Flax processing – From fiber to yarn: spinning

Flax fiber has been known for thousands of years, as it was used in the form of woven strips to cover Egyptian mummies. It is true that it has undeniable qualities. On the one hand, it has ecological qualities because it is natural, therefore bio-based, and requires much less water and pesticides to grow than the benchmark cellulose fiber, cotton. On the other hand, its mechanical properties are particularly interesting because it is a potential substitute for glass fibers in composite materials. Finally, it is biodegradable. Yet this fiber accounts for less than 1% of the textile fibers used worldwide, compared to nearly 25% for cotton. Why is this? Although France is the world's largest producer of textile flax, cotton mills have been more resistant to international competition. Why is this?

This article explains the difficulties involved in processing this fiber. Unlike cotton, flax does not naturally occur in the form of a fiber; it must be extracted from the stem. This extraction process is lengthy and does not always result in the basic fiber. There is therefore no single scale for flax fiber, but rather a range of scales depending on the extraction process used. In addition, the raw material is highly variable. This difficulty led the textile industry to turn, from its inception, to fibers that were easier to use, such as cotton and wool, and then to all artificial and synthetic fibers. Therefore, unlike cotton spinning, or more generally the spinning of so-called "short" fibers, or wool, i.e., so-called "long" fibers, it must be noted that flax spinning processes, which transform the fiber into yarn, have not been fully optimized due to a lack of research and development in this area. The various flax spinning processes are described here, along with their limitations, advantages, and disadvantages. The article highlights certain technological and scientific barriers which, if overcome, would allow this fiber to be used to its full potential in textiles and even composites.