Blending at blowroom There are three methods of blending at blow room: a.

Feeder blending In this method the blends are prepared by feeding different fibres to different hopper feeders with feeds adjusted to the required blend ratio. The amount of material taken from each bale for feeding these blenders should not exceed 2-3 kg. This method is generally employed when more than two components are required to be blended. b. Stack Blending

In this method the blend components from the bale or bale breakers ( pre opened ) are weighed and laid down in alternate layers This stack which is laid horizontally is then withdrawn vertically for feeding. Advantage of Feeder and Stack Blending a. More intimate and homogeneous blend achieved. b. Only one opening line needed. c. Provides simplest control on the use of recovered fibre waste. d. Requires minimum man hours for blending Disadvantages a. Difficult to attain uniform blend ratio b. Demands greater skill on the part of the operator. c. Labour intensive and somewhat slow.

c. Lap Blending In this the laps of the components fibres made at the breaker skutcher generally 3 to 4 are blended by feeding them together to the finisher scutcher in the desired ratio. Advantages of Lap Blending

a. Ensures good blend homogenity b. Easy to work. c. Good control on the use of recovered fibre waste. d. Uniform blend ratio is achieved Disadvantages a. Opening line has to be modified to provide for both breaker and finisher scutchers. b. Need for proper control on lap weights. Blending-1 Neither natural or manmade fibres are optimally suited to certain fields of use, but a blend of these two fibres types can give the required characteristics. Objectives: 1. Improvement in Functional Properties A 100% single fibre yarn cannot impart all the desired properties to a fabric. For example 100% viscose rayon suffer from low tensile strength, poor crease resistance and low abrasion resistance. Similarly 100% polyester fabrics are not desirable as they are prone to static accumulation, hole melting and pilling. They are moisture resistant, difficult and expensive to dye and have a poor hand. These negative attributes of polyester and viscose can be reasonably neutralised by addition of a certain percentage of each fibre. 2. Improved Process performance Some fibres like polyester at times are quite troublesome to work in 100% form especially at cards. Addition of fibres like cotton or viscose rayon in the previous process has been seen to facilitate the smooth carding of such fibres. The blending of manmades which are longer and finer to cotton which is shorter influences the spinnablility as well as productivity. 3. Economy The price of manmades is much more stable than that of natural fibres like cotton. Price stability can

enable the mills to pursue optimisation of their fibre purchase programme. Blending could also be used for reducing the mixing cost. For example, a fibre like viscose can be blended with cotton for producing specific yarns with reduced raw material costs. 4. Fancy Effect Fibres with a variety of colour mixture or shades can be produced by blending different dyed fibres at the blowroom, drawframe or roving stage. 5. Aesthetics The aesthetics of a fabric can be developed by selecting specific blend components and their properties.