Indian Journal of Textile ResearchVol. 10. December 1985. Pp. 141-146

Needle-Punched Non-Woven Jute Floor Coverings:Part II-Dynamic Loading Behaviour

and Abrasion Resistance.

A K SENGUPTA

Department of Textile Technology. Indian Institute of Technology. New Delhi 110016. India

and

A K SINHA and C R DEBNA TH

Jute Technological Research Laboratories. 12 Regent Park. Calcutta 700040. India

Received 15 March 1985: accepted 17 April 1985/'Closeness of structure and structural rigidity of reinforcing material in the non-wovens influence the recovery after

dynamic loading and the abrasion resistance. Decrease in the ratio of the reinforcing material weight to web weight generallyreduces the thickness loss on dynamic loading and abrasion resistance. Plucking of fibres is a more predominant phenomenonthan friction-cutting in the abrasion resistance of non-wovens. Plucking is more evident with woollenized jute at low needlingdensity and low penetration. Woollenization of jute in the fabric form improves both recovery against repeated loading andabrasion resistance considerabl~

Keywords: Abrasion resistance. Dynamic loading. Floor coverings. Jute. Needle-punched fabrics. Non-wovens

The objective of the study was to make the needle-punched non-wovens from jute and woollenized jutefibres for use in floor coverings, underfelts, sportsmats, substitutes for carpet and carpet tiles, etc. Suchfabrics are believed to increase greatly the wear life andcomfort factors of the products. Increase in wear lifeand comfort depends upon several factors, the mostobvious being the ability to absorb energy applied byfoot walking, i.e. stress applied, and providing acushioning layer which covers any irregularities in thefloor surface so as to reduce stress and enhance theability to resist abrasion and heat retention, etc. Toinvestigate these effects, dynamic loading and abrasionresistance of needle-punched non-wovens wereconsidered in the study.

Experimental ProcedurePreparation of needle-punched non-wovens- To

obtain fabrics of varying ranges in properties a changein the structure of the fabrics was made by takingvarious area densities of webs (91-609 g/rn'') both fromjute and woollenized jutel fibres using differentreinforcing materials, such as jute hessian (54 ends x48 picks/drn - 300 glm 2), cotton bandage cloth (120ends x 88 picks/drn=- 40 g/m '), cotton gauge cloth (60ends x 50 picks/drn- . 30 g/rn ') and polyethylene film(47 g/rn ') at the base or centre of the web. The web isgenerally a random-laid one and, together with thereinforcing material, was bonded by needle-punching

with varying needling parameters (needling density,23-94 needles/cm/; and needle penetration, 11.1-17.5mm).

Dynamic loading- A WIRA dynamic loadingmachine, which simulates the compression caused by aperson walking on a carpet, was used to producecompression impacts on the needle-punched non-wovens. Thickness of the samples at 20 g/cm ' pressurewas measured at two places between the twolongitudinal extremities of the boundary of the area tobe compressed. The thicknesses of the samples in twoplaces were re-measured as before immediately afterimpacts were made, the chosen totals for jute non-wovens being 25, 50, 100, 150,200 and 250, and forwoollenizedjute non-wovens, 25, 50, 100, 150,200,250and 300. The maximum numbers of impacts for jutenon-wovens and woollenized jute non-wovens wereselected on the basis of the maximum thickness loss.

Abrasion resistance- Depth abrasion resistance ofneedle-punched non-wovens was measured by using aCSI Stoll quarter-master universal wear tester, ModelCS-220. For measuring the number of cycles requiredto remove a predetermined thickness of material fromthe sample, the electrical depth micrometer was used,which automatically registers the end point. The fixeddepth of abrasion was chosen in such a manner that inno instance was the reinforcing material in contactwith the abradant. This was true for all the samples.The test conditions were: Abrasion load, 453.6 g;

141

INDIAN J. TEXT. RES .. VOL. 10. DECEMBER 1985

Abradant specifications. water-proof silicon carbidepaper C-320, XQ7; and Depth of abrasion, 0.254 mm.

Results and Discussion

Dynamic Loading

Effect of hatching oil emulsion treatment-Treatment of jute fibres with batching oil reducesinter-fibre friction and improves pliability. A higherconsolidation caused by improved peg formationresults in less strain per fibre in the vertical column ofpegs. and the lowering of inter-fibre friction results inbetter recovery. Thus the per cent thickness lossreduces with the treatment as may be seen from Fig.l.

Effect of reinforcing material weight to weh weightratio- When the ratio is high, i.e. web weight is low,the load per fibre will be higher for a given number ofimpacts. Thus. as load per fibre increases the strain onfibre will also increase, resulting in poorer recovery.Fig. 2 shows the recovery characteristics of fabrics interms of thickness loss under different cycles of impact.As the web weight (for a constant reinforcing materialweight) increases. the thickness loss reduces at first andthen goes up again for very high web weight. Thereason for poorer recovery (high thickness loss) of non-wovens made with high web weights (i.e. lowreinforcing material weight/web weight ratio) isattributable to the fact that the recovery of fibres fromdeformation is hindered by the frictional resistance ofthe neighbouring fibres, this resistance increasing withincrease in the number of fibres in the batt. Thus, thereappears to be an optimum ratio of reinforcing materialweight to web weight below or above which recoverycharacteristics under dynamic loading are likely to bepoorer.

Effect of type of reinforcing material- The effect ofvarious reinforcing materials, such as jute hessian,bandage cloth, gauge cloth and polyethylene film, usedat the base of web on dynamic loading is shown in Fig.3. The structural rigidity and openness of structure ofthe reinforcing material play an important role in thethickness loss on dynamic loading. Resistance todeformation of the vertical fibre column (peg) reduceswith the increased open and loose structure of thereinforcing material. Lateral displacement of the fibrecolumns (pegs) occurs at higher impacts of dynamicloading. which causes reduction in the thickness ofnon-wovens. This phenomenon is especially true forloose and easily deformable scrims in which the fibrepegs are not firmly secured with the reinforcingmaterial. A confirmation of this statement may beobtained from the tuft withdrawal force data obtainedwith WIRA tuft withdrawal tensiometer(Table I). Thetuft withdrawal force is highest for jute hessianscrim and lowest for gauge cloth. The thickness loss is,

142

36 Nt't'dl~/cm 2

Needle penl'tration, 14·3mm.

Unlreall'd

...cJlcJl0...•

60cJlcJlUJZ~ 50u:I:I-

100 200 300NO.OF IMPACTS

Fig. I-Effect of treatment of jute fibres with batching oil emulsionon dynamic loading of non-woven [Needle-punched fabric wt, 454

g/m! including reinforcing jute hessian 300 g/m"]

O~--'~~~-+--~~-L~o 100 200 300NO. OF IMPACTS

Fig. 2 - Effect of reinforcing material weight to web weight ratio ondynamic loading of needle-punched jute fabric [Ratio- (1) 0.49. (2)

0.62. (3) 0.87. (4) 1.17. and (5) 1.82]

~ 70

cJlcJlo...• 60cJlcJlWz550:I:I-

300

Fig. 3- Effect Of various reinforcing materials used at the base ofweb on dynamic ioading of non-wovens [( 1)Jute hessian, 300/m2; (2)bandage cloth. 40 g/m2;(3) gauge cloth. 30 g/rrr': and (4) polyethylene

film. 47 g/rn ']

thus, highest for gauge cloth and decreases withincrease in tuft withdrawal force. With increase in thenumber of impacts. the punch holes of thepolyethylene film increase in size, resulting in pooreranchorage of the pegs.

Effect of jabric type·- Fig. 4 shows the influence ofimpact loading on three types of fabrics. The ability torecover from deformation is highest for jute non-

SENGUPTA et af.: NEEDLE-PUNCHED NON-WOVEN JUTE FLOOR COVERINGS: PART II

Table I-Tuft Withdrawal Force of Non-Wovens HavingDifferent Reinforcing Materials

[Test area. 4 mm x 2.5 mm; Wt of jute web. 270 g/rrr'; Needles/em'.36; Needle penetration. 14.3 mrn]

Reinforcingmaterial

Jute hessianCotton bandage clothCotton gauge clothPolyethylene film

Tuft withdrawal forceg/mg

222.722.410.535.9

woven woollenized in fabric form. This is followed byfabric made from woollenized jute fibre while thefabric made from raw jute fibre shows the poorestrecovery. The woollenization process imparts crimp tothe fibres and in the case of sample woollenized infabric form the jute yarns of the reinforcing scrim alsodevelop crimp. Crimp improves resiliency and hencethe ability to bounce back toward the original shapeafter the removal of load.

Effect of position of reinforcing material in the web-Fig. 4 shows that there is hardly any difference in thethickness loss whether the position of the reinforcingmaterial is at the base or at the centre of the web. Thesefindings also correspond with the average ofcumulative thickness loss following the total numberof impacts (Table 2).

Effect of needling density- The results of the effectof needling density on recovery after fixed cycles ofdynamic loading are given in Table 3. At high needlingdensity. particularly with jute non-wovens, thereinforcing material at the base ruptures", Hence, theability of the reinforcing material to secure the fibrepegs becomes less, and once the fibre pegs slip, theycannot recover on removal of load.

In woollenized jute, with less needling density, thefibre pegs are not very well secured with the reinforcingmaterial; also, the number of pegs formed is less. Thisresults in a higher thickness loss. Higher needlingdensity is required to secure the pegs in the reinforcingmaterial. Similar observations have been recorded byHearle and Sultan? and Smith:' for fabrics with higherloft.

Effect of needle penetration- The vertical column(peg) height of the fibre strand as well as the number offibres forming the column is expected to be greaterwith increase in the needle penetration since it is verymuch likely that each needle will carry a greaternumber of fibres with more barbs. As a result.thickness loss would be expected to be less withincrease in needle penetration as shown in Figs 5(a)and (b). With raw jute, however, thickness lossincreases after a certain level of needle penetration

;!-

(/')(/')

0-' 50(/')(/')UJz

40x::~:x:~

30

Jute hessian used at the base offabric. 300g / m2

Needle penetration. 14'3 mm36 Needles/em 2

1--l_-.., 2

3

o 100 200 300

NO· OF IMPACTS

Fig. 4- Effect offabric type on dynamic loading of non-wovens:'( I)Jute. 909 g/m"; (2) woollenized jute, 908 g/m '; and (3) jute fabric

woollenized in fabric form. 880 g/m '

Table 2·- Effect of Position of Reinforcing Material in theWeb on Dynamic Loading

[Needled fabric weight. 505 g/m? (including reinforcing jute hessian300 g/rrr'): Needles/em'. 2 x 23 (two passes); Needle penetration.

14.3 mm]

Position of reinforcingmaterial in the web

At baseAt centre

Av. cumulative thicknessloss ("0) for 250 impacts

49.050.5

Table 3-- Effect of Needling Density on Dynamic Loading[Needle penetration, 14.3 mm; Jute hessian used at the base of all

fabrics, 300 g/rn ']

Needlingdensity

2345556994

Av. cumulative thickness loss, 00

Jute (590 g.rn ')for 250 impacts

Woollenized jute(560 grrr')

for 300 impacts

61.562.360.149.448.6

50.651.550.152.171.8

11·1 mm

14'3 mm17·5 m m

~60(~) __ ..•.. _ .•

~ 50 "...J ,

~ "w 40 Needle penetr a tio nZ:<: ~u 30::c...

(b)

Need Ie penetrationJr-X 11'1mm

.--. 14·3mm•........• 17·5 mm

20~ __ ~~ __ ~~~Jo roo 200

No. OF IMPACTS

o 100 200 300

Fig. 5 -- Effect of needle penetration on dynamic loading of needle-punched fabrics: (a) jute (wt , 552 g, m 'j. and (b) woollenized jute (wt ,

545 gim') -- both including reinforcing jute hcssian (300 g m ')

143

INDIAN J. TEXT. RES .• VOL. 10. DECEMBER 1985

owing to much damage to the reinforcing material aswell as to fi bres 1.

Abrasion Resistance

Effect of hatching oil emulsion treatment- Theabrasion resistance results of non-wovens made ofuntreated jute fibres and jute treated with oil emulsionare included-in Table 4. Here the abrasion resistance ofemulsion-treated jute non-wovens is significantlyhigher than that of untreated jute non-wovens. This isdue to the fact that the surface friction is expected to beless in emulsion-treated jute non-wovens. Moreover.the greater consolidation achieved in the emulsiontreated jute", owing to its lower initial modulus,reduces the tendency of fibres being plucked from thematrix. Thus. both plucking and friction cutting arereduced when the fibres are treated with ajute batchingoil emulsion before needle punching. resulting in ahigher abrasion resistance.

Effect of reinforcing material weight to web weightratio -- The resistance to abrasion is closely related toplucking and friction cutting of fibres. It has beenvisually observed that plucking is the mostpredominant cause offailure during the attritive actionof the abradant, particularly when the web weight ishigh. This is to be expected, as, for the same needlingdensity. a higher web weight will result in lesseranchorage of fibres into the scrim. Thus. it is observedthat with both woollenized jute and jute fabrics. anincrease in the ratio of the reinforcing material to webweight increases the abrasion resistance of the fabric(Fig.6). For similar weights. the fabrics made fromwoollenized jute demonstrate lower abrasionresistance at low ratios of reinforcing material to webweight. The increase in voluminosity of the web due tocrimp developed during woollenization necessitates ahigher degree of needling to reduce the tendency ofplucking.

Effect of type of reinforcing material ~ Once again,the type of reinforcing material has a decisive effect onthe abrasion resistance of the reinforced non-wovens.Here also, the structural rigidity and openness of thestructure! of reinforcing material play important roles.

The results are given in Table 5. Here, among the threesamples using fabric scrims, the one with jute hessianshows the highest abrasion resistance followed bybandage and gauge cloth respectively. The tendency ofplucking of fibres is expected to be the least in jutehessian cloth reinforced non-woven since the fibre pegsare likely to be more firmly secured by the rigidstructure of the reinforcing material.

Fabrics in which polyethylene film is used as scrimshow higher abrasion resistance than the fabric withgauge cloth, but lower than the fabrics made withhessian and bandage cloth scrims. Although pegs aresecured in the polyethylene films through punchingholes with the needles during needling, the film yieldsvery easily and the holes grow larger during abrasioncycles.

Effect of position of reinforcing material·- Theabrasion resistance results of non-wovens usingreinforcing material at the base of web as well as at thecentre of web are given in Table 6. The abrasionresistance is significantly higher when the reinforcingmaterial is used at the centre of web. It is expected thatplucking of fibres would be less due to betteranchorage of fibres with the reinforcing material whenit is used at the centre of web.

7or--------------------------------~wt. of reinforcing jute hesslan,300g/m2

36 N•.•edl ••s/cm2 jN •.•••dl e p •.•ne trallOn, 14·3mm

O •.•plh of abrasion, 0·254 mm'"'"u 60o-,u

w~ 50~III

III

~ 40

zo'1,i 30

'"CD...20~O--~0~.5--~1·~O--~1~5--~2~·0~~2~5~~3~·O~~35

REINFORCING MATERIAL wl./ WE B wi. RATIO

Fig. 6-Effect of reinforcing material weight to web weight ratio onabrasion resistance of non-wovens

Table 5 - Effect of Different Reinforcing Materials Used atthe Base of Web on Abrasion Resistance

[Jute web weight. 270 gm"; Needles-ern", 36;. Needle penetration.14.3 mm; Depth of abrasion. 0.254 (101000 in.)]

Table 4 Effect of Batching Oil Emulsion Treatment ofJute Fibres on Abrasion Resistance Reinforcing material

[JU!~ hcssian used at base of web. 300 g m ': Needles em". 55; Needlepenetration. 14.3 mm; Depth of abrasion. 0.254 mm (10/1000 in.]

Type of fibre in web Abrasion resistancecycles

2042.5

Untreated juteJute treated with

oil emulsion

144

Abrasionresistance

cycles

42.0Jute hessian (54 ends x 48 picksdm -330g.rrr')

Cotton bandage cloth ( 120 ends x 88pieks!dm· 40 g.m ')

Cotton gauge cloth (60 endsx 50 picks·· 30 gm ')

Polyethylene Iilm (47 grn ')

39.5

22.5

32.5

SENGUPTA et al.: NEEDLE-PUNCHED NON-WOVEN JUTE FLOOR COVERINGS: PART II

Effect of fabric type- The abrasion resistances ofjute non-woven, woollenized jute non-woven and jutenon-woven woollenized in fabric form are given inTable 7. The abrasion resistance of non-wovenwoollenized in fabric form is significantly higher thanthat of jute and woollenized jute non-wovens. Thismay be due to the fact that the jute non-wovenwoollenized in fabric form yields easily owing to itscrimp in the reinforcing fabric and fibres (developed inthe woollenization process of the whole jute non-woven fabric}. Thus, almost escaping the action ofabrasion, this is analogous to what happens with astretch fabric. Moreover, the surface of this non-woven becomes plain and smooth because ofwoollenization in fabric form. Hence, the contactpressure per point during abrasion on this smoothsurfaced non-woven is less, which may be anotherfactor contributing to the high resistance to abrasion.

Effect of needling density- In woollenizedjute non-wovens, initially at lower needling density the abrasionresistance is low since plucking is expected to be morebecause of loose consolidation of fabric at lowneedling density. With increase in needling density,plucking of fibres from the surface decreases, resultingin higher abrasion resistance as may be observed fromFig. 7. Excessive needling, however, damages thereinforcing material', which then cannot hold thefibres firmly. The rupture of fibres during needling iscomparatively much lower for woollenized jute fibresthan for jute fibres'. But at higher needling density, the

Table 6- Effect of Position of Reinforcing Material onAbrasion Resistance

tw. of reinforcing material. 300 g.m ': Needle-punched non-wovenwt, 505 gm ': Needles/ern", 2 x 23 (two passes through needlingzone); Depth of abrasion. 0.254 mm (10.1000 in.); Needle

penetration. 14.3 mrn]

Position of reinforcingmaterial

Jute hessian at base of webJute hessian at centre of web

Abrasion resistancecycles

24.053.5

Table 7- Effect of Fabric Type on Abrasion Resistance

[Jute hessian used at the base of web of all fabrics. 300 g/m:':Needles/ern", 36; Needle penetration. 14.3 mrn; Depth of abrasion.

0.254 mm (10/1000 in.)]

Type of needle-punchedfabric

Fabric wtg/m?

Abrasionresistance

cycles

35.829.893.3

Jute non-wovenWoollenized jute non-wovenJute non-woven woollenized

in fabric form

909908880

tearing and cutting of fibres along with damage to thescrim increases the abrasion loss owing to pluckingand hence, after an optimum needling density, theabrasion resistance comes down. In the case of jutenon-wovens, an increase in needling density is seen toprogressively reduce the abrasion resistance. It hasbeen observed that both fibre shredding" and damageto reinforcing material are considerably higherl withuntreated jute non-wovens and these damagesprogressively increase with increase in needlingdensity. Thus, abrasion losses due to easy removal ofshort fibres and plucking of fibres caused because ofprogressive disintegration of the scrim' with theincrease in needling density are responsible for higherabrasion losses as the needling density is increased.

Effect of needle penetration- The effect of needlepenetration on abrasion resistance of jute andwoollenized jute non-wovens is shown in Fig. 8.During abrasion of non-wovens, the plucking of fibresis greater at lower penetration. This is more so withwoollenized jute. Plucking of fibres reduces as needlepenetration increases. It is obvious that a greaternumber of fibres is expected to be entangled andsecured more firmly by the reinforcing material with ahigh degree of needle penetration since the number ofbarbs increases with increase in needle penetration.

Figs 7 and 8 show that except in the cases of lowneedling density and low needle penetration, theabrasion resistances of needle-punched fabrics madefrom woollenized jute fibres are higher than those offabrics made from raw jute fibres. Several factors areresponsible for this. Apart from lower fibre shreddingand less extensive damage to reinforcing material, thewoollenization process increases extensibility andwork of rupture of a fibre. Abrasion being a series of

wuz~<J")Viwa::zoqja::CD~

60

50III~v>-v 40

30

20

De-pth of

abrasion, 0·254 m m

NE"e-dle- pe-nE"tration.14·3m

10 Re-inforcing Jute- he-ssianused as a base- of fabrics. 300g/m2 ,

O~ __ ~ __ ~~ __ ~ __ -L__~20 40 60 80 100

NEEDLESI cm 2

Fig. 7 - Effect of needling density on abrasion resistance of needle-punched fabrics: (I) jute (590 g/m"), and (2) woollenized jute (560

g/rn ')

145

INDIAN J. TEXT. RES .• VOL. 10. DECEMBER 1985

60

50IIIOJ

u>- 40 Juteu

wuz<{ 30f-

!£:lIf)

36 Needles! cm2wcr::

20 Depth of abrasion,zQ 0'254m mIf)<{Cl: 10CD Needle- punched fabric<{

wt, 545 g! m2 including

ajute hessian (300g! m 2)

10 15 20NE EDLE PENETRATION ,mm

Fig. 8- Effect of needle penetration on abrasion resistance of non-wovens

repeated application of stress. the capacity to absorbpunishment which is related to work of rupture isenhanced owing to the process of woollenization.

146

Conclusions(1) Openness and rigidity of the structure of

reinforcing material influence the recovery afterdynamic loading and abrasion resistance. Closeness ofstructure and greater rigidity increase recovery afterdynamic loading as well as abrasion resistance.

(2) Decrease in the reinforcing material weight toweb weight ratio generally reduces the thickness losson dynamic loading. The abrasion resistance alsofollows a similar trend.

(3) Jute non-wovens woollenized in fabric formshow higher abrasion resistance owing to greateryielding of the fabric as a whole during abrasion.

(4) Plucking rather than friction cutting is thepredominant mode of failure against abrasion.Plucking is more with woollenized jute. at lowerneedling density and lower needle penetration. Athigher levels of consolidation. fabrics made fromwoollenized jute exhibit higher abrasion resistancethan raw jute fabrics owing to higher work of ruptureof the woollenized jute fibres.

ReferencesI Sengupta A K. Sinha A K and Debnath C R, Indian J Texi Res, 10

(1985) 91.2 Hearle J W S and Sultan M A I. J Text lnst, 59 (1968) 161.

3 Smith P A, in Needle-felted fabrics. edited by P Lennox-Kerr(Textile Trade Press, Manchester) 1972,66.

4 Sengupta A K. Sinha A K and Debnath CR. Indian J Text Res, 10(1985) 97.