Abstract
In recent years, plant fiber, which consists of cellulose, attracts much attention as biobased materials. However, cellulose structure is easily altered by heat load. As a result, cellulose fibers undergo reduction in strength and discoloration. Such degradation of fiber is important problem for industrial use. In this study, the mechanical and color properties of cotton, ramie and kenaf fibers at the heating temperature of under 240℃ and heating period less than 120 min were discussed, and also their relation was investigated. The results of tensile test reveal that the tensile strength decreases with increasing temperature and heating period. Although the tensile strength differs by the kind of fiber, the reduction rate of tensile strength is similar for all kind of fiber. From the color measurement, the color difference between heated and unheated fiber increases with increasing temperature and heating period. The discoloration of cotton fiber is larger than ramie and kenaf fibers. In addition, from the evaluation of the relationship between discoloration and the strength reduction caused by heat load, it was revealed that there is a linear relation in the region less than 20 of color difference.
