Study of Electrospinning Parameters and Collection Methods on Size Distribution and Orientation of PLA/PBS Hybrid Fiber Using Digital Image Processing

The Canny Edge-Based Distance Transform and Hough Transform algorithms were successfully implemented to analyze the size distribution and the orientation of the electrospun PLA/PBS hybrid fiber. The effect of polymer concentration, voltage, feed rate and needle-collector distance were studied. It was found that feed rate of 0.5 ml/h and needle-collector distance of 12 cm is required to generate smooth and uniform hybrid fibers in the smallest size electrospinning with 6 wt.% polymer at voltage of 20 kV. The stationary flat collector with a swaying needle and fast rotating drum disc with a stationary needle were used for the fiber alignment. In order to improve the size distribution and the orientation of the hybrid fibers it is proposed that the fibers should be collected on the rotary drum disc at 700 rpm or higher speed.