The nanofibres are generated by a highly productive method of collectorless as well as needleless AC electrospinning. An important feature of AC spinning is that it creates a plume of nanofibres resembling a sleeve of interconnected nanofibres. These are transported by the electric wind in the direction of the axis of the rod-like spinning electrode.

The plume of nanofibres produced by AC electrospinning is collected by the axially rotating and ballooning classic yarn. This we call the core yarn. The axial rotation and ballooning is ensured by a set of two twirling devices. These devices have the capacity for virtually uninhibited axial rotation and ballooning of the yarn. This method of producing a massive  nanofibrous envelope around the yarn core can be implemented with cores of a linear density ranging from tens up to thousands of dtex. Nanofibrous composite yarns can be further processed by standard textile technologies opening up the possibility to produce textiles with unique added properties. This approach may well lead to the widespread production and use of composite nanofibrous yarns on an industrial scale.

The method of AC electrospinning, composite yarn production and special spinning electrodes design are covered by International Applications WO2014094694 A1, WO2017108012 A1, WO2016192697 A3 and WO2019047990 A1 respectively.

References

• Lukas, D, et al., Effective AC needleless and collectorless electrospinning for yarn production, PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY CHEMICAL PHYSICS, 16 (48), pp. 26816-26822, 2014.

• Valtera, J, et al., Fabrication of dual-functional composite yarns with a nanofibrous envelope using high throughput AC needleless and collectorless electrospinning, Scientific Reports, 9 (1), Article number 1801, 2019