LENZINGER BERICHTE 90 (2012) 64 - 71

64
Viscont HT - the future of high performance
viscose flaments and their textile applications

Bernhard Mller*, Martin Gebert-Germ and Axel Russler
Glanzstoff Industries, Herzogenburger Strasse 69, A-3100 St. Plten, Austria
E-mail: mueller@glanzstoff.com
Abstract
The viscose process is more than 100 years old. Nonetheless the potential of cellulose based fbers for technical
and textile applications is still not fully utilized. This publication is going to present recent developments towards
high tenacity flaments for textile applications with a breaking force above 40cN/tex. In addition the basic
features of this new product family by Glanzstoff Industries will be presented. Special focus will be paid to the
production parameters and features of the permanent fame retardant multi-flament Viscont

FR.
Introduction
The demand for man-made-fbers is steadily growing.
Looking at the yearly production volume of synthetic
flaments between 1992 and 2009 a compound annual
growth rate (CAGR) of 7.4% was seen [1]. Cotton had
in the same period a CAGR of only 1.2% with a sig-
nifcant decrease from 2007 onwards. Viscose as the
'oldest man-made-fber has seen a steady increasing
demand for staple fbers, especially in the frst decade



of the new millennium. The share of viscose staple
fbers of the total fber production was 4.5% in 2009.
It is expected that the demand for cellulose based f-
bers with their unique properties will increase, since
cotton production cannot keep up with the average
fber-CAGR of approximately 4.5% until 2030. The
resulting gap is known as the 'cotton gap.

Figure 1. Market overview fbers.
LENZINGER BERICHTE 90 (2012) 64 - 71
65
In contrary to viscose stable fbers, the viscose fla-
ment production and market share has signifcantly
decreased over the last 20 years. This might be due
to changing customer habits on the one hand or a
lack of innovations on the other. While the increa-
sing awareness of limited resources has sped up the
development of multi-functional man-made-fbers
produced from regenerative sources in general es-
pecially staple fbers, hardly any improvement has
been reported for textile viscose multi-flaments
[2]. One major exception is the introduction of high
speed continuous spinning technologies. Therefore
the overview by Ninow and Heidenreich regarding
properties of viscose flaments, although published
in 1990 is still valid to our time [3]. One of their pre-
dictions was that viscose flaments are not able to
compete with the tenacity and dimensional stability
of synthetic fbers.
In this paper it will be demonstrated, that it is possible to
produce multi-flament yarns for textile purposes with
a higher dry tenacity than comparable polyester-yarns
while keeping the full range of properties viscose is well
known for. In addition a further development, a perma-
nent fame retardant multi-flament yarn with the trade
name Viscont

FR
2
will be discussed in more detail.
History of Viscont

Viscont

is the brand name for viscose multi-flaments

produced by Glanzstoff-Bohemia s.r.o., a member of
Glanzstoff Industries, especially designed for highend
textile applications.
In former times viscose or rayon was also known un-
der the synonym 'Glanzstoff referring to the silk like
brightness of the frst man-made-fber produced in bulk.
Therefore the frst viscose producers in Germany and
Austria had Glanzstoff in their company name when they
were founded at the turn of the last century. Nowadays
Glanzstoff-Bohemia s.r.o. is the last remaining of these
pioneers with this reminiscence in its company name.
The development of Viscont

was started at Glanzstoff

Austria in 2006 on pilot scale and further developed
in Glanzstoff-Bohemia s.r.o. from beginning of 2009
onwards. Despite decades of experience in the produc-
tion of rayon for reinforcement applications on the one
hand, and know-how of spinning standard- and micro-
Figure 2. Breaking force conditioned and wet of Viscont(R) HT and other yarns.
Table 1. Currently available yarns counts Viscont

HT together with some physical parameters.

LENZINGER BERICHTE 90 (2012) 64 - 71
66
flaments with 'Continue -technique on the other it
was still a long way to Viscont

comfort in protection.
Viscont

- General features
The features of Viscont

are as follows:
! high-tenacity rayon multi-flament
! 'viscose like wearing comfort
! gentle to the skin
! breathable
! available from yarn count 67 to 2440
! biodegradable
! good to excellent dying properties
High-tenacity rayon multihlament
Viscont

HT
The frst commercially available product produced
with the new spinning process is
Viscont

HT. HT is the acronym for high tenacity and

refers to one of the outstanding properties of this new
multi-flament fber. Table 1 gives an overview of the
currently available yarn counts together with some
technical parameters. Viscont

HT has been OEKO-

Tex labeled.
Breaking force conditioned and wet
In comparison to 'standard viscose flaments the te-
nacity conditioned of Viscont

HT is almost twice as
high. While the guaranteed minimum tenacity cond.
is 36 cN/tex, the average tenacity cond. is 40 to 42
cN/tex thereby surpassing even polyester yarns (see
Figure 2).
Next to the breaking force in conditioned state, the wet
tenacity is of special interest. In Figure 2 the values for
various materials are compared. In general this has been
a shortcoming of viscose based fbers, but even for the f-
nest yarn count - Viscont

HT 110 dtex f60 - the wet tena-

city found is more than 20cN/tex. The breaking force of
a standard viscose flament for example is below 10cN/
tex and even a comparable cotton yarn is 25% lower. The
wet tenacity of higher yarn counts such as Viscont

HT
200 dtex f110 is on average above 25cN/tex. This value
is still lower than comparable polyester flaments of more
than 30cN/tex, but by far higher than any viscose fla-
ment commercially available for textile applications.
Despite the high tenacity the water retention accor-
ding to DIN 53814:1974 is still 'viscose like high.
For example the water-retention for Viscont

HT 167
dtex f92 is 38.7, while a standard viscose flament
with comparable yarn count of 167 dtex f76 has 54.9.
The slightly decreased ability to retain water has no
negative impact on the wearing comfort. In contrary
this feature has been general appreciated by textile de-
velopers (see Figure 3).
Figure 5. Cross section of standard textile viscose produ-
ced by Glanzstoff Austria.
Figure 4. Cross section of Viscont

HT produced by
Glanzstoff Bohemia s.r.o.
Figure 6. Comparison of abrasion according to Martindale
between Viscont

HT and standard viscose flament.

Figure 3. Water-retention Viscont HT versus standard
viscose flament.
LENZINGER BERICHTE 90 (2012) 64 - 71
67
Cross section
The cross section of Viscont

HT compared with stan-

dard viscose reveals another consequence of the new
spinning technology. While the standard textile vis-
cose has the well-known serrated surface (Figure 5),
Viscont

HT has a very smooth and regular surface

(Figure 4). The appearance is silk like and is compa-
rable and almost similar with to viscose produced by
the Cuproxam-process.
Abrasion
Another value adding property for high end texti-
le applications is the abrasion behavior of Viscont

HT. In comparison with a standard textile rayon yarn,
such as 167 dtex f76 produced in Glanzstoff Austria
the abrasion measured according to Martindale ISO
12947/2:1999 is 4 times higher. This quadruplication
seems to be a consequence of the augmented crystalli-
ne regions obtained by the Viscont

spinning process.

Figure 7. Comparison of tenacity between Viscont

FR and other ame retardant yarns.

Figure 8. Comparison of synthetic fbers used in the PPE market today versus Viscont

FR.
LENZINGER BERICHTE 90 (2012) 64 - 71
68
Permanent ame retardant rayon
multihlament Viscont

FR
The need for fame retardant fabrics has been steadily in-
creasing over the last years. Especially permanent fame
retardant yarns are of high interest. There are a number
of well-established synthetic fber products available, but
so far a permanent fame retardant multi-flament based
on cellulose using non halogen, organic fame retardant
substances was not commercially available.
The Production Process
The production of permanent fame retardant rayon
staple fbers is well-known and has been described in
literature before [4]. While some challenges in pro-
duction of staple fbers and flaments are similar, the
main difference results from the 'endless nature of
flament. Every deviation in the production parame-
ters such as viscosity of the spinning viscose, zinc
content in the spinning bath, washing water and tem-
Figure 9. Pilling determined for knitted fabric with 100% Viscont

FR and a knitted fabric made of 1:1 mixture Viscont

FR and viscose FR staple fber.
Figure 10. Comparison between different fabrics made of of Viscont

FR flament and a currently used construction in fre

fghter jackets.
LENZINGER BERICHTE 90 (2012) 64 - 71
69
perature and fnally drying have an infuence on the
appearance of the flament and can cause off-grade
quality.
Therefore one key to produce Viscont

FR on large
scale is a very precise regulation of the spinning pa-
rameters to ensure minimum color differences on the
one hand and a very low number of breakages on the
other. To obtain the permanent fame retardant pro-
perties it is necessary to homogeneously incorporate
up to 22 w/w% of the phosphor based compound in
the viscose matrix. This high amount of the particles
'disrupt the highly ordered cellulose matrix thereby
decreasing the tenacity by approximately 20% to 30%
compared to a non-fame retardant flament.
Another key is a newly developed color dosing device
enabling the precise addition of fame retardant dis-
persion into the viscose stream before spinning. The
medium size of the particles in the dispersion has to
be below 1 m. Crucial for the homogeneous distri-
bution are the facilitated dispergators, otherwise the
spinning process can be and is disturbed by reagglo-
meration.
The spinning process of Viscont

FR is a continuous
one. After the acidic coagulation bath the yarn is stret-
ched in a second bath, before it is washed, dried and
wound up. The yarn is regularly checked with the me-
thyl orange to make sure that the yarn is free of any
acidic contamination. In addition a strict separation
between the operators of the acidic 'wet and neutral
'dry side is executed. It takes less than 3 minutes
from the spinneret to the fnal, untwisted yarn. Depen-
ding on the yarn count the spinning speed of Viscont

FR varies but is in general slower than for Viscont

HT.
Tenacity
The tenacity conditioned of the untwisted yarn is in a
range of 26 to 34 cN/tex. While this is lower than the
tenacity of Viscont

HT, it is still higher than most

purchasable ordinary textile viscose flaments. The
wet tenacity is roughly 50% of the conditioned one
and lies between 13 and 20 cN/tex. Standard viscose
has in general a wet tenacity below 10 cN/tex. In com-
parison to cotton, the wet tenacity of Viscont

FR is
still more than 20% higher. This offers new possibili-
ties to knitters and weavers to produce lighter fabrics,
since the mechanical strength of the yarn is higher.
The tenacity of fame retardant polyester yarn is su-
perior to Viscont

FR. But since Viscont

FR is not
a thermoplastic it does not melt under thermal stress
like polyester does. Thinking of applications like
liners this is a big advantage over fabrics made of po-
lyester. In addition rayon has a much better moisture
uptake and wearing comfort than polyester.
Figure 11. Comparison of the hot water shrinkage between standard textile viscose and Viscont FR over 50 washing
cycles.
LENZINGER BERICHTE 90 (2012) 64 - 71
70
Numerous PPE-applications use Nomex

by Du-
Pont

. Therefore it has become a benchmark within

the market. In comparison with Nomex

flament 200
dtex f76 the breaking force conditioned of Viscont

FR 167 dtex f92 is on the same level. A summary of
the results is given in Figure 7.

Fluffs
A critical parameter for textile applications of fla-
ments is the number of fuffs/breakages per kg yarn.
This was one of the biggest challenges in the deve-
lopment of Viscont

FR since a lot of parameters can

cause breakages of capillaries. In general it was ne-
cessary to fnd a balance between spinning speed, par-
ticle size of the fame retardant, stretching, spinning
bath temperature and capillary titer. According to our
research capillary titers below 1.8 dtex are not sui-
ted to achieve acceptable fuff values for yarn counts
below 400 dtex. In general the production/spinning of
fne titers like 110 dtex f46, which is the fnest yarn
count commercially offered yet, is more diffcult than
the spinning of heavier yarn counts such as 500 or
2440. Currently we are developing yarn count 67 and
84 on pilot scale and push the limits for permanent
fame retardant viscose flaments even further.
Limited Oxygen Index (LOI)
Another important feature for fame retardant yarns
and fabrics is the Limit of Oxygen Index (LOI). This
value - despite being an industry standard - however is
slightly misleading, since not the yarn itself but only
fabrics made out of the yarn (knitted or weaved) are
tested. In addition, the more open the fabric is and the
fner the yarn count is, the easier it burns. The conse-
quence is that knitted fabrics in general have a lower
LOI value than weaved ones. Therefore additional
test methods were developed for comparison, such as
vertical fame tests.
The LOI of Viscont

FR is above 26 and on average

28 for all yarn counts. This compares favorably with
other synthetic FR fbers - flament and staple fber -
that are used in the PPE market today (see Figure 8)

Utilization
Viscont

FR flament rayon fabric has been woven

or knitted for a variety of applications, meets diverse
specifcations and passes the requirements of e.g. EN
ISO 11612. Fabric weights have ranged from 160g/
m
2
and up with full FR compliance when tested for
example by ASTM D 6413, vertical fame test me-
thod. Beside the fame retardant properties a number
of textile parameters are of importance such as pilling
and strength.
Pilling
To further validate the pilling of Viscont

FR flament
two fabrics were tested. Fabric 1 was knitted with
100% Viscont

FR flament 200 dtex f76 S90 and

had a fabric weight of 200g/m
2
. Fabric 2 had a fab-
ric weight of 205g/m
2
and was knitted, too. Instead
of 100% flament only 50% of Viscont FR 200 dtex f
76 S 180 and 50 % FR Viscose-stapel-fber 20 tex/1
was applied.
Despite a comparable weight and construction, the
pilling behavior according to ISO 12945-2 (modifed
Martindale method) is different as expected different.
While fabric 2 shows signifcant pilling with a load of
155g after 500 turns fabric 1 is almost unaffected. It is
well known that a flament can resist the mechanical
abrasion better than staple fber yarns, however the
very low pilling after 7000 turns found for fabric 1
was unexpected.

Strength
Since many years end users of personnel protection
equipment are asking for lighter fabrics. This goal
can be achieved primarily with fner yarn counts or
'smarter constructions. Both solutions have their
limitations.
Viscont

FR filament and Viscont

HT filament
give textile developers a new opportunity to redu-
ce weight, thanks to their high tenacity properties.
To demonstrate the potential a few fabrics with
Viscont

FR filament were compared with an exis-

ting fabric made of a staple fiber blend used in fire
fighter jackets.
The reference material has a fabric weight of 290g/
m
2
and strength (warp/weft) of 1124/908 N. Fabric
2 is 30% lighter and weighs only 225g/m
2
. How-
ever the strength is 19% higher in warp and 29%
higher in weft. Fabric 1 weighs only 160 g/m
2
. This
adds up to 80% weight reduction compared with
the reference fabric. Stupendously the strength
is only 8% lower in weft and 25% in warp while
being in full compliance with the flame retardant
properties.
Fabric 3 is the heaviest of the sample fabrics at 334 g/
m
2
. The strength however is by far higher than the by
71
15% increased weight. The values found for the warp
were 2345N corresponding with a 110% increase in
strength. 1611N were measured for the weft which
adds up to a 77% higher strength.
Despite the uniquely high strength, the viscose typical
wearing behavior is not affected or reduced.
Hot-Water Shrinkage
One characteristic trait of viscose in general is the hot-wa-
ter shrinkage. Once again Viscont

FR flament behaves
differently than ordinary textile viscose flaments. While
textile viscose keeps on shrinking with every wash cycle,
Viscont

FR stabilizes after the frst washing. This is an

effect which seems connected with the high crystallinity
of the cellulose-matrix. The initial shrinkage is compara-
ble with standard viscose and Viscont and lies in the range
of 10% to 16%. After 50 wash cycles the residual strength
of the fabric is still more than 55% while the additional
shrinkage is below 3%.

Therefore we advise to use Viscont

FR as pre-shrunk
yarn primarily for weaving applications.
Conclusions
Viscont

- Comfort in protection is a new viscose

based product-line by Glanzstoff Industries. The frst
commercially available products are Viscont

HT
with its conditioned tenacity above 40 cN/tex and the
permanent fame retardant Viscont

FR flament. Vis-
cont

FR flament, like Viscont

HT, has been blended

within fabrics in an end and end construction and with
different weft yarns in order to meet the end user re-
quirements. They can be supplied fat, twisted and tex-
tured. Twisting or texturing will not reduce the fame
retardant properties of the yarn. Viscont

can be plied
or covered with other fbers or yarn at a yarn or fab-
ric level. Yarn sizes of Viscont

range from 110dtex

through 2440dtex. According to our knowledge 110
dtex yarn is the fnest denier Filament FR yarn availa-
ble world-wide.
The fabric - examples given should demonstrate the
new opportunities Viscont

high tenacity viscose f-

laments offer the textile community. In principle Vis-
cont

can help to realize lighter and more mechani-

cally resistant fabrics with an equal or even increased
wearing comfort. Dying properties are excellent and
since cellulose is a renewable resource it perfectly
meets the demands of the 21
st
century for sustainable
alternatives to synthetic fbers.
Acknowledgements
The authors want to especially thank Albrecht Labsch
for providing the textile data presented and the former
and present colleagues involved in the development
and production of Viscont

.
References
[1] CIRFS
[2] Nywlt, M. Lenzinger Berichte 2002, 81, 71-75.
[3] Ninow, H; Heidenreich, I. Lenzinger Berichte
1990, 70, 11-16.
[4] Krssig, H. Lenzinger Berichte 1976, 40, 125-
134; Gotschey, F. Lenzinger Berichte 1977, 43, 131-
139; Wolf, R. Ind. Eng. Chem. Prod. Res. Dev. 1981,
20, 413-420.
LENZINGER BERICHTE 90 (2012) 64 - 71