Abstract:

Bast fibres have been used as fillers in plastics for many years, most often in the form of very short fibres or mats. If it is desired to produce composites with high mechanical properties the short fibres need to be replaced by continuous forms such as roving, yarn and fabrics to improve the mechanical parameters, e.g. tensile strength or flexural strength of composites reinforced with natural fibres. This study, conducted within FP7 project No 214467 NATEX: “Aligned Natural Fibres and Textiles for Use in Structural Composite Applications”, covers the development of composites reinforced with fabrics prepared from flax fibres. The current article describes a study on blended yarns containing flax and polymers prepared by using different spinning methods and their application in the production of fabrics suitable for composite reinforcement. The results of the study showed that the way the flax and polymer fibres are distributed in the yarn cross section influences the mechanical parameters of composites.