NEW DELHI – A new prototype technology for the industrial scale production of nanofibres is said to promise superior performance to currently available commercial technologies.
Developed at IIT Delhi’s SMITA Research Lab, the technology is reported to overcome the many challenges of electrospinning during the deposition of nanofibres on substrates, to allow the continuous mass production of nanofibres over a wide width with high rates of uniform deposition and the production of low diameter fibres with good adhesion.
The pilot machine has been validated in an industrial set-up for producing nanofibres at commercial scale and the technology has been granted patents in India, the UK and the USA.
“There are a few manufacturers outside India that make continuous electrospinning machines but their products suffer from non-uniform deposition when low add-ons are required, which is an essential requirement for cost-effective solutions,” said Dr Ashwini Agrawal, lead researcher and professor at IIT Delhi’s Textile and Fibre Engineering Department. “In India, there is no company engaged in the mass production of nanofibres and our research group is the first to develop technology for the continuous production of nanofibres over a large width of substrate suitable for various applications.”
Using their technology, the researchers have developed high efficiency fuel and oil nanofibre filters, which were found to be stable during the mechanical fabrication process and then during the life of the filter.
