Effect of Different Conditioning Methods on the Properties
of Hosiery Yarn and Knitted Fabric
Uzair Hussain, SameeIrshad, WardahAnam, HammadAbbasi, Faheem Ahmed, Abdul Jabbar
National Textile University, Yarn Manufacturing, Faisalabad, Punjab PAKISTAN
Correspondence to:
Uzair Hussain email: hussainuzairntu@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
The research reports the results and investigations
made on 20/1 cotton hosiery yarn and knitted fabric
to evaluate the effect of different conditioning
methods on the mechanical and comfort properties of
yarn and fabric, namely, bursting strength, moisture
management, thermal conductivity, air permeability,
skewness, stiffness, and pilling. The fibers spun on a
ring spinning system were investigated as yarn
according to ASTM standards. From the results it is
concluded that the knitted fabric made from machine
conditioning has better mechanical and comfort
properties than fabric made through unconditioned
and room conditioned yarns.
Keywords: yarn conditioning, knitted fabric, hosiery
yarn conditioning, knitted fabric properties
INTRODUCTION
The project focused on the effect of room
conditioning and vacuum conditioning of cotton
hosiery yarn and compared the mechanical and
comfort properties of yarn and knitted fabric. Cotton
is a soft, staple fiber that grows around the seeds of
the cotton plant. Today it is the most used textile
fiber in the world. Its current market share is 56
percent for all fibers used for apparel and home
furnishings and sold in the U.S [1]. Another
contribution is attributed to nonwoven textiles and
personal care items. It is generally recognized that
most consumers prefer cotton personal care items to
those containing synthetic fibers. World textile fiber
consumption in 1998 was approximately 45 million
tons. Of this total, cotton represented approximately
20 million tons [2]. The global cotton production and
consumption figures will continue to rise to a further
2.0 million tonnes by the end of the 2013-14 season
in major cultivation countries. World cotton
production in 2013-14 season is projected at 25.5
million tonnes and world cotton mill use is expected
to remain around 23.5 million tonnes [3].The earliest
evidence of using cotton is from India, and the date
assigned to this fabric is 3000 B.C. There were also
excavations of cotton fabrics of comparable age
Journal of Engineered Fibers and Fabrics
Volume 10, Issue 3 – 2015
in South America. Even though cotton fiber had been
known already in South America, the large scale
cotton cultivation in Northern America began in the
16th century with the arrival of colonists to southern
parts of the United States. The largest rise in cotton
production is connected with the invention of the
saw-tooth cotton gin by Eli Whitneyin 1793[4].With
this new technology, it was possible to produce more
cotton fiber, which resulted in big changes in the
spinning and weaving industry, especially in
England.Cotton and viscose fibers are hygroscopic,
that is, they have the ability to absorb moisture from
the environment where they are kept [5]. Therefore,
as the relative humidity of the environment increases,
the amount of moisture absorbed by these fibers rises,
which results in some changes in the physical
properties of the yarns made of these fibers. On the
other hand, moisture levels of yarns decrease due to
modern machinery with high production speed. For
example, cotton yarns contain 4-6 % moisture when
they have been produced on a spinning machine [6].
The decreases in moisture levels of the yarns are
likely to bring about some difficulties in the
processing steps; also yarns with lower moisture
content than the standard value result in monetary
loss in sale. Therefore the moisture content of yarns
must be increased to the standard levels so that their
physical properties can be improved [7,8].
In the textile industry, applications such as
conditioning, heat setting, relaxing, and shrinking are
carried out in order to overcome these problems. The
process carried out with the aim of increasing
moisture content of the yarns is called conditioning.
The conditioning process has been performed via
various methods, such as conditioning in
conditioning rooms, the circulation method of
conditioning, and radio frequency conditioning.
However, today, it is generally carried out on
steaming machines which provide saturated moisture
in a vacuum environment at a low temperature. In
addition, some other processes such as heat setting
and relaxation are performed on these steaming
12 http://www.jeffjournal.org
machines. Heat setting and relaxation are also
vacuum steaming processes which are carried out at
high temperatures, and they increase the resistance of
high twist yarns, multiply yarns, and synthetic
filament yarns to untwisting and snarling problems
which occur at their unwinding from packages.
Therefore, all these processes are called vacuum
steaming, and in this study the effects of vacuum
steaming on the properties of 100 % cotton yarns
were been examined [9]. There are two different
types of vacuum steaming carried out with saturated
steam in a vacuum environment: direct and indirect.
In the direct system, the steam obtained in a separate
tank is directly placed into the steaming chamber. In
the indirect system, there is only one steaming
chamber and the steam is obtained by heating the
water bath with heaters at the bottom of the chamber.
The temperature of the environment can be adjusted
to the desired level by means of electrical heaters.
Only a few studies were performed about the effects
of vacuum steaming on the mechanical properties of
yarns. Since the wet tenacity value of cotton yarn is
higher than its dry tenacity value, these limited
numbers of studies are concerned with cotton yarn,
except for one study performed with 67 % PES - 33
% viscose yarns [10]. We chose 100 % cotton yarns
for this study.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The properties of cotton used for the production of
yarn are given in Table I.
TABLE I. Properties of Cotton Used.
Sr. Parameters Units Values
No.
Hosiery yarn was produced on the ring spinning
system. The machinery details along with model and
manufacturing company name of the spinning system
from blow room to winding department are given in
Table II. The chemicals and auxiliaries used for the
scouring and bleaching of samples are given in Table
III. Fabric processing equipment used is given in
Table IV. Testing of samples was carried out using
the equipment given in Table V. After producing the
yarn, different conditioning methods were applied.
Properties of those yarns are given in Table VI.
Knitted fabric was produced on single jersey weft
knitting machine. Courses per inch and wales per
inch were also measured. The stitch length was also
measured of each sample. Machine specifications
used are shown in Table VII. Specifications of fabric
produced are given in Table VIII. Fabric was scoured
and bleached in a single bath. Processing recipe and
conditions are given in the Table IX.
TABLE II. Yarn and Fabric Production Equipment.
Sr. Machine Make
No.
1. Blow room Truetzschler, Rieter (B-
11, B-60)
2. CARD Crossroll (MK4-
Tendom), Truetzschler
(TC-7)
3. Draw Frame Breaker: Toyoda (DX-8)
Finisher: Rieter (RSB
D30)

1 Micronaire μg/inch 4.3 4. Simplex Toyoda (FL 200)

2 Strength g/tex 29.6 5. Ring Frame Toyoda (RY 5)

3 Length mm 27.7
6. Winding 21-C with Uster
4 Uniformity % 82.5 Quantum

5 Short Fiber % 21.4 7 Yarn Conditioning Xorella

Index(SFI)
8. AC Plant LUWA
6 Elongation % 5.1
9. Knitting Machine Fukuhara Japan
7 Rd value - 70.1

8 +b value - 9.5
After processing, the samples were tested for bursting
9 Trash content - 9.14 strength according to standard test method for
10 Neps per gram /gram 210 bursting strength ASTM D 3787-07 using a bursting

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Volume 10, Issue 3 – 2015
strength tester. The liquid moisture management TABLE V. Testing Equipment.
properties were evaluated by AATCC TM 195-2009
using moisture management tester M-290 SDL Atlas, Sr. No. Equipment Purpose
UK. Pilling of the fabric was measured by using an Determination of
ICI Pilling Tester BS-5811.Air permeability of the 1 Moisture Meter Moisture of
Fabric
fabric was measured according to ASTM D737 – 04 Determination of
(2008). The stiffness of the fabric was measured Shirley Stiffness
2 Stiffness of
Tester
according to ASTM D1388 – 08. The Skewness of Fabric
the fabric was measured according to ASTM D 3882 Determination of
Air Permeability
– 99 (2006).Thermal conductivity of the samples was 3 Air Permeability
Tester
of Fabric
found using sweating guarded hotplate using standard
test method for testing ISO 11092- 1993, ASTM Determination of
Bursting Strength Bursting
F1868, and GB 11048. Moisture content of the yarn 4
Tester Strength of
was measured by moisture meter DELMHORST. fabric
Determination of
TABLE III. List of Chemicals/Auxiliaries. Moisture
Moisture
5 Management
Management of
Tester
the Fabric
Sr. No. Trade Name Description To Determine
Sweating
1. NaOH Scouring Agent Thermal
6 Guarded Hot
2. H2O2 Bleaching Agent Conductivity of
Plate
Fabric
3. CiFA Wetting Agent
4. TANA WET Q Stabilizer ICI Pilling Tester Determination of
7
BS-5811 Pilling of Fabric
5. Agar Nutrient For Anti-bacterial Growth
As per (ASTM
6. Buffer Solution To adjust pH of Solution D3882 – 99)
Determination of
8 Measuring Stick, Skewness of
7. Staphylococcus aureus Gram Positive Bacteria Flat Surface, Fabric
Fabric Inspection
8. Escherichia coli Gram Negative Bacteria Table (Optional)

TABLE IV. Processing Equipment. TABLE VI. Yarn Properties.

Sr. No. Machine Make Yarn Properties

Sample
1. Mini jet machine Japan 1992 U% CVm IPI CLSP

Un Conditioned 11.8 3.39 180 2322

Room
Conditioned 12.55 3.17 278 2359
Machine
Conditioned 12.47 4.14 273 2367

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Volume 10, Issue 3 – 2015
 TABLE VII. Machine Specifications for Fabric Production. Uniformity percentage of fresh cone yarn is less than
the room and machine conditioned yarn due to less
moisture absorption in the fresh cone yarn. The more
Sr. No. Description Value Unit
the moisture more will be the weight of the yarn;
Gauge 20the mm hence the more will be the U% of the yarn. In case of
1
room conditioned yarn uneven moisture absorption
occurs; hence more will be IPI values. In
2 Cylinder Diameter 3 Feet
unconditioned yarn, the IPI values are comparatively
less. The yarn test results are shown in Table VI.
3 Needles 1860 -
Moisture content of room conditioned yarn is greater
4 Loop Length 5.98 mm than the machine conditioned and the unconditioned
yarn, because of uniform moisture absorption during
5 Machine Speed 20 rpm machine conditioning at the outer surface of the cone
absorbs more moisture and the inner surface absorb
6 Yarn Speed 124.2 m/min. less moisture. The more the moisture absorption, the
more will be the moisture content that is why the
moisture content of room conditioned yarn is greater
TABLE VIII. Specifications of Fabric Produced. than the unconditioned yarn. The results are shown in
Figure 1.
Courses Wales per Stitch
Sr. No.
per Inch Inch Length

48 34 3.1
Un Conditioned

Room
50 32 3.02
Conditioned

Machine
50 36 3.2
Conditioned

TABLE IX. Processing Recipe and Conditions. FIGURE 1.Cone Moisture Content Test.

Air permeability of machine conditioned fabric is

Sr. No. Description Value Unit
greater than the room conditioned and the
1 NaOH 5 g/l unconditioned fabric, because porosity of machine
2 Stabilizer 2 g/l conditioned fabric increases due to the even shape of
yarn and loop of the fabric. Whereas air permeability
3 H2O2 8 g/l of room conditioned fabric is lower than the un
4 Wetting Agent 1 g/l conditioned fabric due to variable porosity in the
o room conditioned fabric, as the outer surface has
5 Temperature 90-95 C
more moisture and hence increases porosity whereas
6 Duration 1 Hr. the inner surface has less moisture penetration due to
lack of pressure; hence decreases porosity resulting
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION in less air permeability in room conditioned fabric.
CLSP of machine conditioned yarn is greater than the The results are shown in Table X.
room conditioned and the unconditioned yarn,
because of uniform moisture absorption during
machine conditioning. The more the moisture mores,
the greater will be the strength, hence more will be
the CLSP value of the yarn. That is why the CLSP of
room conditioned yarn is greater than the un
conditioned yarn.

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Volume 10, Issue 3 – 2015
 TABLE X. Air Permeability Test Results.

Un Room Machine
Serial #
Conditioned Conditioned Conditioned

1 197 157.6 197

2 177.3 177.3 197

3 187.15 187.15 177.3

Air
Permeability 187.15 174.016 190.433
(mm/sec)

FIGURE 3. Pilling Test Results.

The test result comparisons are shown in Figure 2.
Bursting strength of machine conditioned fabric is
greater than the room conditioned and the
unconditioned fabric, because of high strength due to
uniform moisture absorption during machine
conditioning. The more the moisture, the more will
be the strength; hence the more will be the bursting
strength of the fabric. That is why bursting strength
of room conditioned fabric is greater than the
unconditioned fabric. The results are shown in Table
XII.
TABLE XII. Bursting Strength Results.
FIGURE 2. Air permeability test result comparisons.
Un Room Machine
Sr. No.
Pilling of unconditioned fabric is greater than the Conditioned Conditioned Conditioned
room conditioned and the machine conditioned 1 467 361 284
fabric, because of less moisture absorption in 2 413 340 283
unconditioned fabric, which results in more hairiness.
3 438 349 281
The more the moisture, the less will be the hairiness.
Bursting
Hence the pilling of the fabric will be greater. In the Strength 439.33 350 282.667
ICI pilling scale, higher values indicate less pilling (kPa)
and lower values mean high pilling. The ICI Pilling
Tester results are shown in Table XI. The graphical representations of the results are shown
in Figure 4.
TABLE XI. Pilling Test Results.

Sample Pilling Intensity

Un Conditioned 3 Moderate

Room 4 Slight
Machine 4 Slight

The graphical representation of the pilling test is

shown in Figure 3. FIGURE 4.Comparison of Bursting Strength of Samples.

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Volume 10, Issue 3 – 2015
Thermal conductivity of room conditioned fabric is
greater than the machine conditioned and the
unconditioned fabric, because air permeability of
room conditioned fabric decreases due to less
porosity in the fabric. Whereas thermal conductivity
of machine conditioned fabric is greater than the un
conditioned fabric due to less porosity as compare to
un conditioned fabric. The more the Rct(Thermal
resistance) value, the more will be the insulation and
the less will be the air permeability; hence the more
will be thermal conductivity. Rct values of the
samples are shown in Table XIII.
TABLE XIII. Rct Values of the Samples.
Sample Rct
Un Conditioned 0.01486
through unconditioned yarn also has uniform
structure, but as hairiness is more, so moisture can
easily move through the fabric. That is why it has
good moisture management content, but lower than
fabric made through machine conditioned yarn.
Fabric made through room conditioned yarn has low
moisture management content value, because of
uneven distribution of moisture during conditioning.
The outer layer received more moisture; hence fibers
swelled; but inside the cone the moisture cannot
evenly penetrate, so the yarn swelling is not uniform.
That is why the fabric structure is not uniform and
moisture cannot move through it. Hence it has low
moisture management content values as compared to
unconditioned and machine conditioned fabric. The
results are shown in Figure 6.

Room Conditioned 0.02031

Machine Conditioned 0.01733

Graphical representations of the Rct values of the

samples are shown in Figure 5.

FIGURE 6. Moisture Management Test.

Machine conditioned fabric has low stiffness because

of low snarling and twist setting due to even moisture
distribution. In unconditioned fabric, the stiffness is
more because of low moisture distribution. The
results are shown in Table XIV.

TABLE XIV. Stiffness Test Results.

Un Room Machine
FIGURE 5. Thermal Conductivity Test Results. Sr. #
Conditioned Conditioned Conditioned

Moisture Management Content of machine 1 4.5 3.95 3.1

conditioned fabric is greater than the room
conditioned and the unconditioned fabric due to the 2 5.35 4.75 3.3
uniform structure of the knitted fabric and even
moisture distribution. In machine conditioning due to 3 5.15 5.2 4.1
high pressure and temperature the moisture is evenly
4 6.05 6.05 4.7
penetrated in the cone and hence the swelling of the
fibers is uniform. That is why the fabric made from Stiffness 5.2625 4.9875 3.8
machine conditioning yarns has uniform structure
and moisture can easily move through it. Fabric made The graphical representation of the results is shown
in Figure 7.

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Volume 10, Issue 3 – 2015
FIGURE 7. Stiffness Test Results.
Skew is a fabric condition resulting when filling
yarns or knitted courses are angularly displaced from
a line perpendicular to the edge or side of the fabric.
Skewness of the machine conditioned fabric is less as
compared to unconditioned and room conditioned
fabric, because of twist setting in the machine
conditioned fabric. In machine conditioning the
moisture is evenly distributed, so the swelling of the
fibers occurs uniformly and hence snarling decreases
which results in less skewness. In room conditioning
the outer layer of the cone received more moisture,
but the inner part cannot get the same moisture, so
uneven moisture distribution occurs which results in
uneven yarn strength and hence uneven fabric
structure, which causes the yarn more swelled at one
place and less at another. When knitted fabric is
made, the loop formation is not uniform because of
non uniformity in the yarn. So due to the non
uniform structure of the fabric the skewness is greater
as twist setting occurs at some places but at most of
the places snarling occurs. The Results are shown in
Table XV.
TABLE XV. Skewness Results.
Sr. # Un Room M/C
1 4° 5° 4°
2 5° 6° 3°
3 4° 5.5° 4°
Skewness
4.33° 5.44° 3.6°
(degree)
The graphical representation of the results is shown
in Figure 8.
Journal of Engineered Fibers and Fabrics
Volume 10, Issue 3 – 2015
FIGURE 8. Skewness Test Comparison.
CONCLUSION
• Room conditioned yarn will have higher
moisture content value due to more absorption
of moisture on the cone surface.
• More uniform moisture absorption will have
more uniformity in yarn shape; more will be the
porosity of the fabric and hence more will be
the value of Air Permeability. Uneven
distribution of moisture lowers the value of AP
(Air permeability).
• The more uniform the moisture is absorbed, the
more will be the CLSP of the yarn. That is the
reason unconditioned fabric has low bursting
strength.
• Less moisture absorption results in more
hairiness; hence the more will be the pilling of
the fabric. Machine and Room conditioned
fabric have almost the same effect for pilling.
• The rise in the value of Rct (Thermal
resistance) results in increased insulation, which
decreases the value of AP (air permeability)
hence thermal conductivity increases. Machine
conditioning increases the thermal resistance.
• Machine conditioning ensures the uniform
shape of yarn and uniformity of the structure of
knitted fabric; hence moisture management
content of machine conditioned fabric is greater
than the room conditioned and the
unconditioned fabric.
• Even moisture distribution results in twist
setting of the yarn, which reduces snarling
effect. So machine conditioned fabric has low
stiffness because of low snarling and twist
setting.
• Twist setting of yarn reduces the skewness of
the fabric made from it. Room conditioned
fabric has high skewness, because of non
uniform absorption of moisture. Machine
conditioned fabric has low skewness.
18 http://www.jeffjournal.org
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AUTHORS’ ADDRESSES
Uzair Hussain
SameeIrshad
WardahAnam
HammadAbbasi
Faheem Ahmed
Abdul Jabbar
National Textile University
Yarn Manufacturing
Shiekhupura Road
Faisalabad, Punjab 35200
PAKISTAN

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Volume 10, Issue 3 – 2015