Abstract
A method for imparting an artificial crimp to wool fibres was developed, which consists of two processings: one is a crimp formation by draft-relaxation; while the other a stabilisation of crimps by reduction-oxidation of disulphide bonds present in wool. In this work, influences of the processing conditions upon the mechanical property of wool fibres thus crimped were investigated for establishing an optimum crimping condition. The drafting and the chemical processings brought about slight decreases in the mechanical property of crimped wool fibres, although, for example, the loss in tensile strength in the Australian Shropshire wool fibre treated in this way amounted to only 5.5%. The major reason for the decrease was found to be due to incompleteness of re-oxidation of once reduced disulphide bonds. An attempt for improving this was made by re-crosslinking unreacted thiol groups with epoxides. It was found that this treatment with water-soluble multifunctional epoxide was successful.
