Patent ID: 8182725

Claim:
A process for making a fiber of a polylactic acid, comprising a) forming separate melts of a high-D PLA starting resin and a high-L PLA starting resin; b) mixing the melts and, without cooling the resulting mixed melt below the crystallization temperature of either the high-D PLA starting resin or the high-L starting resin, melt spinning the mixture through one or more orifices to form one or more fibers, then c) cooling the fibers below the crystalline melting temperature of the high-D PLA starting resin and the crystalline melting temperature of the high-L starting resin and d) heat treating the fibers at a temperature between the glass transition temperature of the starting PLA resins and the crystallization melting temperature of the starting PLA resins for a period of time such that the fibers form at least 20 Joules/g of crystallites having a crystalline melting temperature of at least 200° C.