Impact of extraction processes on fiber properties of of linseed flax fibers

International audienceThis work of a preliminary nature has for goal to investigate the potential of the linseed flax straw for industrial valorization in technical textiles. The impact of two extraction systems (“all fiber” extraction device and a scutching/hackling device) was investigated. In a first part of the paper, it was demonstrated that it is possible to extract the fibers from the other components of the straw such as the shives and vegetal dusts. The fiber yield is of about 38% of the stem mass. This very high fiber yield is particularly interesting and is higher than the one of hemp for example. The fiber properties were also investigated. The fiber length was shown to be in the adequate range of length to be considered for the carded spinning route, and the tensile properties of the individual fibers, even if decreased by about 45% in comparison to carefully manually extracted, are still at a sufficient level of performance for semistructural composites applications for example. When using a scutching/hackling line, the length of the fibers is preserved and the impact of the fiber extraction was shown to be lower than the all fiber extraction line, particularly for the strength. These fibers could therefore be used for higher load bearing applications. Finally, the amount of fiber that can be extracted from the linseed flax fibers is large and this could certainly be at the origin of an industrial technical textile value chain