Natural fibers are usually obtained by retting of stems of bast fiber yielding plants and then beating them manually or mechanically to separate the fibers. I would like to know if there is any method by which it can be done without the process of beating.
You need some mechanical action to finish the separation even when bast fiber ribbons have been retted. You could pass the ribbons through fluted rollers; the finer the flutes the better the cleaning job but the lower the capacity. You could put the retted ribbons on a belt or slats with steel pins starting with coarse widely spaced pins and then passing to another pins with slighting finer more closely spaced pins and then to a belt with even finer pins and closer spacing. On top of these belts you have other pined belts that run slightly faster than the lower belts. The upper pins are set so they go between the lower pins. This gives a combing action and will pull apart retted bast bundles. You could also try a coarse garnet machine with very large drum and teeth; followed by one with finer teeth etc. In flax this is done with a "breaker card" followed by a "finisher card".
Alvin Ulrich Thanks a lot. I also wanted to know if there is any non-mechanical process by which separation can be achieved.
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