Alternatives to Kevlar Fiber: Industrial yarn and threads.
- 2023-10-31
Some of the higher priced industrial yarns and threads available are made from Dupont™ Kevlar® fiber. As the pioneer aramid fiber, DuPont™ Kevlar® is specified for some product applications with a long qualification process, however, some industrial applications can benefit by looking at alternative aramid yarns and threads.
Other para-aramid yarns can be used as substitutions for Kevlar® at a lower cost. These include Teijin’s Twaron, Teijin’s Technora, Kolon’s Heracron, and Hyosung’s Alkex. These alternative fibers can achieve comparable, or in some cases identical, results as Kevlar®. A side-by-side comparison of key properties of these various options is listed in the table below:
Kevlar® and Para-aramid Filament Yarn Alternatives Compared
MANUFACTURER |
DUPONT |
HYOSUNG |
KOLON |
TEIJIN |
TEIJIN |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
TRADE NAME |
||||||
SPECIFICATION |
UOFM |
|||||
Density |
(g/cm³) |
1.44 |
1.44 |
1.44 |
1.44 - 1.45 |
1.39 |
Tenacity |
g/den) |
23 |
23 |
23.0-24.0 |
18.7 - 28.3 |
28.3 |
Modulus |
(Gpa) |
70.33 |
70 - 102 |
83-109 |
60 - 120 |
74 |
Elongation @ Break |
(%) |
3.6 |
2.8 - 4.2 |
2.8 - 3.6 |
2.2 - 4.4 |
4.5 |
Moisture Regain |
(%) |
7 |
4.5 |
not avail |
3.2 - 5.0 |
1.9 |
Decomposition |
(⁰C) |
427- 482 |
500 |
not avail |
500 |
500 |
(⁰F) |
800-900 |
932 |
not avail |
932 |
932 |
|
So general properties of the other Aramid fiber options are quite similar to Kevlar®. Generally speaking, any of the Aramid yarns listed above can be used to manufacture similar sewing threads that will meet and exceed Mil-Spec A-A-55220(formerly MIL-T-87128). These fibers can also be used as replacements to Kevlar®to achieve the similar results in other applications, including rip cords for wire and cable, reinforcement yarns in hose manufacturing and other specialty applications.
