New Wool Pressing Method Developed

Press, Volume C, Issue 29525, 29 May 1961, Page 15

New Wool Pressing Method Developed

IN.ZP.A -ftmer—Cot>yngnii

SYDNEY. May 26. The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation has discovered a new method of wool pressing that could save Australia nearly £lm a year in freight charges. The process will reduce the size of a bale from 21 cubic feet to six cubic feet. Woolbrokers said that the annual freight bill on wool was about £19.687.000. Tests made at the wool research laboratory at the Sydney suburb of Ryde have shown that the tensile strength of the fibre is increased by up to 10 per cent, under compression. The deputy chairman of the International Wool Secretariat (Mr J. Aclandl of New Zealand said: “It is too early yet to assess the full impact that this discovery might have economically. “It could involve a major change in the policy of shinping companies, and coild involve serious conferences with waterside workers.” The average bale of wool shipped from Australia weighs 3001 b. but freight charges are based on the cubic capacity of the bale. C.5.1.R'.0. officials said today that under the new compression system, 9001 b could be pushed into a bale the same size as the one at present in use.

“The exneriments that have been done are on a laboratory scale, with a few pieces of wool to find out if

they can be compressed without damage to the wool.” the textile physics department head <Mr V. D. Burgman > said. “We have found that there is also a slight increase in the tensile strength of the wooL But the important thing is that there is no damage—not that there is an increase in strength.” The chairman of the Wool Board, Mr J. Acland, and a member of the board, Mr B S. Trolove. who returned to Christchurch frxn Australia at the week-end with Mr R. G. Lund, regional director of the International Woo! Secretariat for Europe and the United Kingdom, were reticent about the possibilities of compaction of wool. They said that the investigation had been purely Into damage to wool fibre under pressure and it so far had no relationship to anything else