Research Information System
4th International Conference on Engineering and Natural Science, Kiev, Ukraine, 2 - 06 May 2018, pp.41-46
Since ancient times, natural materials such as cotton, wool and bird feathers have been used for thermal insulation in winter clothes. Today, although more artificial materials are used for this purpose, natural insulation materials especially lower feathers of water birds have not lost their importance as waterproofing materials. These materials with high heat protection, lightness, softness and long serviceability are very expensive. In contrast, especially recently developed artificial fibers exhibit superior properties than natural fibers at some angles, but they are not as useful as natural fibers in terms of heat insulation, softness and long service. This makes the water bird feathers more expensive, especially the puffer and goose feathers.
Accordingly, as the chicken feathers material is abundant, easily accessible and cheaper than the water bird feathers, the use of chicken feathers in winter clothes as filling material has attracted more attention.
On the other hand, about 22 million tons of chickens are obtained as by-products each year in the world, and more than 4 million tons are wasted. This chemically resistant material is buried or burnt. Chicken feathers are natural heat insulation materials. However, it is not possible to utilize chicken feathers like geese and ducks feathers. Unlike the goose and ducks, there are no down feathers in chickens as nonflying birds. On the other hand, the roughness, weight, fragility and low elasticity of the chicken feather appears to be a problem. In order to overcome these problems, we proposed to utilize the "fibers" obtained by separating the "barbs" part of the chicken feather from the "rachis" part by mechanical cutting as the filling material in the winter clothes. Research has shown that the chicken feather fibers have porous internal structure, which gives them high insulation properties. Our research has shown that the use of chicken fiber as insulation material in winter clothes is not only economical but technically a good
alternative to other insulation materials. The winter coats made from chicken feather fibers have the same appearance as the goose down in terms of insulation, yet they have a beautiful appearance.