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Monday, September 30, 2019

BANANA FIBRE, EXTRACTION OF BANANA FIBRES

BANANA FIBRE:


HISTORY OF BANANA FIBRE:


 The history of banana fibre is old more than 700 years. People were aware of the use of banana fibres for the last 700 years. Japanese extracted banana fibres from a banana tree in the 13th century. The people extracted banana fibres manually. Now these days, banana fibres are being extracted with the help of machines. In the traditional fibres extraction process, banana fibres are extracted manually completely. Nepalese process of fibre extraction is more similar to that of silk fibres.

BANANA FIBRE:

Banana fibre is obtained from the inner bark of the banana stem. When the fruits are picked up from the banana tree, the stem ( trunk) is cut close to ground level. Before a few years ago, these trunks were a very big problem for farmers. They normally burnt these banana trees
These trunks are sent to a fibre extraction unit. The banana fibres are obtained from brown or the creamish portion of the inner bark of the trunk. The outer bark ( green portion of the stem is peeled up manually. Now banana fibres are extracted. 


Chemical composition of banana fibre is given in below table:




CHEMICAL COMPOSITION CHART OF BANANA FIBRE:




BANANA FIBRES  EXTRACTION PROCESS:

Banana Fibre is extracted from the inner bark of a banana tree. The trunk of the banana is peeled manually in the banana fibres extraction unit. Peeled brown and green part ( outer bark) is thrown away as waste. Now the trunk has white colour bark( inner bark). This inner bark is used to extract banana fibres.

PEELING:

The peeling process is performed manually. Before peeling the trunk( stem), the trunk is parted vertically. The trunks are divided into four vertical parts. Now peeler starts peeling off while colouring inner bark from the trunk. The peeled white portion is collected at a suitable place.

FIBRE EXTRACTING:

The peeled white portion ( inner bark) is processed into a machine having pressure rollers and fibres separating mechanism. Since the white inner bark contains a huge amount of moisture in it, therefore this moisture is required to be eliminated from the bark. The pressure rolls help to squeeze the moisture from fibres.  For moisture elimination, the peeled white bark is passed between the rollers nip. Moisture eliminates like sugarcane juice extractor. The machine operator holds one end of the peeled trunk and feeds the maximum length of the peeled trunk between rollers nip.

FIBRE TO FIBRE SEPARATION PROCESS:

When the maximum length of the peeled trunk is fed into the machine, the machine operator pulled the trunk back by hand. When he pulls back the trunk, the fibre separation mechanism comes into play. When the operator pulls back the trunk, the fibres get separated automatically. The pulp generated during the process gets collected at the bottom of the machine. Now operator repeats the same process for another end of bark.

WASHING AND SUN DRYING:

The fibres are washed into the water tank properly. The fibres are squeezed and hung on the wooden railing for sun drying. When the fibre gets dried completely, they are packed and sent to spinning centres for yarn manufacturing.

CHARACTERISTICS OF BANANA FIBRES:

Banana fibre is a natural bast fibre. It has its own physical and chemical characteristics and many other properties that make it a fine quality fibre.


1- The banana fibres give an appearance like bamboo fibres.

2- it has better spinnability than bamboo fibres.

3- The banana fibre has a high tensile strength of 29.98 grams/ denier

4- The banana fibres have a good lustre like silk. The lustre of fibres depends upon the fibre extraction and spinning process.

5- The banana fibres have poor elongation characteristics. 

6- It has low specific gravity 1.12. 

7- It shows very good moisture absorption quality. It absorbs as well as releases moisture quickly. Moisture regain is 13℅.

8-It is bio-degradable and has no negative effect on the environment and thus can be categorized as eco-friendly fibre.

9- The average fineness of banana fibre is 2400Nm.

10- The banana fibres have versatile spinnability. It can be spun on ring frame, open-end, worsted spinning and wet spinning process. 

USES AND APPLICATIONS OF BANANA FIBRE:



The banana tree has multiple uses. The seedless fruits are obtained from it. Raw banana fruit is used as a vegetable. The ripe banana fruit is eaten. In southern India, the banana leaves are used to serve the food on the banana leaves. The inner bark is used to extract fibres. These fibres are used to make mats, bags, bins etc. The banana fibres are also blended with silk and polyester fibres. These blends create special effects in the fabric. It is also used to make paper.

Please click on the below video link to watch the full article in Hindi:



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