COTTON

SPINNING
CHAPTER I
 COTTON

4 parts: cuticle; primary wall; secondary wall of concentric cellulose layers; lumen
Fibrillar structure
Collapsed and twisted longitudinal appearance
Fibres of different degrees of maturity
• Cotton is a soft fibre that grows around the
seeds of the cotton plant (Gossypium spp.),
a shrub native to the Indian subcontinent and
the tropical and subtropical regions of Africa
and the Americas. The fibre is most often
spun into thread and used to make a soft,
breathable textile, which is the most widely
used natural-fibre cloth in clothing today. The
English name derives from the Arabic word
al qutun, meaning "cotton fibre". (The
Spanish word algodón has the same
etymology.) Africa and South America are
large providers of cotton.
• Cotton fibre, once it has been processed to
remove seeds and traces of wax, protein,
etc., consists of nearly pure cellulose, a
natural polymer. Cotton production is very
efficient, in the sense that ten percent or
less of the weight is lost in subsequent
processing to convert the raw cotton bolls
(seed cases) into pure fibre. The cellulose is
arranged in a way that gives cotton fibres a
high degree of strength, durability, and
absorbency.
• Each fibre is made up of twenty to thirty
layers of cellulose coiled in a neat series of
natural springs. When the cotton boll is
opened, the fibres dry into flat, twisted,
ribbon-like shapes and become kinked
together and interlocked. This interlocked
form is ideal for spinning into a fine yarn.
 USES
• Cotton is used to make a number of textile products.
These include terrycloth, used to make highly
absorbent bath towels and robes; denim, used to
make blue jeans; chambray, popularly used in the
manufacture of blue work shirts (from which we get
the term "blue-collar"); and corduroy, seersucker,
and cotton twill. Socks, underwear, and most T-
shirts are made from cotton. Bed sheets are often
made from cotton. Cotton is also used to make yarn
used in crochet and knitting. Fabric can also be
made from recycled or recovered cotton that would
otherwise be thrown away during the spinning,
weaving or cutting process. While many fabrics are
made completely of cotton, some materials blend
cotton with other fibers, including rayon and
synthetic fibers such as polyester.
• In addition to the textile industry, cotton is used
in fishnets, coffee filters, tents and in
bookbinding. The first Chinese paper was made
of cotton fiber, as is the modern US dollar bill
and federal stationery. Fire hoses were once
made of cotton.

• The cottonseed which remains after the cotton is

ginned is used to produce cottonseed oil, which
after refining can be consumed by humans like
any other vegetable oil. The cottonseed meal
that is left is generally fed to livestock. In the
past, cotton seeds were used as an abortifacient,
that is, a folk remedy to provoke abortion
• Cotton linters are fine, silky fibres which adhere to
the seeds of the cotton plant after ginning. These
curly fibers are typically less than 1/8in, 3mm long.
The term may also apply to the longer textile fibre
staple lint as well as the short fuzzy fibres from
some upland species. Linters are traditionally
used in the manufacture of paper and as a raw
material in the manufacture of cellulose.

• Shiny cotton is a processed version of the fibre

that can be made into cloth resembling satin for
shirts and suits. However, its hydrophobic property
of not easily taking up water makes it unfit for the
purpose of bath and dish towels (although
examples of these made from shiny cotton are
seen.)
CHAPTER II

~FIBRE
PROPERTIES~
2.1. FIBRE FINENESS
2.2. FIBRE LENGTH
2.3. FIBRE MATURITY
2.4. FIBRE STRENGTH
2.5. ELONGATION
2.6. FIBRE STIFFNESS
2.7. FIBRE CLEANNESS
2.8. COLOUR
 2.1. FIBRE FINENESS

• The number of fibres present in yarn

cross-section in a given thickness
represents fineness. In order to be able to
spin there should be at least 30 fibres in
yarn cross-section.
Fineness influences:
• Spinning limit
• Yarn strength
• Yarn evenness
• Yarn fullness
• Drape of the fabric product
• Luster
• Handle
• Productivity
• Cotton fineness is expressed in micronaire
value (mg/inch). It represents the average
value of the total fibre fineness. Number of
fibres in the cross-section and the different
properties of fibres can be seen by this
value.

dtex = µ x 0,394
• Fineness by airflow is affected by the maturity
as well. So, maturity must be known before.
They should be evaluated together. Micronaire
value of cotton fibres are classified as followed:

Micronaire value Fineness

Up to 3.1µ very fine
3.1 - 3.9 fine
4 - 4.9 medium
5 - 5.9 slightly coarse
Above 6 coarse
• As the number of fibres in the yarn cross
section increases, strength and irregularity
improve. By looking at the µ value, we have
the idea about spinnability of the fibre. Before
processing the fibres, the fineness must be
known.
•Spinning limit for the carded cotton rotor yarn relative to the degree of maturity of the cotton
 2.2. FIBRE LENGTH
• After fibre fineness, length is the most important
property of a fibre. In general, a longer average
fibre length is to be preferred because it confers
a number of advantages. Firstly, longer fibres
are easier to process. Secondly, more even
yarns can be produced from them because there
are less fibre ends in a given length of yarn.
Thirdly, a higher strength yarn can be produced
from them for the same level of twist.
Alternatively a yarn of the same strength can be
produced but with a lower level pf twist, thus
giving a softer yarn.
Cotton staple diagram
 Mean Length
• In the case of natural fibres the definition of
mean length isn’t as straightforward as it might
at first seen. This is because natural fibres
besides varying in length also vary in diameter
at the same time. If the fibres all had the same
cross-section then there would be no difficulty in
calculating the mean fibre length. However, if the
fibres have different diameters then the thicker
fibres will have a greater mass so that there is a
case for taking mass into count when calculating
mean length.
• There are in fact three possible ways of
deriving the mean length:

1. Mean length based on number of fibres

(unbiased mean length)
2. Mean length based on fibre cross-section
(cross-section biased mean length)
3. Mean length based on fibre mass ( mass-
biased mean length)
 Fibrograph
• Fibrograph is an automated method of
measuring the fibre length of cotton
sample. It uses an optical method of
measuring the density along the length of
a tuft or parallel fibres.
• The first part of the measuring process is the
preparation of a suitable sample. This can be
done either by hand or with a fibrosampler. The
fibrosampler has a rotating brush which withdraws
cotton fibres from a perforated drum and deposits
them on a comb. The outcome is that the fibres
are placed n the comb in such a way that they are
caught at random points along their length to form
a beard. The beard is scanned photoelectrically
by the fibrograph from the base to the tip. The
intensity of light that passes through the beard at
a given position is used as a measure of the
number of fibres that extend to hat distance from
the comb. The sample density is then plotted
against the distance from the comb.
• Fibrograph values are used to prepare the recipe
and ratch settings. For instance:
Recipe 40% Bergama cotton and 60%
Menemen cotton mixture)

• This method makes the assumption that a fibre is

caught on the comb in proportion to its length as
compared with the total length of all fibres in the
sample and that the point where it is caught is at
random along its length. The span lengths are
given percentages of fibres are usually measured;
the 2.5% span length is considered to correlate
with the classer’s staple length.
• Uniformity index is another parameter used
for evaluating the cotton fibre fineness. From
50% span length and the 2.5% span length a
uniformity index can be calculated.

• U.I. = (50% S.L / 2,5% S.L) x 100

Uniformity index Span length

%2, 5 spun length is used instead of effective length.
(%66, 7 shows average length) Effective length

Shows us short fibres

• Cotton fibres having a uniformity index less than
40% can not be used in yarn production. Because
in that case the differences between long and
short fibres in the batch will be so high this will
affect the spinnability.

• If short fibre content is high, the loss of fibre in the

production will be higher; waste in the production
will be higher. Accordingly, the cost of yarn
production will be higher.

• In ideal drafting, when fibres are released by

trailing end, the next one should catch the leading
end simultaneously. If they don’t, they start
collecting. There’ll be deposition. These groups
create irregularity in the yarn.
 Movement direction

Trailing end Leading end

• Fibre length is essential since longer fibres
can produce finer yarns. So, spinning limit is
related to length.

Ring Spinning Length is at 1st

place.
Open-end Spinning Length can go to
2nd place but fineness is 1st.

• Yarn strength is dependent on length. Better

doublings will be done with longer fibres.
 Handling
• Nowadays, the touch of the material is
important. Customer demands are increasing.
Finer yarns are produced if longer cotton fibres
are used.

• Fineness Bending Rigidity

Stiffness

• Reflectance of light from the surface of fibres will

be affected by fineness.
 Hairiness
• Pilling is related to hairiness. Hairiness has to be
decreased. If breakages increase, should decrease the
production. Less production is better than having spotted
yarn. End breaks are related to length.

• When there are equal lengths of fibres, that give more

volume to yarn. In manmade fibres, the aim is to produce
a diagram similar to cotton. In most cases, stretch-
breaking method is used in production of manmade fibres.
They are broken between two cylinders. Fibre length
diagram is more like cotton.

• When the lengths are similar to each other, it is easier to

retch settings.
 Influences of Fibre Length
• Spinning limit
• Yarn strength
• Yarn evenness
• Yarn fullness
• Drape of the fabric product
• Luster of product
• Handle of product
• Productivity
 2.3. FIBRE MATURITY
• Fineness is explained by the secondary wall of fibre, how
it’s grown. If there is 50 – 80 of fibre in cross - section, it
is mature. Immature fibres are:

1. Less fibre strength less yarn strength.

2. During production, main problem is nepiness of the

yarn, (the fibres are in knotted state.) If maturity is lower,
neps formation will be higher. Neps is formed and
eliminated in carding machines. Neps cause problems in
production and yarn properties.
3. High proportion of short fibres. In order to clean
fibres, fore is exerted. If they are immature, the fore
will affect them more. Short fibres will increase.
(Less strength)

4. Dye uptake: Shade of the colour will be affected,

if there are dead fibres, or maturity degree of them
is different, they will take dye differently. There’ll be
shading.
If cotton yarns are mixed in different times (from
last yarn etc.), the yarns will be made of different
fibres, there’ll be differences between fibres. They
are all mature but their maturity degrees are
different. Stripes will be seen in the fabric. Once
this problem occurs, it can not be solved.
• During knitting stripes occurred. Yarn may
be redyed but;
a . it’s a cost
b . a darker dye must be used, every dying
process will cause loses on fibres
c . some properties will be changed, quality goes
down, and we obtain 2nd quality with higher cost.

5. Processing difficulties. If maturity is low, there’ll be

problems in carding. Web control is difficult. The
uniformity of web will be affected. Carding will be
difficult.
• Dead fibres cause:

* Nepiness
* Loss of yarn strength
* Varying dye ability
* High proportion of short fibres
* Processing difficulties
• Cotton maturity “R” can be calculated
from:
 2.4. FIBRE STRENGTH
• The strength of fibre to be processed should be
at least 6cN/tex.

• If fibre is broken, its length decreases and this

affects its properties. By using fibre, which has
double strength, doesn't mean a yarn, which has
double strength. For instance, there is a fibre of
8 cN/tex. When it is doubled, it will be 16cN/tex.
Yarn strength doesn't double, because, fibre
strength is reflected to yarn strength directly. It is
35-40% reflected.
• When a piece of yarn is taken and it breaks, it is
observed that just some fibres at breaking point
are broken not all of them, most fibres are
separated.

• Friction coefficient, surface characteristics are

important factors on fibre strength.

• Strength of Polyester= 40-50cN/tex

Cotton = 15-40cN/tex
Wool <Cotton
• In order to contribute yarn strength polyester is
used. For example, if cotton is mixed with
polyester, yarn strength increases.
• Cotton strength, Pressley Index (Bundle strength)
is used. But it can’t be used for manmade fibres
since the correlation between single fibre strength
and bundle strength is very low.

PI = breaking load / weight

=Lbs/mg

93 < excellent
87 – 92 very strong
81 – 86 strong
75 – 80 medium
70 – 74 fair
< 70 weak
 2.5. ELONGATION
• Elongation is the increase in length of the
specimen from its starting length
expressed in units of length. The distance
that a material will extend under a given
force is proportional to its original length;
therefore elongation is usually quoted as
strain or percentage extension. The
elongation at the maximum force is the
figure most often quoted.
• Elastomer fibres will cause problems as
overlapping around cylinders but fibres should be
extensive. If load is applied, fibre resists it but with
no damage it turns to back position, without any
breakages. This property is important for process,
endues and elongation.

• Elastic region = turn back to its original

position
• Plastic region = some residual extensions
occur
• Young modulus = the slope of the curve gives
information about elongation.

• Elongation of cotton is 6 –10%.

 2.6. FIBRE STIFFNESS
• Fibre stiffness has an important role on rolling$
revolving and twisting.
• It affects handle and softness. Soft fabrics can’t
be produced from harsher yarn (if chemicals
aren’t used).

Stiffness= fibre length/diameter

(If it’s round fibre)

• Stiffness: Fibre yarn fabric

• If diameter is increased, flexural rigidity increases.
For example, if diameter is doubled, flexural
rigidity increases more than double.

Finer fibres stiffness

• In microfibres (with fineness less than 1 denier),

although they are softer, they can have neps
problems during the production.

• It is impossible to bound fibres into the yarn if the

fibres are too stiff. However, if they aren’t stiff
enough, they don't return to original shape after a
force is applied, don't have longitudinal resistance
and in most cases this leads to formation of neps.
 2.7. FIBRE CLEANNESS

Examples of trash fragments and neps founded in baled cotton (Courtesy of Trützschler
GmbH & Co. KG.)
• Because of the reason that cotton has
natural wax, which makes production
easier, it doesn't have to be washed. But it
has some impurities as;

– Mineral materials (husk, seed, stem, leaf)

– Vegetable materials (earth, sand, ore
dust, coil dust)
– Metal fragments
– Cloth fragments
– Packing materials
• Trash content:

1.2 > very clean

1–2% clean
2–4% medium
4 – 7% dirty
7% < very dirty
Trash extraction in the whole
spinning process (Standard
values with modern machinery)

(Cleanness of Turkish cotton is

around 4 %.)
• The foreign materials can cause problems
during production as;

– Metal parts can cause fire or damage

card clothings
– Cloth fragments and packing material
can lead to foreign fibres in yarn
– Vegetable material causes drafting
disturbances, yarn breakages, filling up
card clothings, contaminated yarn
 Neps/Dust
• Neps are small entanglements and knots
of fibres. In case of neps problems
maturity should be checked, because
there is a relationship with maturity index
and neps. Neps are also depending on the
fibre fineness because fine fibres have
less stiff.
• Dust is very important in spinning. It can cause
many problems as:
– Collection of dust can be seen on machine, this
decreases quality
– Human health is affected
– Dust creates stress in human
– Some people may have allergy to dust
– It can cause lung illnesses
– Environmental problems will occur
– Machines will start to run faulty.
– Endbreaks will increase
– Yarn irregularity will increase
• Dust makes a thin cover on machine. This
causes yarn breakages, but more important
is yarn production has less quality. To
avoid dust collection is impossible, so the
best is to eliminate dust during preparatory
stages and to use air conditioning system
efficiently, that is why preparatory stages
are essential in spinning.
 COTTON SPINNING

Ring Spinning Open-end Spinning

Carded Combed
 BASIC OPERATIONS USED IN
NATURAL FIBRE SPINNING
1. Opening Blowroom machines
Card
OE spinning machines

2. Cleaning Cleaning machines

Card
Comber
Draw frame
Rotor spinning
machines
3. Blending Blowroom machines
Card
Drawframe

4. Aligning Card
Comber
Drawframe
Roving frame
Final spinning
machine
5. Uniting Card
Comber
OE spinning machine

6. Equalising Card
Draw frame
OE spinning machine
7. Attenuating Card
Draw frame
Roving frame
Final spinning machine

8. Imparting strength Final spinning machine

9. Winding Roving frame

Final spinning machine
CHAPTER III

~BLOWROOM~
3.1. OPENING & CLEANING
3.2. MIXING & BLENDING
3.3. OPERATION ZONES
3.4. MACHINERY
 3.1. OPENING AND CLEANING
• When fibres are opened they are cleaned
at the same time. Opening – cleaning
action takes fibres cleaner but it makes
fibres damaged also.
• In blowroom, there is 5 – 10% production
cost. This not a high proportion but it is
important in cotton.

Cleaning loss of good fibre

• If the short fibre content increases 10%,
the blowroom needs one machine more. In
blowroom there is an opening – cleaning –
mixing line. So, the number of machines is
depending on the cleaning. Number of the
machines isn’t fixed; it is changed
according to the material that is used.
Opening points: fibres can be opened in nip
points or in grip position.
An opening point
Material isn’t free

Material is sent free.

• Number of the opening points is between
2 and 5 in blowroom. If staple manmade
fibres are used, they are just put in
blowroom in order to be separated and
prepared for the next step. They just need
cleaning action. However, if it is cotton,
which is dirty, it needs more cleaning, like
5 opening points.
• Opening points are chosen due to type of fibre and
content of impurities. Blowroom eliminates ~50%
of impurities in cotton. Increasing the waste
elimination doesn’t mean exactly the separation of
impurities since also the good fibres will be
eliminated. After a certain level, if the opening
points are increased, cleanness of fibres will not
change but they will be damaged. Waste content
coming out of machinery is important, it should be
checked by cleaning efficiency:
CE = (AT-AF)*100/AT
where AT = total waste and AF = good fibres eliminated
• In blowroom, cotton is tuft or flocks and the
separation it is done more in the first machinery.
• Whereas formerly cleaning effect of a machine
could be only estimated , today it can be
established fairly exactly, reproducibly and so as
to enable comparisons. For this purpose the
cleaning index is defined as:

CT = (DF-DD)*100/DF %

where DF = the dirt content of the feed material

DD = the dirt content of the delivered material and
T= total
Opening of cotton bales (Courtesy of Marzoli.)
• Opening machinery should
– extract the material evenly from each bale
– open the material gently
– open up the smallest flocks
– form flock of equal size
– process as much as bales in a single charge
– easy to use
– blend material right at the start
– put together of a fibre blend from several
components
 Dust Removing

• The dust is removed mostly by air suction.

Air suction or pipes are also used to carry
the material from one machine to other.
Heavy particle separator
(Courtesy of Trützschler
GmbH Co & KG.)
General Factors Influencing Opening
and Cleaning
• type and speed of opening device
• degree of penetration
• type of feed
• spacing of the feed from the opening device
• type of grip
• area of the gird surface
• grid settings
• air flow through the grid
• condition of pre-opening
• thickness of feed web
• material throughout
• position of the machine in the line
Condenser drum for
removal of dust
particles Heavy particle
separator (Courtesy of
Trützschler GmbH Co &
KG
 3.2. MIXING AND BLENDING
• In blowroom, both natural and synthetic
fibres can be mixed. Normally, different
bales are mixed. It is essential to use more
bales to get almost same proportion at the
end. Blending the waste is an essential
step for spinning. If the proportion of the
waste level is high, problems as changing
the character of the bulk will occur. The
level should be controlled and kept at low
level.
• At most 5% in carded ring spinning, 2.5%
in combed ring spinning, the waste can be
mixed to material in blowroom. In rotor
spinning, this percentage can be at most
20%, and the highest count can be made
is Ne35-40. The reason in rotor spinning,
waste can be used more is that the system
is less sensitive to the length of the fibre.
 3.3. OPERATION ZONES
1. Opening
2. Coarse cleaning
3. Blending
4. Fine cleaning
5. Intensive cleaning or opening
6. Card feeding
 3.4. MACHINERY
1. Bale openers: Today automatic bale openers
are used. Normally, 60 bales can be fed
together in blowroom. The fibres that are fed
should be same amount in each time. This is
important to gain a homogeneous mixture.
2. Cleaning machines
3. Mixing machines
4. Dust removal equipment or machines
5. Recycling machines
 Automatic bale opener:

Diagram of automatic bale opener (Courtesy of Rieter Machine Works Ltd.)

1. control unit
2. fibre bales
3. working head with tooth discs
4. swivel tower
5. air duct for material transport
Operation of tooth discs (Courtesy of Trützschler GmbH.)
• Two sides of lay down (Courtesy of
Trützschler GmbH.)
• The tunnel on the top moves forward and
backward. It can rotate 180˚, so it can place the
bales on both side of machinery. Placement of
bales may be different. It depends on the length
of the tunnel. This length is the limit for number
of bales. At every cycle of the tunnel, the pipe of
the tunnel should be adjusted. When the bales
are placed, not all of them are at the same
height. At the first cycle they are adjusted to
same level. The amount of material, collected
from bales will be constant. Sometimes foreign
fibres and cover of the bales mix inside the
material. These don’t cause problem in process
but may cause problems in dying.
• The production rate is high. Depending on tunnel
width, it may be up to 1300kg/h. But in general an
effective one has 750-800 kg/h.

Ex: 800kg/h x 24 = 20 tons a day

20 x 300(work day) = 600 tons per year

• In such a production, one bale opener is enough.

(But it may be risky if breaks down.) Number of
the bale opener determines how much production
will be made. Automatic bale opener also
determines the production of the company
because stopping the machine also is a cost.
 Figure 2:
• in this type of machine, fibres are manually
placed in the lattice. It brings material to
the second lattice. It helps to mix the fibres
inside the bale (the fibres are converted
inside). The fibres come to number 9 in
the figure, some fibres pass to other side,
some fall back so the mixture is made
inside. This type of machine is not used
anymore too much for natural fibres; in
general, it is used for man-made fibres.
Axi-flow:

Twin beater with projections

(Courtesy of Trützschler
GmbH.)
• Here, there is free fibre opening point, two
opening cylinders. Fibres are fed parallel to
the cylinder axis. As cylinders rotate, fibres
are caught and their direction is changed.
And there is suction at the end. Opening
efficiency is obtained by changing the
direction of fibres.

• This method cleans efficiently and gives

less damage to fibres.
• Under cylinders, there are grid bars to separate
particles. Centrifugal force helps them to go
away. The shape of the grid bars is triangular.
The difference between grid bars can be
changed in the axial direction. By changing this
distance the count of waste that is separated can
be changed which means cleaning efficiency can
be changed.

Distance Cleaning efficiency

• Fibres coming from axi-flow are distributed into

chambers. Depending on their coming duration,
they make layers inside. A sandwich mixing is
made here. It helps homogeneity.
 Cleanomat:

Knife edge and suction slot for fine particle removal (Courtesy of Trützschler GmbH &
Co. KG.)
Figure 7: Step cleaner:

(Courtesy of Pneumatic Conveyors Ltd.)

(Courtesy of Rolando-Beilla)
( left to right) needle beater followed by coarse,
medium, and fine saw-tooth beaters (Courtesy of
Trützschler GmbH & Co. KG.)
• It is a composed machine. Trütscher had
developed it. There are six rollers rotate in
the same direction. Material is fed by the
air. Then they caught by the first cylinder
and at last goes from the sixth cylinder.
Conventional grid bars are placed under
cylinders. These eliminate the impurities.
• Material entering the machine has the
highest impurity. The content of the
impurities are not the same on all
cylinders. Also the adjustments of the grid
bars are not the same for all cylinders.
These adjustments changed according to
the cylinders’ placements.

• Cleaning action takes place in the air. The

fibres damage isles than axi-flow.
CHAPTER IV
~CARDING~
4.1. TASKS OF CARD
4.2. FEED OF THE MATERIAL
4.3. CARDING
4.4. CONTROL SYSTEMS IN
CARDING
MACHINES
Schematic of tandem carding system (Courtesy of Crosrol UK Ltd.)
• There is not a machine combination in carding
room. There is one type of machine. Fibres come
to carding machine in small tuft, and after this
machine sliver is obtained.

• In wool and cotton spinning carding machines are

different because of the length of fibres that are
used. But the machines haven’t been changed
for many years.
 4.1. TASKS OF CARD
• Opening to individual fibres: there is more chance to
clean fibres
• Elimination of impurities: esp. in the first part of the
machine 80-90% of impurities are removed. 95% of them
are removed at the end of this process. The trash content
will be at most 3% in sliver.
• Elimination of dust : it is obtained by the contract of fibres
and machine elements (fibre to fibre, fibre to machine).
• Elimination of short fibres: it is done by flats. The carding
action takes place between flat and cylinder. Fibres in
between are carded by the pins of flats. Short fibres are
caught by the flat; longer ones stay on the cylinder.
These short fibres are removed from the surface of flat
when they go out of carding area. Flat waste is around
8%. It depends on the type of cotton that is used.
• Disentangling of neps: in blowroom neps are
created (like in ginning) nut in carding machine
neps aren’t separated but are opened. The
sharpness of the cylinders is important in this
point. If they are sharp, neps are opened
efficiently. If the number of neps increases, wires
have to be checked. If it is necessary, they can be
changed or renewed. For an improvement in
disentangling of neps:
– closer spacing between the clothings
– sharper clothings
– optimal speed of taker-in
– low doffer speed
– low throughput
• Fibre blending: fibre blending is mainly performed
in order to
– give the required characteristic to the final product
– compensate for variations in the raw material
– hold down raw material cost
– achieve effects by varying colour and so on during
processing
• Fibre orientating:
• Giving sliver formation: at the end of carding
machine, material comes out as sliver. It is the
beginning of the yarn. This is the place where the
real form is given. The sliver count is generally 3-6
ktex. This enables to obtain real sliver quality that
helps in yarn production.
 4.2. FEED OF THE MATERIAL
1. Lap feeding
• Advantages of lap feeding are:
– maintenance of constant lap thickness in easier
– whole installation is more flexible
– blend can be allocated to individual machines

• Disadvantages of lap feeding are:

– greater manual effort in transport and lap change
– an additional source of faults
– more clean waste
– an additional burden on the taker-in
2. Flock feeding

a. one-piece chute without an operating system

b. two-piece chute with an operating system

* Degree of deterioration can be controlled by the

adjustment of:
– thickness of the butt
– degree of openness of the raw material in the feed
stock
– degree of orientation of fibres in the feed stock
– aggressiveness of the clothings
– distance between device
– rotational velocity of the taker-in
– material throughput
 4.3. CARDING
• Neps occurs during the opening, so the fibres
are stretched when they come to carding zone.
Fibres are stretched by the carding force.
Carding force depends on two parameters:
a. angles of wires
b. friction coefficient between wire and fibre

• Length of the fibre Friction coefficient

Cohesion
Representation of fibre mass distribution within a revolving-flats card
• There is a continuous interaction between flat
and cylinder. Real carding effect is given
between first and fourth flats at the beginning of
the carding zone. Half of the flats are really in
contact with cylinder and make carding. Most of
the neps are being opened here. Separation of
neps is related to distance between cylinder and
flat, and the sharpness of wires. If the number of
neps is increased, wires need grinding. The first
grinding may be needed after 80-150000kg. And
flats should be checked after 120-150000kg.
Upper and lower fiber transfer zones
• In order to obtain the same carding effect
while increasing the productivity:
– more points per unit area
– higher roller and cylinder speed
– more carding surface or carding positions
• increase in the number of rollers
• fitting of additional carding
– under the taker-in
– between the taker-in and the flats
– between the flats and the doffer
• Cylinder-doffer transfer of fibres (Courtesy of
WIRA)
Carding plates and multiple taker-ins (Courtesy of a. Rieter Machine Woerks, b. Trützschler
GmbH & Co. KG)
• Carding segments:
– improve dirt and dust elimination
– improve entangling of neps
– create possibility of speed and production
increase
– preserve clothings
– create a possibility of using finer clothings
– decrease fibre damage
– keeps clothings clean
 Clothings
• Card clothing selection criteria:
– type and design of card
– rotational speed of cylinder
– production rate
– material throughput
– raw material type
– fibre characteristics
– overall quality requirements
– price
– service offered by the supplier
• Clothings are classified in to three
groups:

1. flexible clothings: only in the flats. The

wires are fixed into an elastic backing
2. semi-rigid clothings: flats
3. metallic clothings:
• Most important operating parameters of the
clothings are:
– point density and speed of the cylinder
– base width
– height of the clothing
– tooth pitch
– carding angle
– tooth point
 4.4. CONTROL SYSTEMS IN
CARDING MACHINES
Figure K-3: Autoleveller: at the end of the
blowroom, there is lap. Its count has to be
checked if it is suitable to feed to carding machine
but nowadays this system isn’t used. Lap is
directly fed to the machine. In order to overcome
lap mass variation, autolevellers are used.
Autolevellers regulates material in short, long or
middle term.

Trumpet + feed roller = long term

Drawbox = short term

• There are two control systems:

1. Closed loop system: material is measured

and checked at the exit because there is no
chance after.

2. Open loop system: material is checked

after measurement point.
• Closed-loop and open-loop systems
 Figure K-4:
• The control is on the cylinder. There is
photocell here. It checks the reflectance.
Depending on the amount of fibre,
reflecting changes and it affects rate of
feed roller.
CHAPTER V
~COMBING~
5.1. TASKS OF COMBING
5.2. EFFECTS OF COMBING
5.3. COMBING PROCESS
5.4. PARAMETRES INFLUENCIG
COMBING
Fibre configuration in relation to
detachment
• It is selected to process the material
whether in comb or drawframe. In comb
the quality of the material is increased.
The fibres are removed that aren’t wanted
to be present in the yarn. This removal
affects the medium or fine count to be
produced. Combing machine is used for
the production of medium, medium-fine,
and fine yarns.
 5.1. TASKS OF COMBING
• eliminate the pre-determined quantity of
short fibre
• eliminate the remaining impurities
• eliminate the large proportion of neps in
the fibres
• form a sliver having maximum possible
evenness
 5.2. EFFECTS OF COMBING
• Yarn evenness: will be improved
• Strength: is reacted to the fibre length
• Cleanness: is increased Combing removes
foreign particles, dust, and trash present in
material. Trash content of sliver fed to machine
is low, but they are much smaller in size. Total
percentage of weight is small but they cause
spots on the yarn.
• Smoothness:
• Visual appearance:
• Less twist: Combing process gives opportunity
to decrease twist factor, so the production is
improved by combing.
• Decrease short fibres: that cause hairiness are
eliminated.
• Eliminate short fibres
• Eliminate further neps
• Clean impurities
• Hairiness: decreases
• Staple length: increases
• Raw material: decreases
• Cost: increases
• These improvements obtained with
additional expenditure on:
– machine
– personnel
– floor space
– loss of raw material
 5.3. COMBING PROCESS
1. Feed cylinder feed the fibres coming from the web.
2. Upper nipper lowers down on lower nipper and nips the
already fed fibres coming from web.
3. Rotary comber rotates; carry away short fibres, neps
and impurities are decreased.
4. Nippers open. Detaching rollers return back and feed
back a put of sliver which has already been combed.
5. The projecting fibres are placed on the previous combed
sliver.
6. Detaching rollers start to move forward and they pull the
fibre bundle forward being hold by feeding cylinder.
7. Top combers lower and comb the pieced bundle.
8. The brush removes the impurities, etc. away from the
rotating cylinder.
• After carding the sliver has hooks. To change
the direction of hooks other machines can be
used. This action is called preparatory stage.
There two different ways of these stages:
1. Lap/Web doubling process:
1. Card
2. Sliver lap machine
3. Ribbon lap machine
4. Comber
5. Drawframe
2. Sliver doubling process:
1. Card
2. Drawframe
3. Doubling machine
4. Comber
5. Drawframe
 Sliver lap machine
• Totally, 24 slivers are fed (12 each side)
they are drafted in an arrangement and then
drafted slivers are squeezed by the
calendar cylinder. Main task is draw and
double 24 slivers and form a web.

Ribbon lap machine

• The concept is the same with sliver lap
machine but 6 slivers are fed in this one.
 5.4. PARAMETRES INFLUENCING
COMBING

• raw material:
– fibre type
– fibre length
– fibre stiffness
– uniformity of fibre length
– moisture content
• material preparation:
– parallelisation of fibres: if the parallelisation is
maximum to carry the sheet will be impossible
and the strength will decrease. Also in this case
neps and impurities can’t be hold inside during
the detaching stage. So they can pass into the
combed sheet. If there isn’t enough
parallelisation, the actual fibre length can’t be
used because fibres are seemed shorter and
can’t be separated even if they are long.
– sheet thickness: thin sheet can be combed
effectively but it decrease the productivity. If
sheet is thick, it can’t be combed properly and
neps are held in.
– sheet evenness
– orientation of hooks
CHAPTER VI
~DRAWFRAMES~
6.1. TASKS OF DRAWFAME
6.2. PROCESS IN DRAWFRAME
6.3. BLENDING IN DRAWFRAME
6.1 TASKS OF DRAWFRAME

• Equalizing
• Parallelization
• Blending
• Dust removal
6.2 PROCESS IN DRAWFRAME
• The material form is not changed in drawframes.
The sliver is fed and gotten. The evenness is
changed. The doubling is made. The sliver
evenness directly affects the yarn irregularity.
Secondly, the production speed in drawframe is
increased which may cause poor quality of sliver
as well.
• Important point here is parallelization. The hook
fibres from the cord are straightened in
drawframe.
Fibre parallelism
in the yarn
structure
• Very short fibres cause irregularities in
drafted material or yarn. They can also
cause yarn breakages, therefore they
should be eliminated. Moreover, fineness,
strength and extension of fibre are also
important parameters in drafting stage.
• Draft given at this zone is the relative speeds of cylinders.
If 5 drafts are given, that means the sliver is stretched 5
times. If there are 5 fibres at the beginning, only one of
them is gotten at the end. (5 fibres 1 fibre)

ZONE
+ +

+ +

2 nip points
• Single-zone roller drafting
• For single drafting zone, two pairs of rollers are
used. This is why the name of this kind of
drafting called roller drafting. As seen in the
figure, drafting zone is between the nip lines of
the rollers along the horizontal axis. The
material is fed from roller A with V1 surface
speed, and goes away from roller B with V2
surface speed. By the difference between the
speeds of the pairs of rollers draft is given:

In this formula, the orientation, the shape, and the length variations between the fibres are neglected.
Representation of perfect drafting
• If fibre has a trailing hook, it touches the other
fibres when it’s caught by a cylinder. So, it has a
possibility to be opened by the help of other
fibres.

• Maybe, leading hooks can be opened by the help

of the acceleration. The probability of
straightening of a fibre with the leading hook is
only dependent on one fibre but, if it has a trailing
hook, it’s dependent on other 4 fibres. (for 5
drafts)

• In carding machine, %50 of fibres has trailing

hooks. In order to straighten both sides of the
hooks, the material must be put through
drawframe twice. 2 passages are applied in the
spinning shed but configuration may be different.
• There’ll be some fibres still left with hooks at the
exit of drawframe. So, the feed of the material to
the ring-spinning machine, the direction of the
fibres is important. It is tried to feed the material
with trailing hooks. This is seen on the yarn
properties.

Example: With a roving and trailing hooks the

spinning machine is fed and a yarn is processed.
If the direction of the material is changed, there
will be still hooky fibres.

-Evenness
-Elongation improve by a true feed direction.
-Strength
• The machine sequences and passages are
adjusted according to that idea. (to feed
with trailing hook)

Parallelization is made by draft. It is

not done in carding but done in drawframe.
Evenness: The slivers are doubled
by 6 or 8 in drawframe.