#7 - Research Initiative-Susie Kirsh

Blog #7- Research Initiatives

Polyester Resin

Due to the fact that most resins were designed in a way that could only allow a person to pour them out in thin very thin layers, polyester resin was created with the intent to produce a thicker resin. Polyester, which is a set of molecules made up of ester linkages, can either be unsaturated or saturated. Unsaturated means that is has the potential to link other molecules together. Molecules start out as a liquid, however, if wanted to be a solid, a catalyst is added. This steals one of the electrons within the molecule causing it to freak out. This “freak out” grabs on its neighbor, causing them to freak out and grab onto their neighbor, and so on and so forth. This creates a very high-linked material that results in a clear and strong resin.

Polyester Fiber to Yarn

Polyester fibers is one of the most used commercial fibers in the world. Polyester starts out as chips, where they then get put through a silo. His moves the pieces into a burnout area prior to a spinning area. This produces long strands of polyester. These strong, synthetic fibers are created by blending the alcohol and acid together, which initiates a chain reaction.

One Step Further

I thought the process of synthetic fibers into yarns was fascinating, however, the video
I watched did not do the best job of explaining what exactly the machines did. So, after researching this process further, I found out a few key details. Through melt-spinning the fiber-forming polymer melt flows out in a thin stream through a spinning spinneret. It is then cooled and solidified, creating a polyester filament yarn or polyester staple fiber. The product after spinning is known as polyester undrawn yarn, or UDY. However, ig the product is spun at medium speed it is known as polyester medium-oriented yarn (MOY), and polyester pre-oriented yarn (POY) if it was spun at high speed. Polyester fully drawn yarn, FDY, is the product after being spun on the ultra-high-speed.