Flax fibre cleaning for the SWM processing facility

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A six month project will be carried out to develop a flax fibre cleaning line for SWM International. The company has been processing flax and using fibre for making special paper products for more than 60 years. Currently, SWM is exploring new markets for their flax fibre products, such as biocomposite and biomedical applications. To meet the requirements of these applications, SWM needs to improve the purity of their fibre. This has become the company's priority, and the initial step taken by the company is to upgrade the current Permanent Decortication Facility (PDF), located in Carman, Manitoba. The current fibre product from the PDF has approximately 70% purity, i.e. the fibre product contains 70% fibre and 30% shive. The goal is to increase the product purity to 90%. To achieve this goal, the fibre cleaning process within the PDF needs to be redesigned. The objective of the proposed project is to develop a fibre cleaning line which can be adapted to the existing PDF. In the proposed project, the processed fibre from SWM will be characterised in their contents of fibre and shive as well as particle size distributions. Lab-scale cleaning equipment (e.g. vibratory screen shaker, ball mill, tumbler, rotary picker, carder, and airflow assistance) will be reviewed and selected for testing. Tests will be conducted on each individual machine and combinations of these machines. The resultant fibre purity will be measured during the tests. Based on test results and through design analysis, a set of optimal design parameters which gives the highest fibre purity and lowest energy requirement will be selected. Those design parameters will be proposed to SWM for their PDF. SWM's engineers will participate in all project activities as described in the proposal. Thus, the design can be readily used for upgrading the PDF. Through this project, UM will engage with SWM in the area of flax fibre processing. The plan is to continue the partnership into the future in large scale projects and in broader areas.