Research publications

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27.09.2022

Melt spinning of guitar strings made of Nylon 6 and measurement of their material properties

Fibres Textile machinery

Abstract

Monofilaments made of the polymer polyamide 6 (PA6) are produced using a laboratory sized melt tester and a drawing machine in a subsequent process. The influence of the production parameters spinneret hole diameter, draw down ratio and drawing temperature are investigated using a factorial design plan. To evaluate the melt spinning process, the spun filaments are compared to commercial nylon guitar strings. Mechanical and thermal properties such as filament titer, tensile strength, relaxation behavior, degree of crystallinity, melt temperature and melt enthalpy are measured to evaluate the quality of the production process. Four of the eight spun filament types are able to withhold the tension needed to tune the string to the correct pitch. Thus, these monofilaments could be used as guitar strings. The production parameter with the highest impact on monofilament quality is the draw down ratio, followed by drawing temperature. No effect was found for spinneret hole diameter.

Report

Introduction
Synthetic fibers have become increasingly important in recent years. One reason for this is that they are versatile and can fulfill different requirements and functionalities. Among other things, their functionality spectrum is influenced by the manufacturing process, for example melt spinning. One everyday application example for synthetic fibers is guitar strings.

Classical guitar strings are monofilaments made of nylon, which is the trade name of polyamide. They are usually designed to be used with guitars which have a scale length of 0.65 m. Of the six typical guitar string, the first and highest string is the high E string. It is usually tuned to a pitch of 330 Hz and has a diameter around 0.7 mm. Many acoustical properties of guitar strings can be linked to mechanical properties of the string, which are measured in this work.

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the melt spinning process of monofilaments of polyamide 6 and to compare them to commercial monofilaments. Therefore, the influence of different production parameters on the quality of monofilaments will be investigated. The considered production parameters are spinneret hole diameter, drawing temperature and draw down ratio (Ddr). Different kinds of mechanical and thermal properties, for example tensile strength, relaxation behavior, degree of crystallinity and melt temperature, are measured and compared for different filament types.

Authors: Ortega, Jeanette Karen; Zhao, Jasmin; Storm, Annegret; Schüll, Elena; Gries, Thomas

ITA Institut für Textiltechnik of RWTH Aachen University, Otto-Blumenthal-Strasse 1, 52074 Aachen, Germany

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