THE EFFECT OF FIBER DIAMETER ON THE DRAWING BEHAVIOR OF GEL-SPUN ULTRA-HIGH-MOLECULAR-WEIGHT POLYETHYLENE FIBERS

In the continuous drawing of gel-spun UHMWPE fibres, the diameter of t he undrawn fibre appears to have a pronounced effect on its drawing be haviour and on the mechanical properties of the resulting hot-drawn fi bres. A highly oriented structure is developed more efficiently upon d rawing of thinner fibres, which may be attributed to differences in th e deformation mechanism between as-spun fibres of various diameters. B y drawing of thin fibres, UHMWPE filaments having a strength of 6.0 GP a and a Young's modulus of 222 GPa can be obtained at a relatively low draw ratio of lambda=70.