A laboratory apparatus for investigating the spunbonding process is described. Filaments emerging from a spinneret are drawn by high velocity air moving through an aspirator. The dynamics of the process are specified and the air drag is experi mentally determined. Friction factor/Reynolds number relationships are developed for the aspirator and contrasted to the other fiber air drag correlations in the lit erature. Birefringence and WAXS measurements were performed on polypropylene fibers produced in this manner. Hermans-Stein orientation factors fa+, fb, and fc were correlated with spinline stress and agree with the experimental relationships in the literature for traditionally melt spun polypropylene fibers.
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