DEHAIRING OF ALPACA FIBRES TOP WITH AM2 DEHAIRING TECHNOLOGY

FRANK E.N. ; CASTILLO M.F. ; FRONDIZI SEGHETTI D.G. ; BURGOS A. ; HICK M.V.H.; CRUZ, A.

Asis

Congreso; 7th European Symposium on South American Camelids and 3rd European Meeting on Fibre Animals; 2017

Universidad de Camerino

Many classes of alpaca fibres contain a certain amount of coarse fibres, which are strong and stiff, and cause discomfort to the end users of alpaca fibre products. It is therefore desirable to separate the coarse alpaca fibres from the fine ones, as it should be done with llama fiber. With the AM2 dehairing technology developed in Argentina, various tests of Llama and Alpaca fiber (Frank et al.,2009) were performed as well as in Australia (Wang et al., 2008). In all cases, samples of raw fleeces were used. The possibility of using worsted (combed and intersected) arose some time ago. This paper reports trial results on alpaca dehairing using an AM2 technology dehairing machine. The diameters of alpaca fleece, dehaired alpaca fibres and removed alpaca fibres were analyzed; and the fibre lengths before and after dehairing were compared. In this dehairing assay, input included: Alpaca tape top 22 microns average fineness; 30% CV of fineness; Objectionable fiber w/w: 4.88%; N¨¬/weight: 0.32; Fiber of>30 ¥ìm: 9.1%. Average fiber length (Barbe): 111.8 mm. One dehairing Product/Down (VI) was obtained: average fineness 21.9¥ìm; 24% CV of fineness; Objectionable fiber w / w: 2.2%; N¨¬/weight: 0.16; Fiber of>30 ¥ìm: 3.6% Average fiber length (Barbe): 83.0 mm; Hateur: 75.2mm (reduction length: 6.9 - 21.2%). Yield at end dehairing was 83.5%. The product can be processed with the worsted system (combing).