STEPHEN AUSMUS (D250-1)

Flax Fiber Offers surface. Another important feature of

moisture management is air permeability,
which allows fabrics to dry quickly.
Cotton Cool Comfort If a fabric dries fast because it has high
air permeability but it also has low mois-
ture-wicking capacity, the moisture won’t
absorb sufficiently to be pulled away from
the skin.
“Because cotton denim doesn’t dry
very fast after sponging water up, adding
othing gets between folks and flax provides enough air permeability to

N their favorite pair of jeans like hot, speed up drying, providing the best of both
steamy summer weather. When worlds,” says textile technologist David
the mercury rises, classic blue D. McAlister, who heads the Clemson
jeans—which are made of thick cotton station.
fabric—can feel heavy under the weight of A good example of fabrics with low
absorbed moisture. But ARS researchers wicking are those made with traditional
at Clemson, South Carolina, have created synthetic fibers, such as polyesters. They
a cotton-flax denim blend that will make tend to hold moisture close to the skin,
jeans more comfortable to wear even in rather than wicking it away from the
summer. body.
Flax is two to three times stronger than “This natural flax fiber blend can en-
cotton, making it one of the strongest hance cotton’s utilization and can compete
natural fibers known. with specialty moisture-management
The flax plant species Linum usitatis- synthetic fibers on the market,” says
simum is made into linen fabrics, linseed McAlister. “We’re finding that adding a
oil, and even linoleum flooring. relatively small amount of
Its acreage in the United States these particular flax fibers
dropped in the 1920s with the Moisture wick- provides important perfor-
arrival of synthetic fibers. But ing means mance features to finished
new, high-yielding and disease- textiles.”
resistant flax varieties could help channeling
reestablish a North American moisture away Cool, But Also Strong
flax fiber industry. While flax-blended denim
from the skin’s
for jeans holds promise as
Mopping Up Moisture surface. a new niche market for the
Mechanical engineer Jonn apparel industry, there is also
A. Foulk, with the ARS Cotton good potential for blending
Quality Research Station, Clemson, South flax with polymers to make molded ma-
Carolina, has been spinning cotton with terials. The resulting composites can be
flax at a ratio that imparts better moisture used in auto interiors for speaker boards
management to denim fabric. The blend’s and door panels and in molded machine
fibers naturally absorb and transfer mois- covers.
ture away from the body. At the Clemson laboratory’s pilot
The work is being done at the station’s spinning plant, flax fibers are cut to 2.5-
onsite high-tech pilot spinning labora- inch lengths or less—called short-staple
tory. fibers—to make them compatible for
Adding flax to clothing fabrics helps blending with cotton for the denims and At right are samples of raw
keep skin cool partly because the flax with polymers for the composites. flax (darker fluff) and raw cotton
(lighter fluff). Also shown are yarns,
improves moisture wicking, which means Embedding flax fibers into composite woven denim, and knitted fabrics made
channeling moisture away from the skin’s materials and nonwoven sheets provides with various blends of cotton and flax.

12 Agricultural Research/November 2005

 strength and reinforcement to the goods. friendly. For example, byproducts from
Nonwoven sheets are made with short- processing natural flax fibers are fully
staple fibers that are randomly aligned and recyclable, whereas the byproducts gen-
entangled to create goods such as diapers erated from processing many synthetic
and dish scrubbers. Woven sheets, on the fibers are not as readily recyclable.
other hand, are woven or knitted using Flax has been found to be a good
spun yarns made from aligned fibers. candidate for growing in rotation with
cotton in the Southeast, particularly along
The Facts About Flax coastal areas. The relatively warmer
In the past, spinning short-staple flax climate allows cool-season flax crops
fibers with other fibers has been cumber- to be grown in winter to produce seed,
some for industry. “A certain percentage oil, and fiber that can be used as healthy
of trash and coarse fibers due to a lack of food ingredients, flax-containing yarns or
quality standards made high-speed spin- textiles, composites, nonwovens, paper,
ning inefficient with short-staple flax,” and other industrial goods.
says Foulk. A producer, for example, might grow a
To overcome the problem, the research- cotton crop in early April for harvest from
ers have been collaborating with micro- September through early November. In
biologist Danny E. Akin, who is in the late November, the same producer might
ARS Quality Assessment Research Unit then plant a flax crop to grow through
in Athens, Georgia, to develop quality March. The flax crop could then be har-
standards for grading flax fibers. They vested in time to plant another cotton crop
worked with ASTM International, in West in April. The cotton-flax crop rotation
Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, to create the provides producers an alternative crop for
first flax standards. “We helped develop traditionally dormant fields.
terminology and fiber property measures The ARS scientists are now entering
that define how certain aspects a research agreement with
of the fiber affect spinning and Clemson University research-
other products, such as com- Byproducts from ers to experiment further with
posites and nonwovens,” says processing natu- natural fibers for new mate-
Foulk. rials that could be used for
The researchers are now col- ral flax fibers are different composite applica-
laborating with Akin to test recyclable, unlike tions. They’re working to pin-
an indoor enzymatic-retting point specific flax varieties
procedure he developed. “Ret- those from many and processing methods that
ting” is the process of separat- synthetic fibers. perform well in the United
ing the fibers from the stalks. States.—By Rosalie Marion
Traditional dew retting is a slow Bliss, ARS.
process that takes place in the field. But by This research is part of Quality and
getting the flax out of the field for enzyme Utilization of Agricultural Products, an
retting, the land is freed up for planting ARS National Program (#306) described
a second crop. The Clemson researchers on the World Wide Web at www.nps.ars.
are now testing the new process inside the usda.gov.
pilot laboratory. David D. McAlister is in the USDA-
ARS Cotton Quality Research Unit, Rav-
Friendly Flax Features enel Center Place, Room 10, McGregor
The new denims produced at the pilot Rd., Clemson, SC 29631; phone (864)
spinning laboratory were blended using 656-2488, fax (864) 656-1311, e-mail
selected varieties of flax to produce fab- dmcal@clemson.edu. ✸
rics that are low-cost and environmentally

Agricultural Research/November 2005 13