Further studies on the high-speed gel-spinning of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene

The high-speed spinning technique has been applied to very elastic solutions of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene in paraffin oil in an attempt to produce a strong fiber in a one-step process. At a winding speed of 4000 m/min a fiber was produced with a tensile strength of 2.3 GPa, a Young's modulus of 46 GPa and a elongation at break of 6.5%. This fiber could not be hot drawn anymore. At a winding speed of only 1 m/min the same solution yielded after spinning and hot drawing a fiber with a tensile strength of 7.2 GPa.