News Center
15
2019
-
06
Natural bamboo fiber: Creating a new life that is green, healthy, and environmentally friendly.
With the increasingly stringent environmental standards, the market for natural fibers is expanding, particularly with a growing number of production companies involved in the development of natural bamboo fiber applications. The significance of "natural fibers" in the textile industry and in composite material industries such as transportation, construction, wind power, and military is not just a label, but a professional existence. For every fiber processing enterprise, it represents not only an opportunity but also a constraint that begins from the source.
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Currently, ecological and environmental issues have become the "pain in the heart and lungs" and "problem of food and drink" in today's society. Relevant national departments have many policies for the development of green environmental protection, such as "promoting the formation of green development methods and lifestyles is a profound revolution in development concepts," and "we must vigorously promote ecological civilization construction, strengthen governance measures, implement target responsibilities, promote clean production, and make the sky bluer, the water greener, the mountains clearer, and the ecological environment better," etc.
How to correctly handle the relationship between economic development and ecological environmental protection under the new situation is an important issue of our time.
For the textile industry, green environmental protection has become a task of the times, and the realization of green environmental protection cannot be separated from the participation of fiber raw materials. Behind the market-facing fiber materials is their almost harsh standards for "material sources," making natural bamboo fiber the focus of attention in the textile industry. Due to its renewable, naturally degradable environmental properties, as well as its excellent performance of being lightweight, high strength, and high modulus, bamboo fiber has also become a key raw material for the composite materials industry to develop new components.
True bamboo fiber refers to natural bamboo fiber, which is different from chemical bamboo viscose fiber (bamboo pulp fiber, bamboo charcoal fiber). It is the bast fiber obtained from the stem of bamboo, directly separated from bamboo material using a combination of mechanical physical splitting, chemical or biological degumming, and carding methods. It is the fifth largest natural fiber in the world after cotton, wool, silk, and hemp.
Bamboo fiber is derived from natural bamboo, belongs to forest resources, does not occupy arable land, and bamboo forests must remove old bamboo every year; otherwise, the growth of new bamboo will be affected. The development and utilization of bamboo resources can not only alleviate the long-standing problem of "competition for land between grain and cotton" but also bring higher returns to a large number of bamboo farmers.
According to research from the Bamboo Fiber Industry Network, bamboo fiber not only surpasses glass fiber, viscose fiber, and other chemical materials in performance but also has characteristics such as natural environmental protection, renewable raw materials, low pollution, low energy consumption, and natural degradation. As a new material of biomass fiber and an excellent polymer material, bamboo fiber has been widely used in the production fields of textiles, non-woven fabrics, composite materials, building materials, and environmental protection materials, bringing unprecedented fresh blood and momentum to the manufacturing of products related to human clothing, housing, and transportation.
The Bamboo Fiber Industry Network has comprehensively organized the top ten properties of bamboo fiber based on years of research and practice.
Property One: Antibacterial and Antimicrobial
Bamboo fiber has natural antibacterial and antimicrobial effects because bamboo contains a unique substance called "bamboo kun," which has natural antibacterial, anti-mite, anti-odor, and anti-insect functions. Under a microscope, bacteria can proliferate in fiber products made of cotton, wood, etc., while bacteria on bamboo fiber products not only cannot survive for long but can also disappear or reduce in a short time. Data from the National Textile Product Quality Supervision and Inspection Center shows that the antibacterial rates of bamboo fiber against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, and Candida albicans are 99%, 99.7%, and 94.1%, respectively.
Property Two: Moisture Absorption and Breathability
Under a 2000x electron microscope, the cross-section of bamboo fiber shows a deformed surface with numerous oval-shaped pores, highly hollow, and with a strong capillary effect, allowing it to absorb and evaporate moisture instantly. The moisture absorption and breathability of bamboo fiber rank first among the five major natural fibers, with breathability 3.5 times stronger than cotton, earning it the reputation of being a "breathable fiber."
Property Three: UV Resistance
Bamboo fiber contains natural chlorophyll copper sodium, which is a safe and excellent UV absorber. Tests conducted by the Shanghai Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, have proven that for UV rays of 200-400nm, the penetration rate of cotton is 25%, while that of bamboo fiber is less than 0.6%. Its UV resistance is 41.7 times that of cotton. This wavelength of UV rays is the most harmful to the human body, which is unmatched by other fibers.
Property Four: Natural Health Benefits
The "Compendium of Materia Medica" describes 24 different medicinal functions and prescriptions of bamboo, with nearly a thousand folk prescriptions. Bamboo contains rich trace elements, and the antioxidant compounds prepared from bamboo fiber through physical methods can effectively eliminate free radicals in the human body, having anti-aging biological effects; bamboo fiber contains ester peroxide compounds that can block strong carcinogenic substances like N-nitrosamines, significantly enhancing the body's immune capacity; bamboo fiber also has the effects of moisturizing the skin and anti-fatigue, increasing microcirculation blood flow in the body, activating tissue cells, producing a warming effect, effectively regulating the nervous system, and unblocking meridians.
Property Five: Heat Retention and Warmth
The cellular structure of bamboo fiber is a hollow thin-walled multi-tube structure, which has a strong sponge effect, effectively improving heat reflection efficiency, slowing down heat loss, and keeping bamboo fiber products warm, dry, and comfortable.
Property Six: Shock Absorption and Noise Reduction
Bamboo fiber has good strength and toughness, with numerous micropores and gaps inside. These micropores are small, evenly distributed, and interconnected, not sealed, possessing unique internal structures such as flow resistance, porosity, and elasticity, which can play a role in shock absorption and noise reduction.
Property Seven: Mold and Pest Resistance
Bamboo fiber is processed mechanically, using thermal methods for degumming and softening, which deprives microorganisms and bacteria of the environment to breed and settle. According to automotive interior inspection standards, mold tests were conducted on bamboo fiber felt and jute felt, showing that the bamboo fiber felt showed no signs of mold, while the jute felt, even after anti-mold and anti-corrosion treatment, did not perform as well as bamboo fiber felt in terms of mold resistance.
Property Eight: Antistatic and Radiation Protection
Bamboo fiber itself does not carry free electric charges, so it has antistatic capabilities. In developed bamboo fiber application products, it can absorb and shield radiation.
Property Nine: Odor Removal and Adsorption
The special ultrafine pore structure inside bamboo fiber gives it strong adsorption capabilities, allowing it to absorb harmful substances such as formaldehyde, benzene, toluene, and ammonia from the air, and eliminate unpleasant odors. Due to the special substance "chlorophyll copper sodium" in bamboo fiber, it also has good deodorizing effects. Experiments show that the deodorization rate of bamboo fiber for ammonia is 70%-72%, and for acidic odors, the deodorization rate reaches 93%-95%.
Performance Ten: Sound Insulation and Heat Insulation
Research shows that isolated bubbles and sealed gaps do not absorb sound. Under the same porosity conditions, the larger the pore size, the greater the thermal conductivity coefficient. Interconnected pores have a higher thermal conductivity coefficient than closed pores. The hollow and porous structure of bamboo fiber cells gives it strong sound insulation and heat insulation capabilities.
As environmental protection standards become increasingly stringent, the market for natural fibers is expanding, especially with a growing number of production enterprises involved in the application development of natural bamboo fibers. The significance of "natural fibers" in the textile industry and composite material industries such as transportation, construction, wind power, and military industry is not only a label but also a professional existence. For every fiber processing enterprise, it represents not only an opportunity but also a constraint that starts from the source.
Industry experts indicate that more and more new materials with "natural green" genes, like bamboo fiber, provide more trustworthy options for related manufacturing industries and the country's environmental development from the raw material end.
Looking to the future, Aofan will continue to prioritize technology, adhering to the principle of caring for soil, air, and water, and will be committed to creating innovative, high-quality, low-carbon, and environmentally friendly products to meet the upgrading of civilian fabrics and industrial fibers.
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