Novel CO2 laser drawing of thermotropic liquid crystal polymer and poly(ethylene 2,6-naphthalate) blend fibers

Abstract

Thermotropic liquid crystal polymer (TLCP)/poly(ethylene 2,6-naphthalate) (PEN) were prepared by a melt blending, and were melt spun by a spin-draw process. In this study, we suggest novel drawing technology using the CO2 laser that can directly and uniformly heat up fiber inside to prevent the formation of ununiform structures in conventional heat drawing process. The properties of the heat/laser drawn TLCP/PEN blend fibers were superior to those of any other handled fibers, and were rather more excellent than those of TLCP/PEN blend fibers annealed at 135 degrees C for 10 min. It was confirmed that the CO2 laser drawing made it possible to achieve the optimal drawing effect by draw ratio. The combined heating and CO2 laser-drawing method has a great potential for industrial applications as a novel fiber-drawing process, and it can also be applied continuously to conventional spin-draw system.