrial revolution began with the development of machines, looms, to pro-
duce cloth more quickly than was possible by hand. However, from the earliest days of
prehistory natural ﬁbers have also been used to produce ropes, cords, bow strings, and
sail cloth, which illustrate their use in technical structures. The ﬁbers in plants are made

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