Texturing
air content and therefore greater insulating capacity,
gloss reduction, improved texture, avoid pilling.
Chemical fibre filaments are usually used as fibre ma-
terial (in addition to acetate, tri-acetate, cupro, viscose,
mainly polyamide 6/6.6, polyester, polyacrylonitrile,
modacryl). Special yarns made of natural fibre
(e.g. → Slack mercerization of cotton) are less signifi-
cant.
The extensive range of textured yarns makes it nec-
essary to divide them simply into the following tex-
tured yarn types in accordance with their main proper-
ties of appearance and manufacture:
I. Stretch-yarns: highly elastic, stretchable to ap-
prox. 5-fold length, usually made of thermoplast
threads with relatively low bulk (→ Helenca principle),
preferable not doubled but in Z or S form. Produced
mainly by means of real or false twist process, Klingen
process. (→: Core spun yarns; Elastomeric fibres).
II. Crimped yarns: in addition to strong mechanical
or chemically-created crimp, these are characterised by
moderate elasticity and moderate to strong volume.
Production particularly according to stuffer-box proc-
ess, gear-wheel crimping process. (Bi-component yarn;
in the case of bi-component thread material bulking is
also by means of subsequent hot-air treatment in tum-
bler or in specialised dry-cleaning machine).
III. Bulked yarns: are characterised by high volume
and therefore good covering power, combined with rel-
atively low additional elasticity. Produced mainly by
air jet technique.
IV. Types on the borderline of basic types I.-III, for
example highly-elastic volume-yarns, elasticity-regu-
lated (so-called modified) stretch yarns, high-volume
crimped yarns and the like (e.g. →: Torque; Non-torque
yarns).
BISFA definition of textured yarns:
– Dual-component yarn: textured yarn containing fil-
aments which consist of two components (dual-
component fibres).
– False twist bulked yarn: texture yarns treated with
false twist process producing high crimp elasticity
or crimp contraction.
– False twist yarn (set yarn): yarn treated with false
twist process where a heat fixing process is carried
out in a state of intermediate tension between com-
plete relaxation and complete uncrimping.
– Yarns with variously shrinking filaments: textured
yarn made of two groups of filaments with differing
shrinking properties.
– Knit/de-knit yarn which is de-knitted after knitting.
– Torque-yarn: yarn with a strong looping tendency.
Texturing This term isused to include all process
stages downstream of the actual texturing process. In
the filament yarn sector these include:
– Intermingling: normally accomplished by air-jet
techniques,
46
– Assembling: combination of multiple yarns with
zero twist,
– Coning (winding): transferring the yarn onto a suit-
able carrier.
Texturizing The treatment of smooth filament
yarns by permanently modifying the orientation of the
molecular structure giving it more textile character.
The changes to texturized yarns are: improved softness,
volume and covering power, increased thermal insula-
tion effects and an end-use required increase in elastic-
ity. Thermoplastic filament yarns are particularly suita-
ble for texturizing, i.e. yarns which are deformable un-
der the influence of heat. These are mainly polyamide
and polyester yarns. The most important texturizing
processes are (Fig. 1):
– Twist-texturizing (including false twist): A filament
yarn which has been twisted under the influence of
heat is straightened again.
– Air jet texturizing: Yarn is crimped in a turbulent
current of air (gas or steam).
– Knit/de-knit texturizing: Yarn is knitted, subjected
to heat treatment and then de-knitted.
– Stuffer box-texturizing: Yarn is crimped by means
of compression.
– Asymmetrical heat-texturizing: Contraction of the
filaments on one side only is induced by asymmetri-
cal heat treatment.
– Edge-texturizing: Yarn is pulled over an edge at an
acute angle.
– Gear wheel-texturizing: Yarn is crimped between
two sprockets.
Processes have been developed for the most commonly
used twist-texturizing with which the texturizing pro-
cedure is combined with stretching.
Thermoplastic filament yarns are usually smooth
when they have been spun and less well adapted to re-
quirements than natural fibre yarns. The textile quali-
ties of such yarns are improved significantly by textur-
izing procedures. Texturizing often increases the vol-
ume of the filament yarn by modifying the geometrical
form of the filaments resulting in a certain elasticity in
some cases which represents an advantage for the yarn.
In the lower decitex range up to 300 dtex (frequently
clothing fabrics, underwear and curtains) the false twist
texturizing process is the predominant texturizing tech-
nique. This is mainly due to the economical nature of
the technique but also to the elastic properties of the
resulting yarn.
The false twist texturizing process (Fig. 2) is based
on twisting the filament to a high-twist density and fix-
ing this twist into the molecular structure of the fila-
ments by heating and subsequent cooling in this twisted
form. The yarn is then completely straightened. As the
filaments and therefore their molecules have had a mi-
grated spiral-form configuration, back-winding the fil-
aments does not re-align the molecules. The filaments
 Texturizing
False Edge crimping Knit/Deknit Stuffer box Air jet
twist process process process process

Working
plan

Highly elastic (HE) Helical crimp, Wavy crimp, Zig-zag to Inelastic yarn,
yarn, good elastic yarn low elongation, yarn wavy increased
extensibility and with increased produces a crimp, low loftiness due
Properties large bulk volume, bulk volume loftiness crepe elasticity, to capillary
as stabilised (set) effect increased thread loop
yarn, lofty with formation,
less elongation fancy yarns

Crimp
structure

Fig. 1: Comparison of the most current texturizing processes.

GEOMETRIC MOLECULAR
CONFIGURATION STRUCTURE

FIRST
HEATER

SPINDLE
(S)

corkscrewed HE yarn

SECOND
HEATER

Fig. 2: Schematic illustration of the

false twist texturizing process with the
geometric and molecular structure of
an individually texturized filament in
different processing stages (according SET corkscrewed yarn
to Akzo).

47