Yarn spinning systems

Yarn count

Yarn

Generic tem for a continuous

strand of textile fibres ,
filaments or material in a form
suitable for knitting, weaving or
otherwise intertwining to form a
textile fabric
Or
A product of substantial length
and relatively small crosssection consisting of fibers
and/or filaments, with or without

Types of yarns
There are two types of yarns
Spun yarns ( short-staple yarns)
Filament yarns

These can further be classified

according to their method of
construction:
Compound yarns (covered and corespun)
Fancy yarns
Simple yarns

(3) Spun Yarn -- A staplespun

yarn
is
a
linear
assembly of staple fibers,
held together, usually by the
insertion of twist, to form a
continuous strand, small in
cross section but not of any
specified length; it is used
for interlacing in process
such as knitting, weaving,

When staple fibers are

twisted together by the
process of spinning, the
product may be referred to
as spun yarns.

Linear density/yarn count

Yarn count is a numerical expression, which defines
yarn fineness.
Spun Yarns are only roughly circular in cross-section
and irregularity in thickness is unavoidable
One of the most important requirements for a
spinner is to maintain the average count and count
variation within control
Yarn Count is number indicating the weight per unit
length or the length per unit weight of yarn
used as an alternative measure of actual fineness or
thickness of yarns
two yarn count systems are commonly used
direct system
indirect system

Direct system of Yarn Count

Yarn count is the mass of a unit
length of yarn
Length of the yarn is constant and
weight varies
General formula which applies to all
directs systems can be written as
follows:
Weight of yarn

Direct yarn count

Given length

Tex (g/1000m)

Defined as weight in grams of 1000m

length of yarn
As the number increases the yarn
gets thicker
Applicable for all types of fibres ,
yarns

Denier
Weight in grams of 9000m length of
yarn
As the yarn number increases , the
yarn gets thicker or coarser
Mainly used for filament yarns

Decitex
Defined as weight in grams of 10
000meters length of yarn
Yarn gets thicker or coarser with
increase in yarn number

Indirect yarn numbering

In this system fineness is measured
in length per unit weight
Weight is constant and length varies

Length of yarn
Indirect yarn count
Given weight

Cotton count- Ne
Defined as number of hanks (840 yds ) present
in 1 lb of yarn.
As the yarn number increases, yarn gets thinner
or finer
Mainly used for cotton spun yarns, silk, synthetic
spun yarns
E.g. 40 Ne Means 40 hanks of 840yards give us
1pound
i.e.40x840 yards length weigh one pound

Metric count- Nm
Defined as the number of hanks of
1000 meters present in 1 kg of yarn.
As the yarn number increases, the
yarn gets thinner or finer
Mainly used for woolen and worsted
yarns

Conversions

End uses of yarn counts

 On one cone there are 9800 m yarns

which weigh 490 gm. What is the
English count of this yarn?
If one thousand meters of yarn weigh 20
grams or one hundred meters of the yarn
weigh 2 grams

Spinning Systems
Short staple system - Cotton
system
Carded
Combed
cotton/cotton blends
Long staple system
Worsted system
Woolen system
woolen yarns

Cotton spinning
The cotton spinning process is
generally used for cotton and manmade staple fibres
Carded and combed reflect the
degree to which the fibres lie parallel
to the yarn axis
Carded yarns contain fewer aligned
fibres than combed yarns
Fibres in Combed yarns are more
aligned and longer

Woollen
system
The wool
spinning process is mainly

used to produce wool and wool-blend

yarns.
A distinction is made between the
worsted and woollen process.
In worsted spinning, higher-quality
and longer fibres are processed and
the result is a fine yarn which is used
to produce worsted fabric.
In the woollen spinning system,

 In the worsted process the fibres are

paralleled in a combing machine and are
then drawn and spun.
In the woollen system the fibres are only
carded and then spun. The resulting yarn
is then twisted (if required) and finally
prepared for the subsequent treatments
(dyeing, weaving, tufting, etc) through
an operation called winding.
Worsted can also be used to describe
100% manufactured fibre spun yarns
e.g. 100 worsted acrylic yarns

Short staple spinning

system
Fibre preparation

Opening, cleaning, blending

Carding
Spinning
combing

drawing

(woolen)
drawing

roving
spinning

spinning
(carded cotton)

roving

Fibre preparation for spinning

Spinning is the actual process where the yarn
is formed. But before spinning can commerce,
fibres must be prepared so that they satisfy
the following key requirements:
The fibres are free from impurities
The fibres are sufficiently individualised and
aligned
The natural properties of fibres are
preserved
The fibres are prepared in a form that is
suitable for feeding the subsequent spinning
process.

Yarn manufacturing process

OBJECTIVES OF THE BLOW-ROOM

Opening
Cleaning
Blending/ Mixing

BLOWROOM
Basic operations from bale to sliver:
Opening of bales and clumps of fiber and
the creation of small tufts of fibers;
Cleaning of fibers and removal of dust,
dirt & seed; this is done by mechanical
means
Blending of fibers from different bales (&
different parts of bale). These may be
nominally the same fiber or different
fibers. This is done so as to achieve a
homogenous mass of fibres

 Blending type
(1) Tuft blending - occurs in the stage of
opening and cleaning, which blends the
fibers within and among bales.
(2) Sliver blending - occurs at the draw
frame, which usually blends different
types of fibers.
Blended fibres are then passed through
more machines to further open (loosen) the
fibre tufts and to clean and remove
contaminants which may create serious
quality issues if contained within the fibre to
the final product

CARDING
Before the raw stock can be made
into yarn, the remaining impurities
must be removed, fibers
disentangled, and straightened
straightening process puts the fibers
into a somewhat parallel lengthwise
alignment
The initial process of arranging
the fibers in parallel fashion is
known as carding
The result from the carding machine

 The further cleaning and

parallelization of fibres in the card is
achieved through

Carding process

 Carding cotton fibre'sThe lap (1) from the picking

operation is unrolled and fed by the feed roll (2), to the
licker-in roll (3), which has wire shaped like saw teeth.
The licker-in roll moves the lap against cleaner bars (4), that
remove trash, and passes it to the large cylinder (5). The
surface of the large cylinder holds the cotton with thousands
of finewires.
Theflats (6), with more fine wires, move in the direction
opposite to that of the largecylinder.
Thecotton remains on the large cylinder until it reaches the
doffer cylinder (7), which removes it from the large cylinder.
A doffer comb (8), vibrates against the doffer cylinder and
removes the cotton from it.
The cotton, in a filmy web, passes through condenser rolls
(9),and into a can through a coiler head (10).

Objectives of Carding
opening the tufts into individual fibres;
eliminating all the impurities contained
in the fibre that were not eliminated in
the previous cleaning operations;
selecting the fibres on the basis of
length, removing the shortest ones;
removal of neps;
parallelising and stretching of the fibre;
transformation of the lap into a sliver,
therefore into a regular mass of
untwisted fibre

DRAWING
Both card sliver and combed sliver
must go through drawing to receive
further blending and alignment. The
draw frame corrects for weight
variation and fiber misalignment.
Drawing is the term applied to the
operation involving the doubling and
drafting of slivers.

 Doubling is the combination of

several slivers that are then
attenuated by a draft equal in
number to the slivers combined,
thereby resulting in one sliver of a
similar count.
Drafting is the process of attenuating
the count of a material using a
combination of pairs of rollers.

A drawing frame uses a

series of rollers arranged in
pairs and rotating at
different speeds, to
attenuate, or draft, sliver. At
the drawing frame, several
card slivers (usually six to
eight) are combined to
further blend the fibers. The
slivers are pulled from the
back of the machine through
a series of pairs of rollers.

 Draw frame, drafting arrangement

Objectives of Drawing
(1)Straighten the fibers and make
them parallel to the central axis
of the sliver;
(2)Improve short-term, mid-term,
and especially long-term
evenness in the sliver;
(3)Improve consistency of the
product delivered to spinning
for lower yarn variation;
(Blending)
(4)Produce the proper weight
sliver for the following process.

COMBING
Combing is necessary only when
combed yarns are being
manufactured. It used in
producing medium-fine and fine
yarns. The following
characteristics are improved
compared to carded yarns: yarn
evenness, yarn strength, yarn
cleanness, yarn smoothness and
visual appearance.

Objectives of Combing
Removal of the short fibers;
Removal of non-fibrous
impurities which may be
called trash, and
imperfections such as neps
and slubs;
Straightening and
parallelization of the long
fibers which are retained.

ROVING
A roving is a continuous
fibrous strand drafted from a
sliver and given cohesion by
inserting a small amount of
twist.
It is drafted and twisted to
be spun into a yarn.

 Drawn sliver is presented to the roving

frame ( speed frame) in large cans
( normally six cans) .
The slivers are drawn from the cans and
are forwarded to the drafting
arrangement. The drafting arrangement
attenuates the slivers with a draft of
between 5 and 20.
The delivered strand is too thin to hold
itself together and a strength-imparting
step is necessary immediately at the exit
from the drafting arrangement. This is
performed by inserting twist.

Tasks of the Roving Frame

(1)Reduces the weight of the sliver to
a suitable size for spinning through
drafting
(2) Insert small amount of twists to
the roving to make it strong enough
to sustain the tension in further
processing;
(3) Winding roving onto the bobbin

Staple spinning processes

1.Conventional ring spinning
2.Open end spinning or rotor spinning
3.Air-jet spinning
4.Friction spinning
5.Self twist spinning
6.Electrostatic spinning
7.Vortex spinning
8.Twist less spinning (Twilo)

Ring spinning
The ring spinning frame, commonly called the
ring, is the conventional spinning system and
it transforms the roving from the roving frame
into ring spun yarn using the operations of:
Drawing out the roving
Inserting twist
Winding yarn into bobbins
Ring spinning is a comparatively expensive
process because of its slower production
speeds and the additional processes (roving
and winding) required for producing ring spun
yarns

 Ring spinning produces high quality

yarns, mainly produced in the fine
(60 Ne, 10 tex) to medium count (30
Ne, 20 tex) range, with a small
amount produced in the coarse count
(10 Ne, 60 tex) range

 The drafting system reduces

the roving count to an
appropriate value so that, on
twisting, the required yarn
count is obtained.
As the front rollers push the
drafted material forward,
twists are inserted to the
fibers as the traveler
circulates around the ring.
At the same time, the
formed yarn is wound onto
the bobbin.
The amount of twist is
proportional to the strength
of the yarn

Rotor spinning (open end spinning):

The production rates of rotor spinning is 6-8
times higher than that of ring spinning and as
the machines are fed directly by sliver and yarn
is wound onto packages ready for use in fabric
formation the yarn is a lot cheaper to produce.
Rotor spun yarns are more even, somewhat
weaker and have a harsher feel than ring spun
yarns.
Rotor spun yarns are mainly produced in the
medium count (30 Ne, 20 tex) to coarse count
(10 Ne, 60 tex) range.
End uses include denim, towels, blankets socks,
t-shirts, shirts and pants.

O.E Spinning
Sliver is fed into the machine and combed
and individualized by the opening roller.
The fibres are then deposited into the rotor
where air current and centrifugal force
deposits them along the groove of the rotor
where they are evenly distributed.
The fibres are twisted together by the
spinning action of the rotor, and the yarn is
continuously drawn from the centre of the
rotor.
The resultant yarn is cleared of any defects
and wound onto packages.

 Yarn formation in rotor spinning

RING SPINNING

OPEN END SPINNING

Bobbin rotates constantly for Spool does not need to

be
insertion of twist
rotated to insert twist
Cannot handle spools of
Much larger spools
bigger size
can be wound
Can spin finer yarns
yarns
Faster production
Uniform and strong yarn

Can spin coarser/ carded

3-5 times faster than ring
spinning
Uniform but flexible yarn

RING SPINNING
Combed yarns (finer)

OPEN END SPINNING

Carded yarns (coarser)

Yarns for varied

Yarns for heavier fabrics
applications
such as denims, towels and
poplins
Stronger

20% more twisted but 15-20%

weaker as the yarn is coarser

Suitable for all staple

Not suitable for MM
Fibres
staple fibre spinning
except rayon
as the fibre finish clogs the rotor