Kopitar Dragana

University of Zagreb · Department of Textile Design and Management

An open field experiment from November 2022 to May 2023 in Croatia, which is characterized by a continental humid climate, evaluated nonwoven mulches made from viscose, jute, and hemp fibres blended with PLA fibres. The blends of viscose and jute fibres (90:10, 80:20, and 70:30 ratios) were produced using mechanical web formation on cards with need...

Numerous research showed that mulching with conventional agro foils elevates soil temperature and promotes plant growth, but negatively influences soil health and brings environmental concerns. Most of the published research on nonwoven mulches for plant cultivation includes nonwoven fabrics produced by extrusion processes providing nonwoven fabric...

The performance and degradation of nonwoven mulches made from viscose, jute, hemp fibers, and their blends with PLA fibers, subjected to field conditions, are investigated. This research explores the possible substitution of traditional agricultural polyethylene mulching agro foil with environmentally friendly biodegradable nonwoven mulches produce...

The need for sustainable alternatives to conventional plastic mulches in agriculture has led to the development of various types of biodegradable mulches made from natural fibres and biopolymers to reduce environmental pollution and mitigate soil pollution caused by conventional plastic mulch usage. Degradation, impact on soil temperature and humid...

The interest in natural fibres in non – textile applications has increased as a result of the search for new renewable materials. Especially attractive for environmental safety demands are biodegradable and renewable fibres such as lignocellulose fibres and biopolymers such as PLA. The analysis of their biodegradation is often taken as a standard m...

The nonwoven mulches produced from regenerated viscose and PLA fibres as well as conventional agro foil were placed on the soil by randomly arranged blocks of four replication plots. After 50 days, the soil samples beneath each mulch and on the control field were collected, where the bacteria and fungi population as well as the physio-chemical prop...

This paper investigates the biodegradation properties of cellulose fibers and PLA biopolymer. For that purpose, hemp, jute, and sisal fibers as lignocellulose fibers; viscose fibers (CV) as regenerated cellulose; and polylactide (PLA) as biopolymer were buried in farmland soil for periods of 2, 4, 7, 9 and 11 days under controlled conditions. The i...

As society becomes more aware of environmental pollution, global warming, and environmental disasters, people are increasingly turning to sustainable materials and products. This includes agrotextiles in a wide range of products, including nonwoven agrotextiles for mulching. This review provides insight into relevant available data and information...

The influence of differently tanned and finished bovine leather on thermophysiological properties was investigated. In addition, it was investigated whether sampling has a significant influence on the thermophysiological properties. The back of the tested leathers is thicker than the neck because of better microstructure regularity and uniformity a...

The development of new spinning technologies has produced cheaper yarns and with it, research into the production and application of woven and knitted fabrics from unconventional yarns. The tensile properties of knitted fabrics made of regenerated cellulose fibres (viscose, Tencel™ and modal) of the same count (20 tex) using ring, rotor and air-jet...

The research was carried out on five double jersey knitted fabrics, knitted from cotton, Viscose®, Tencel®, Modal® and polyester ring spun yarns finesses of 20 tex. A circular double bed knitting machine gauge of E17 with the same production parameters was used for knitting all the fabrics. A change in all knitted fabric structure parameters was re...

The knitted fabric thermophysiological comfort is influenced by fabric characteristics and structure, including yarn spinning and finishing process. The research on viscose double jersey knitted fabrics knitted from ring, rotor and SIRO spun yarns counts of 20 tex were carried out. Beside the knitted fabric structure parameters analysis, thermal an...

The main physical-mechanical parameters of modal yarns (unevenness, faults, hairiness and spectrograms) were compared with the parameters of micro modal yarns of the same fineness and end-use. The difference in tenacity and elongation at break of different types of modal and micro modal-spun yarns is determined by yarn structure. The highest tenaci...

Agrotextile belongs to one of the twelve sectors of technical textiles covering textile products with application in agriculture, horticulture, cattle breeding and aquaculture as well in agro engineering. The significance of agrotextiles can be stated substantial all over the world since it has been proven to be very versatile and cost effective ma...

The aim of the paper is to investigate protective function changes of reusable fabrics used for standard (operations where these risks for penetration by liquids are lower) and high performance clothes (for operations with a high risk for penetration by liquids) after a certain number of washing and sterilisation cycles. The absorbency test method...

Some of the most significant properties of static dissipative woven fabric systems, in applications where contact of textile material and human body is present, beside antistatic properties are definitely microbial barrier permeability and thermophysiological properties. Application of such materials with associated properties is of great importanc...

Compared with viscose fibre, modal fibre is characterized by some advantageous properties such as higher dry and wet tenacities, higher wet modulus, lower water retention capacity and lower level of swelling. Impact of different knitted fabric structure made of cotton and 97 % CMD/3 % EL fibres on thermo-physiological comfort and microbial barrier...

The influence of nonwoven fabric pores using the Brunauer?Emmet?Teller method, dry sieving and capillary flow porometry on water vapor resistance were investigated. For a better understanding of the nonwoven thickness impact on pores and water vapor resistance (and therefore the influence on comfort), two types of samples were investigated: nonwove...

Using the combed cotton spinning route, a number of yams from Egyptian cotton Giza 75 FG with counts of 14.3, 16.7, 20.0 and25.0 tex were spun. Each of the yarns were spun with a higher twist factor and different noil percentage of 14,16,18 and 20%. The yarns are being used to knit two groups ofplain single jersey fabrics on a small diameter single...

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of calendering process on polypropylene nonwoven structure and thermal resistance. The study was focused on the influence of mass per unit area, thickness,density, porosity, characteristic opening size and additional thermal bonding by calendering. Thermal resistance of polypropylene nonwove...

The influence of the calendaring process of nonwoven geotextiles on the water permeability normal to their planes, including influence of different loads, as well as pore characteristics investigated by two different methods has been studied. Methods of pore characteristics differ in obtaining different pore parameters. Two groups of samples were p...

Nonwoven geotextiles manufactured by mechanical carding process and bonding by needling process are investigated in this paper. Part of the samples was additionally bonded by thermal calendaring process. Sampling was conducted according to the standard for geotextile with certain modifications. The samples were tested for water permeability perpend...

The ring traveler causes the highest number of yarn breaks on the ring spinning machine, providing a suitable traveler has been selected. Yarn breakage occurs mostly due to yarn unevenness and improper run of the traveler caused by the wear and tear of the traveler or the ring. It is therefore necessary to know ring traveler shape and properties in...