Possibility of Obtaining Long Fiber from Oilseed Flax Trusts Using Various Technological Equipment

The authors showed that the short fiber of oilseed flax was usually obtained from a tangled mass of broken stems. However, recently, the question of the processing possibility of the culture whole stems left after harvesting into long fiber was raised. (Research purpose) To study the possibility of obtaining long fiber from oil flax stems on various technological equipment with the substantiation of the fiber characteristics. (Materials and methods) Whole oil flax stems of various qualities of six different varieties were taken. The samples were processed on an SMT-500 machine and in an ALS-1 crumpling and scutching machine, after which the quality parameters of the long fiber were determined. (Results and discussion) The authors found that most of the quality indicators of oil flax trusts corresponded to the fiber flax trusts characteristics, but the fiber strength had unacceptably low values. The number of flax stems from oil flax did not exceed 0.5, and the yield of long fiber varied from 0.4 to 11 percent, which was much lower than from fiber flax, so the fiber bulk fell into waste. It was determined that on the SMT-500 machine it was impossible to obtain a long fiber of even the lowest number due to the small value of the gristle length, and after the ALS-1 machine, the number of the long fiber was not higher than 8. During the analysis of individual characteristics of the long fiber from oilseed flax, it was determined that oil flax fiber was thicker, less strong and flexible in comparison with fiber flax. (Conclusions) The authors proved that long fiber could be obtained from flax whole stems, but of poor quality. They determined that up to 67 percent of flax varieties could be processed into long fiber. Of the flax types considered, oilseed flax seeds revealed the best quality-grade LM-98 and the worst – Biryuza and Rucheek.