MIXING (COTTON)

Cotton is a hygroscopic material , hence it easily adopts to the atmospheric airconditions. Air temperature
inside the mxing and blowroom area should be more than 25 degree centigrade and the relative
humidity(RH%) should be around 45 to 60 %, because high moisture in the fibre leads to poor cleaning and
dryness in the fibre leads to fibre damages which ultimately reduces the spinnability of cotton.

Cotton is a natural fibre. The following properties vary very much between bales (between fibres) fibre
micronaire fibre length fibre strength fibre color fibre maturity Out of these , fibre micronaire, color, maturity
and the origin of growth results in dye absorption variation.
There fore it is a good practice to check the maturity , color and micronaire of all the bales and to
maintain the following to avoid dye pick up variation and barre in the finished fabric.

BALE MANAGEMENT :

In a particular lot
 • Micronaire range of the cotton bales used should be same for all the mixings of a lot
• Micronaire average of the cotton bales used should be same for all the mixings of a lot
• Range of color of cotton bales used should be same for all the mixings of a lot
• Average of color of cotton bales used should be same for all the mixings of a lot
• Range of matutrity coefficient of cotton bales used should be same for all mixings of a lot
• Average of maturity coefficient of cotton bales used should be same for all mixings of a lot

Please note, In practice people do not consider maturity coefficient since Micronaire variation and
maturity variation are related to each other for a particular cotton.

It the cotton received is from different ginners, it is better to maintain the percentage of cotton from different
ginners throught the lot, even though the type of cotton is same.

It is not advisable to mix the yarn made of out of two different shipments of same cotton. For example , the
first shipment of west african cotton is in january and the second shipment is in march, it is not advisable to
mix the yarn made out of these two different shipments. If there is no shadevariation after dyeing, then it
can be mixed.

According to me, stack mixing is the best way of doing the mixing compared to using
automatic bale openers which picks up the material from 40 to 70 bales depending on the length of
the machine and bale size, provided stack mixing is done perfectly. Improper stack mixing will lead to
BARRE or SHADE VARIATION problem. Stack mixing with Bale opener takes care of short term blending
and two mixers in series takes care of long term blending.

why?

• Tuft sizes can be as low as 10 grams and it is the best way of opening the material(nep creation
will be less, care has to be taken to reduce recyling in the inclined lattice)
• contaminations can be removed before mixing is made
• The raw material gets acclamatised to the required temp and R.H.%, since it is allowed to stay in
the room for more than 24 hours and the fibre is opened , the fibre gets conditioned well.

Disadvantages:

• more labour is required

• more space is required
• mixing may not be 100% homogeneous( can be overcome by installing double mixers)

If automatic bale opening machine is used the bales should be arranged as follows
 let us assume that there are five different micronaires and five different colors in the mixing,
50 bales are used in the mxing. 5 to 10 groups should be made by grouping the bales in a mixing
so that each group will have average micronaire and average color as that of the overall mixing.
The
position of a bale for micronaire and color should be fixed for the group and it should repeat in the
same order for all the groups

It is always advisable to use a mixing with very low Micronaire range.Preferably .6 to 1.0 . Because

• It is easy to optimise the process parameters in blow room and cards

• drafting faults will be less
• dyed cloth appearance will be better because of uniform dye pickup etc

It is advisable to use single cotton in a mixing , provided the length, strength micronaire ,
maturity coefficient and trash content of the cotton will be suitable for producing the required
counts. Automatic bale opener is a must if more than two cottons are used in the mixing, to avoid
BARRE or SHADE VARIATION problem.

It is better to avoid using the following cottons

• cottons with inseparable trash (very small size), even though the trash % is less
• sticky cotton (with honey dew or sugar)
• cotton with low maturity co-efficient

Stickiness of cotton consists of two major causes. Honeydew from Whiteflies and aphids and high
level of natural plant sugars. The problems with the randomly distributed honey dew contamination
often results in costly proudction interruptions and requires immediate action often as severe as
discontinuing the use of contaminated cottons.An effective way to control cotton stickiness in
processing is to blend sticky and non-sticky cotton. Sticky cotton percentage should be less than
25%.

Cotton Stickiness

PROCESSING STICKY COTTON

RAWMATERIAL AS A CAUSE FOR BARRE

BLOWROOM

• Basic operations in the blowroom:

opening
cleaning
mixing or blending
microdust removal
uniform feed to the carding machine
Recycling the waste
•
Blow room installations consists of a sequence of different machines to carry out the above said
operations.Moreover Since the tuft size of cotton becomes smaller and smaller, the required
intensities of processing necessitates different machine configuration.

•
•

• TECHNOLOGICAL POINTS IN BLOWROOM

Opening in blowroom means opening into small flocks.Technological operation of opening means
the volume of the flock is increased while the number of fibres remains constant. i.e. the specific
density of the material is reduced
•
The larger the dirt particle , the better they can be removed
Since almost every blowroom machine can shatter particles, as far as possible a lot of impurities
should be eliminated at the start of the process.Opening should be followed immediately by
cleaning, if possible in the same machine.
•
The higher the degree of opening, the higher the degree of cleaning. A very high cleaning effect is
 almost always purchased at the cost of a high fibre loss. Higher roller speeds give a better cleaning
effect but also more stress on the fibre.
•
Cleaning is made more difficult if the impurities of dirty cotton are distributed through a larger
quantity of material by mxing with clean cotton.
The cleaning efficiency is strongly dependent on the TRASH %. It is also affected by the size of the
particle and stickyness of cotton. Therefore cleaning efficiency can be different for different cottons
with the same trash %. There is a new concept called CLEANING RESISTANCE. Different cottons
have different cleaning resistance.

If cotton is opened well in the opening process, cleaning becomes easier because opened cotton
has more surface area, therefore cleaning is more efficient
If automatic bale opener is used, the tuft size should be as small as possible and the machine stop
time should be reduced to the minimum level possible
•
If Manual Bale openers are used, the tuft size fed to the feed lattice should be as small as possible
Due to machine harvesting , cotton contains more and more impurities, which furthermore are
shattered by hard ginning. Therefore cleaning is always an important basic operation.
In cleaning, it is necessary to release the adhesion of the impurities to the fibres and to give hte
particles an opportunity to separate from the stock. The former is achieved mostly by picking of
flocks, the latter is achieved by leading the flocks over a grid.
•
Using Inclined spiked lattice for opening cotton in the intial stages is always a better way of
opening the cotton with minimum damages. Ofcourse the production is less with such type of
machines.
•
But one should bear in mind that if material is recyled more in the lattice, neps may increase.
Traditional methods use more number of machines to open and clean natural fibres.
Mechanical action on fibres causes some deterioration on yarn quality, particularly in terms of
neps .
Moreover it is true that the staple length of cotton can be significantly shortened .
Intensive opening in the initial machines like Bale breaker and blending machines means that
shorter overall cleaning lines are adequate.
•
In a beating operation, the flocks are subjected to a sudden strong blow. The inertia of the
impurities
accelerated to a high speed, is substantially greater than that of the opened flocks due to the low
air resistance of the impurities. The latter are hurled against the grid and because of their small
size, pass between the grid bars into the waste box, while the flocks continue around the periphery
of the rotating beater.
By using a much shorter machine sequence, fibres with better elastic properties and improved
spinnability can be produced.
 •
Air streams are often used in the latest machine sequence, to separate fibres from trash particles
by buoyancy differences rather than beating the material against a series of grid bars.
•
There are three types of feeding apparatus in the blowroom opening machines
two feed rollers( clamped)
feed roller and a feed table
a feed roller and pedals
•
Two feed roller arrangements gives the best forwarding motion, but unfortunately results in greatest
clamping distance between the cylinders and the beating element feed roller and pedal
arrangement gives secure clamping throughout the width and a small clamping distance, which is
very critical for an opening machine In a feed roller and table arrangement, the clamping distance
can be made very small. This gives intensive opening, but clamping over the whole width is poor,
because the roller presses only on the highest points of the web.
•
Thin places in the web can be dragged out of hte web as a clump by the beaters
Honeydew(sugar) or stickiness in cotton affect the process very badly. Beacause of that production
and quality is affected. Particles stick to metal surfaces, and it gets aggreavated with heat and
pressure.

Blowroom - Page 2

• These deposits change the surface characteristics which directly affects the quality and running
behavior.
•
There are chemicals which can be sprayed to split up the sugar drops to achieve better distribution.
But this system should use water solutions which is not recommended due to various reasons.
It is better to control the climate inside the department when sticky cotton is used. Low temperature

( around 22 degree Celsius) and low humidity (45% RH). This requires an expensive air
conditioning set up.
•
•
The easiest way to process sticky cotton is to mix with good cotton and to process through two
blending machines with 6 and 8 doublings and to install machines which will seggregate a heavier
particles by buoyancy differences.
General factors which affect the degree of opening , cleaning and fibre loss are,
•
• thickness of the feed web
density of the feed web
fibre coherence
fibre alignment
size of the flocks in the feed (flock size may be same but density is different)
the type of opening device
speed of the opening device
degree of penetration
type of feed (loose or clamped)
distance between feed and opening device
type of opening device
type of clothing
point density of clothing
arrangement of pins, needles, teeth
speeds of the opening devices
throughput speed of material
type of grid bars
area of the grid surface
grid settings
airflow through the grid
condition of pre-opening
quantity of material processed,
 position of the machine in the machine sequence
feeding quantity variation to the beater
ambient R.H.%
ambient teperature
•
Cotton contains very little dust before ginning. Dust is therefore caused by working of the material
on
the machine. New dust is being created through shattering of impurities and smashing and rubbing
of fibres.
•
However removal of dust is not simple. Dust particles are very light and therefore float with the
cotton
in the transport stream.Furthermore the particles adhere quite strongly to the fibres. If they are to
be
eliminated they are to be rubbed off.The main elimination points for adhering dust therefore, are
those points in the process at which high fibre/metal friction or high fibre/fibre friction is produced.
•
• Removal of finest particles of contaminants and fibre fragments can be accomplished by releasing
the dust into the air, like by turning the material over, and then removing the dust-contaminated air.
Release of dust into the air occurs whereever the raw material is rolled, beaten or thrown about.
Accordingly the air at such positions is sucked away. Perforated drums, stationary perforated
drums, stationary combs etc.... are some instruments used to remove dust.

Page 1 2

CARDING
INTRODUCTION
"Card is the heart of the spinning mill" and "Well carded is half spun" are two proverbs of the experts.
These proverbs inform the immense significance of carding in the spinning process.High production in
carding to economise the process leads to reduction in yarn quality.Higher the production, the more
sensitive becomes the carding operation and the greater danger of a negative influence on quality.The
technological changes that has taken place in the process of carding is remarkable. Latest machines
achieve the production rate of 60 - 100 kgs / hr, which used to be 5 - 10 kgs / hr, upto 1970.

THE PURPOSE OF CARDING:

to open the flocks into individual fibres
cleaning or elimination of impurities
reduction of neps
elimination of dust
elimination of short fibres
fibre blending
fibre orientation or alignment
sliver formation

TECHNOLOGICAL POINTS IN CARDING

There are two types of feeding to the cards
1. feeding material in the form of scutcher lap
2. flock feed system (flocks are transported pneumatically)
lap feeding
linear density of the lap is very good and it is easier to maintain(uniformity)
the whole installation is very flexible
deviations in card output will be nil, as laps can be rejected
autolevellers are not required, hence investment cost and maintenace cost is less
transportation of lap needs more manual efforts( more labour)
lap run out is an additional source of fault, as it should be replaced by a new lap
more good fibre loss during lap change
more load on the taker-in, as laps are heavily compressed

flock feeding
high performance in carding due to high degree of openness of feed web
labour requirement is less due to no lap transportaion and lap change in cards
flock feeding is the only solution for high prouduction cards
linear density of the web fed to the card is not as good as lap
installation is not felxible
autoleveller is a must, hence investment cost and maintenance cost is more

Rieter has devloped a "unidirectional feed system" where the two feed devices(feed roller and feed plate
are oppositely arranged when compared with the conventional system. i.e. the cylinder is located below and
the plate is pressed against the cylinder by spring force. Owing to the direction of feed roller, the fibre batt
runs downwards without diversion directly into the teeth of the taker-in(licker-in) which results in gentle fibre
treatment. This helps to reduce faults in the yarn.

The purpose of the taker-in is to pluck finely opened flocks out of the feed batt, to lead them over the
dirt eliminating parts like mote knives, combing segment and waste plates, and then to deliver the fibres to
the main cylinder. In high production cards the rotational speed ranges from 700-1400

CARDING - Page 2

The treatment for opening and cleaning imparted by Taker-in is very intensive, but unfortunately not very
gentle.Remember that around 60% of the fibres fed to the main cylinder is in the form of individual fibres.
The circumferential speed of Taker-in is around 13 to 15 m/sec and the draft is more than 1000.It clearly
shows that fibre gets deteriorated at this opening point. Only the degree of deterioration can be controlled
by adjusting the following

the thickness of the batt

the degree of openness of the rawmaterial
the degree of orientation of the fibres
the aggressiveness of the clothing
the distance between the devices
the rotational velocity of the taker-in
the material throughput

Latest TRUTZSCHLER cards work with three licker-ins compared to one liker-in.The first one is
constructed as needle roll. This results in very gentle opening and an extremely long clothing life for this roll.
The other two rollers are with finer clothing and higher speeds, which results in feeding more %of individual
fibres and smallest tufts compared to single lickerin, to the main cylinder. This allows the maing cylinder to
go high in speeds and reduce the load on cylinder and flat tops. There by higher productivity is achieved
with good quality. But the performance may vary for different materials and different waste levels.
between the taker-in and main cylinder , the clothings are in the doffing disposition. It exerts an influence
on the sliver quality and also on the improvement in fibres longitudinal orientation that occurs here.
The effect depends on the draft between main cylinder and taker-in.The draft between main cylinder and
taker-in should be slightly more than 2.0.

The opening effect is directly proportional to the number of wire points per fibre. At the Taker-in
perhaps 0.3 points/ fibre and at the main cylinder 10-15 points /fibre.If a given quality of yarn is required,
a corresponding degree of opening at the card is needed. To increase production in carding, the number of
points per unit time must also be increased. this can be achieved by

more points per unit area(finer clothing)

higher roller and cylinder speeds
more carding surface or carding position

speeds and wire population has reached the maximum, further increase will result in design and
technological problems. Hence the best way is to add carding surface (stationary flats). Carding plates can
be applied at

under the liker-in

between the licker-in and flats
between flats and doffer

Taker-in does not deliver 100% individual fibres to main cylinder. It delivers around 70% as small flocks
to main cylinder. If carding segments are not used, the load on cylinder and flats will be very high and
carding action also suffers. If carding segemets are used, they ensure further opening, thinning out and
primarily,
spreading out and improved distribution of the flocks over the total surface area.carding segments bring the
following advantages

improved dirt and dust elimination

improved disentanglement of neps
possibility of speed increase (production increase)
preservation of the clothing
possibility of using finer clothings on the flats and cylinder
better yarn quality
less damage to the clothing
cleaner clothing
In an indepth analysis, all operating elements of the card were therefore checked in regard to their
influence on carding intensity. It showed that the "CYLINDER-FLATS" area is by far the most effective
region of the card for.
opening of flocks to individual fibres
elimination of remaining impurities(trash particles)
elimination of short fibres( neps also removed with short fibres)
untangling the neps
dust removal
high degree of longitudinal orientation of the fibres

The main work of the card, separation to individual fibres is done between the main cylinder and the flats
Only by means of this fibre separation, it is possible to eliminate the fine dirt particles and dust.
When a flat enters the working zone, it gets filled up very quickly. Once it gets filled, after few seconds,
thereafter , hardly any further take-up of fibres occurs, only carding.Accordingly, if a fibre bundle does
not find place at the first few flats, then it can be opened only with difficulty.It will be rolled between
the working surfaces and usually leads to nep formation

In principle, the flats can be moved forwards or backwards, i.e. in the same direction as or in opposition
to the cylinder. In reverse movement, the flats come into operative relationship with the cylinder
clothing on the doffer side. At this stage, the flats are in a clean condition. They then move towards
the taker-in and fill up during this movement. Part of their receiving capacity is thus lost, but sufficient
remains for elimination of dirt, since this step takes place where the material first enters the flats.
At this position, above the taker-in, the cylinder carries the material to be cleaned into the flats. The
latter take up the dirt but do not transport it through the whole machine as in the forward movement system.

Instead , the dirt is immediately removed from the machine. Rieter studies show clearly that the greater part
of the dirt is hurled into the first flats directly above the taker-in.
Kaufmann indicates that 75% of all neps can be disentagled, and of these about 60% are in fact
disentagled. Of the remaining 40% disentaglable nep
30-33% pas on with the sliver
5-6% are removed with the flat strips
2-4%are eliminated with the waste
The intensity of nep separation depends on
the sharpness of the clothing
the space setting between the main cylinder and the flats
tooth density of the clothing
speed of the main cylinder
speed of the flat tops
direction of flats with reference to cylinder
the profile of the cylinder wire

The arrangement of the clothing between the cylinder and the doffer is not meant for stripping action,
It is for CARDING ACTION. This is the only way to obtain a condensing action and finally to form a web. It
has both advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that additional carding action is obtained here
and it differs somewhat from processing at the flats.
A disadvantage is that leading hooks and trailing hooks are formed in the fibres , because the fibres remain
caught at one end of the main cylinder(leading hook) and some times on
the doffer clothing(trailing hook).

There are two rules of carding

The fibre must enter the carding machine, be efficiently carded and taken from it in as little time as possible.
The fibre must be under control from entry to exit

Carding effect is taking place between cylinder and doffer because, either the main cylinder clothing rakes
through the fibres caught in the doffer clothing, or the doffer clothing rakes thro the fibres on the main
cylinder.

Neps can still be disentangled here, or non-separated fibre bundles can be opened a bit in this area and can
be separated during the next passage through the flats

A disadvantage of web-formation at the card is the formation of hooks. According to an investigation by

morton and Yen in Manchester, it can be assumed that
50% of the fibres have trailing hooks
15% have leading hooks
15% have both ends hooked
20% without hooks

Leading hooks must be presented to the comber and trailing hooks to the ring spinning frame.
There must be even number of passages between card and comber and odd number between the card and
ringframe.

Fibre Dynamics in the Revolving-Flats Card

A Critical Review

C.A. Lawrence, A. Dehghani, M. Mahmoudi, B. Greenwood and C.Iype

School of Textile Industries

University of Leeds

Over the last 30 years numerous developments have taken place with the cotton card. The production
rate has risen by a factor of 5 with the main rotating components running at significantly higher speeds.

Triple taker-in rollers and modified feed systems are in use, additional carding segments are fitted for more
effective fibre opening, and improved wire clothing profiles have been developed for a better carding
action. Advances in electronics have provided much improved monitoring and process control. Most of these
developments have resulted in enhanced cleaning of cotton fibres, reduced neppiness of the card web and
better sliver uniformity.

Despite the various improvements made to the card a commonly held view is that more is known
about the cleaning processes on the card than about the carding process itself . For instance, modern
cards can achieve an overall cleaning efficiency of 95%. It is well established that the cleaning efficiency of
modern taker-in systems is a round 30%, that the cylinder/flats action with the latest wire clothing profiles
gives 90% cleaning efficiency and that effective cleaning is associated with lower neps in the card web .

However, even though the nep content and the sliver Uster CV% are used as quality measures of carding
performance they are not satisfactory indicators for anticipating yarn quality. This is because some fibre
arrangements in the sliver may lead to nep formation and imperfections during up-stream drafting processes
.

In addition to the removal of trash and neps, important aspects of the carding process in relation to yarn
quality and spinning performance are the degree of fibre individualisation, the fibre extent and the fibre hook
configurations in the sliver. With regard to these factors, increased production rate can reduce carding
quality . It is therefore of importance that a better understanding is established of the effect that carding
actions have on such quality parameters, particularly at high production rates.

The most widely accepted view of how fibres are distributed within the card under steady-state conditions is
illustrated in Figure 1 . Reported studies into the fundamentals of the carding process have largely been
concerned with how the principal working components of the card affect this distribution of fibre mass and
interact with the mass to achieve:trash and nep removal from cottons; the disentangling of the fibre mass
into individual fibres, with minimal fibre breakage; and the alignment of the fibres to give a sliver suitable for
drafting in down stream processes.

These actions occur at the interface of the card components within the three zones indicated in Figure 1.
This paper therefore gives a critical review of published research on the:

· mechanisms by which the fibre mass is broken down into individual fibres,

· mechanisms of fibre transfer between the component parts of the card

· effect of the saw-tooth wire geometry on these actions

Figure 1: Distribution of Fibre Mass during Short-Staple Carding

Q1: fibre mass transferred from cylinder to doffer

K : transfer coefficient

Q2: recycling layer

QL: fibre mass transferred from taker-in to cylinder

Qf : flat strips

Qo : operational layer

(where Q is mass per unit time)

Zone 1: Fibre-Opening

Separation and Cleaning of the Input Fibre Mass:

The taker-in has effectively a combing action , which results in the breakdown of the tufts, consituting the fed
fibre mass, into single fibres and smaller size tufts (tuflets), and in the liberation of trash particles ejected
from the mass flow by the mote knives positioned below the taker-in. To effectively breakdown the fibre
mass feed into tuftlets with minimal fibre breakage, the taker-in wire has to be coarse, with a low number of
points per unit area (4.2 to 6.2 pcm-2) and not too acute an angle of rake. The objective is to obtain gentle
opening of the fibre mass feed and easy transfer of the tuftlets to the cylinder. Angles of 80o – 85o are used
for short and medium length cottons to give effective opening and cleaning. For longer cottons and
synthetics, a 90o or negative rake may be needed to facilitate gentler opening and satisfactory fibre transfer
to prevent lapping of the taker-in .

Fibres, usually very short fibres, which are not adequately held by the teeth or present in the interspaces of
the clothing are ejected causing fibre loss. However, it is the mote knives that govern the amount of fibre to
trash (i.e. lint) in the extracted waste. Experimenting with the settings of two mote knives below the taker-in,
Hodgson found that the absence of the knives greatly increased the lint content with little increase in trash.
With the knives present, the best setting was that which gave the least waste since increasing the amount of
waste did not improve cleaning. Artzt found that irrespective of teeth density and tooth angle the waste
increased with taker-in speed but the increase was attributed to higher lint content.

It is reasonable to assume that the smaller the tuftlet size and the greater the mass ratio of individual fibres
to tuftlets the better the cleaning effect of the taker-in. Supanekar and Nerurkar suggest that the takerin
breaks down the fibre feed into tuftlets of various sizes and mass, conforming to a normal frequency
distribution. In the case of cotton, some tuftlets may consist of only fibres whilst others will contain seed or
trash particles embedded among the fibres, these tuftlets constituting the heavier end of the distribution
curve. Thus, the mean of the distribution would depend on the trash content of the material, as well as on
the production rate, the taker-in speed and the wire clothing specification. However, the authors did not
report any data to support their ideas.

Little detailed information has yet been published on the mass variation of tuftlets or on the relative
proportion of discrete fibres to tuftlets resulting from the combing action of the taker-in. Nittsu using
photographic techniques studied the effect of process variables on tuftlet size. It was found that the total
number of tuftlets decreases the closer the feed plate setting, the lower the feed rate, the smaller the
steeper rake of the saw-tooth clothing and the higher the licker-in speed. Since th licker-in opens the batt
into both tuftlets and individual fibres , a decrease in the total number of tuftlets suggests an increase in the
mass of individual fibres. Liefeld calculated estimates of the opened fibre mass at various stages through
the blowroom and gives a value of 50mg for tuftlets on the taker-in. Mills claims that the calculated optimum
number of fibre per tooth is one, and that this should be maintained at increased production rates by
increasing the taker-in speed. There is, however, the question of fibre damage at high taker-in speeds.
Figure 2: Frequency distribution of tuftlet mass

N: Taker-in speed (rpm), P: Production rate (kg/hr)

Honold and Brown found no fibre damage occurred at speeds of up to 600 r/min. Krylov reports the
absence of fibre breakage at speeds up to 1,380 r/min, and Artzt’s work shows taker-in speeds to have a
negligible effect on fibre shortening and subsequently on yarn strength. In all cases cotton fibres of 26.5-
30.2 mm (2.5% span length) and 3.8 – 4.9 micronaire were processed. The level of fibre breakage, however,
would seem to depend on production rate and the batt fringe setting to the licker-in. High production rates
achieved by increased sliver counts and a close setting of the batt fringe result in significant fibre
breakage.No fundamental studies have been reported on the forces involved in the fibre-wire interaction of
revolvingflat card components. However, Li and etal report a simulated study of fibre-withdrawal forces for
wool in high-speed roller- clearer cards. Although impact forces could cause damage , it was found that card
component speeds had no significant effect on the withdrawal-force, and that fibre configuration and
entanglement were the important factors.

The importance of producing small size tuftlets is evident form the various components fitted in the
fibreopening zone on modern short-staple cards. Saw-tooth wire covered plates, termed combing segments,
fitted below the taker-in or built into the taker-in screen are claimed to give improved trash removal.
Reportedly , the stationary flats fitted between the taker-in and the revolving flats provide extra opening of
the tuftlets transferred to the cylinder from the taker-in.

They also act as a barrier to large, hard, trash particles such as seed coats, protecting the wire of
the revolving flats from damage, particularly at high cylinder speeds. This enables finer wire to be used for
the revolving flats and thereby improves the cleaning effect of the interaction between cylinder and revolving
flats. The chances are also reduced of longer length fibres becoming deeply embedded in the revolving flats
to become part of the flat strips. These attachments are widely accepted by the industry as beneficial,
particularly at high production speed. However, there is no published systematic study of their effectiveness
in reducing tuft size, and the effect of stationary flats on the recycling layer, Q2, is unknown. The little
information that is available attempts to illustrate the effectiveness of these components on yarn quality, but
there is no evidence of analytical rigour in the way the data were obtained.

Fibre Dynamics in the Revolving-Flats Card - 2

Fig 3. shows the effect of the combing segment and the stationary flats on dust deposits in rotor spinning
and on the imperfections in several types of ring spun yarn. The figure includes values for the effect of
stationary flats above the doffer, but this will be considered in a later section. It would appear that the added
components in the taker-in region might well reduce the dust deposit in the rotor, but the results showing
improvements in yarn quality are not convincing, and in all cases the stationary flats above the doffer appear
the most effective. Leifeld reports that the cylinder – revolving flats carding action occurs when the fibre
mass delivered to the cylinder is in a highly opened state.

Tandem cards are said to give a high standard of carding with low nep and trash levels in the
card web. This is because a uniform web of almost discrete fibres is fed to the second cylinder of the
tandem card and closer revolving flat settings with higher cylinder speeds can be used . Single taker-in
systems, even with combing segments and stationary flats, cannot give as high a degree of opening.
However, Leifeld reports that a triple taker-in system facilitates high taker-in speeds and, fitted to a single-
cylinder card, feeds a uniform web of discrete fibres to the cylinder, thereby offering a more cost-effective
process than the tandem card, but no comparative data for the two types of card are given. Although it may
be reasoned that a triple taker-in action should improve nep removal, it is of importance to compare the web
qualities with regard to dust and trash content, the level and type of fibre hooks, and the degree of fibre
parallelism since these greatly influence yarn quality.
Figure 3: Effect of Combing Segment and Stationary Flats

Contradicting the triple taker-in approach, Mills states that the fibrous material fed to the card should not be
broken down into individual fibres by the taker-in system. This is because the fibres would remain largely
disoriented with a high proportion of them lying transversely to the direction of mass flow when transferred to
the cylinder and subsequently to the revolving flats. This can result in fibre loss during transfer to the
cylinder and an unevenness of the fibre mass across the cylinder width, causing neps to be formed and
degrading the carding action between the cylinder and the revolving flats.

It is claimed that good carding requires a thin, uniformly distributed sheet of well-opened tuftlets fed to the
cylinder from the taker-in. Fujino reports results that would appear to confirm the view that as the level of
opening increases through faster taker-in speed, the degree of fibre parallelism on transfer to the cylinder
decreases. The nep level in the card web was, however, observed to decrease noticeably with increased
taker-in speed. This was attributed to the reduced speed ratio of the cylinder and taker-in. Artzt found that
reducing the takerin/ cylinder draft ratio from 2.4 to 1.4 caused yarn imperfections to increase. In contrast to
these findings Harrison states that increasing taker-in speed did not affect the nep level in the card web, the
exception being for low micronaire cottons. The apparent contradictions in these results suggest that a
better understanding of the transfer mechanism may be needed which takes into account fibre properties.
Fibre Mass Transfer to Cylinder

Two contrasting views have been reported on the mechanism of fibre transfer. Oxley suggests that the fibre
mass on the taker-in is ejected between the cylinder wire and the back plate. Whereas Varga believes that
the fibre mass is stripped from the taker-in in the following way. In the feed to the card, tufts and fibres lie
randomly and by the action of the taker-in are brought into length-wise orientation in the direction of the
roller rotation. The trailing ends of newly formed tuftlets protrude above the taker-in wire and are easily
stripped by the cylinder wire clothing. This implies that the transfer involves a reversal of the leading and
trailing ends of the fibres. Further orientation and parallelism of the fibre mass is thought to occur during the
transfer onto the cylinder. No experimental work has been published which specifically involves a study of
the transfer of fibres from the taker-in to the cylinder. Therefore it has yet to be established whether at the
interface, the cylinder, which has the faster surface speed, strips the fibre mass with its clothing or the taker-
in, through the action of centrifugal forces, ejects the tuftlets and single fibres onto the cylinder, or a
combination of both occurs. It is also of interest to determine if the airflow in the region assists the fibre mass
transfer. Whatever the case, the fibre mass is likely to be subjected to an uncontrolled drafting effect, which
could introduce irregularities in the mass flow.

Zone 2: The Fibre Carding Zone

In the carding zone, it is the interaction of the fibre mass and the wire-teeth clothing of cylinder and flats that
fully individualises the fibres and gives parallelism to the fibre mass flow. In considering how fibres enter and
are individualised in the carding zone, Oxley suggests that tuftlets are not strongly held on the cylinder
clothing because the tooth angle faces the direction of cylinder rotation. They are, thus, easily removed and
more firmly held by the opposing teeth of the flats. It is therefore assumed that as a flat enters the carding
zone it becomes almost fully loaded with fibres, the airflow within the region assisting the fibre mass transfer.
Having been stripped of fibre mass, subsequent following areas of the cylinder wire clothing move past the
fully loaded flat and proceed to comb fibres from the flat, carrying them towards the doffer. The action of
combing causes the fibres to be hooked around the cylinder wire points and prevents them from being easily
removed by other flats.

Debar and Watson’s experiments of the movement of radioactive tracer fibres through a miniature card
showed that some fibres caught by the flats were often only removed by the cylinder-wire clothing after
many revolutions of the cylinder. Varga reports an alternative view to Oxley’s, stating that two types of
action occur at the cylinder-flats interface. First, a carding action where the upper layer of a tuftlet or a
loosely opened fibre group is caught and held by the flats whilst simultaneously the bottom layer is sheared
away by the fast moving cylinder surface. This action causes the top to hang from the flats and to contact
subsequent parts of the cylinder wire surface resulting in the second action which is combing, where the
wire clothing of the cylinder hooks single or a small group of fibres and combs them from the top layer. A
second flat catches the bottom layer on the cylinder and the actions are repeated. In this way tuftlets or
groups of fibres are separated into individual fibres.

By making abrupt changes in the colour of the fibre mass fed to the card, Oxley demonstrated that tuftlets
from the load on a given flat are carried forward by the cylinder clothing and separated into individual fibres
over a small number of preceding flats, typically 4. It was concluded that the interchange of fibres between
cylinder and flats does not occur over the full carding zone. Sengupta ] made measurements of the
carding/combing forces and showed that essentially these actions were on average confined to the first ten
working flats.
Figure 4: Relation of Flat Load and Working Time

A study by Hodgson showed that moving in the direction of the cylinder rotation, a given flat acquires two-
thirds of its final load directly it comes into position over the cylinder. The load then increases exponentially
with time, reaching nine-tenths of the final value within 6-8 minutes. Completion of the load takes place
slowly during the remainder of the working time. See Fig 4. As shown in the figure, with flats moving in the
reverse direction the load first increases rapidly with time and then slows until the flat is about to leave the
working area. Here it encounters the fibre layer being transported on the cylinder surface from the taker-in.
The flat receives a sudden addition of fibre mass to become fully loaded, and, in agreement with other
results , the load weighs more than for the forward direction of motion. Contrary to Oxley’s conclusions, it
was found that 30% of the final load on a given flat resulted from fibre interchange between flats and
cylinder over the full carding zone.

It may be reasoned that the number of flats involved in separating a tuftlet depends on the tuftlet size, the
mass flow rate and the flat setting. Large tuftlets will be pressed into the cylinder wire during the carding
action, whereas small tuftlets will be more easily carded and will remain at the top of the cylinder wire teeth.
The larger the tuftet, the higher the production rate and the closer the flat settings, the greater the number
flats involved in the separation of a given tuftlet. Bogdan reports that flats tend to load quickly at the
beginning of their cycle of contact with the cylinder. This, however, is only a partial loading, since the fibre
mass tends to resist more fibres entering the space but, in the case of cotton, not the leaf and trash particles
present.

Analysis of the trash in cotton flat strips showed that initially the percentage of trash in a given
flat strip is low and increases slowly during the first 10 minutes of carding, then remains at almost a constant
value . The final percentage depends on the trash content of the cotton. For a fixed production rate, the
amount of flat strips was found to be directly proportional to the flat speed, but provided the speed was such
that the working time was not less than 10 minutes, both the weight and composition of the flat strips
remained approximately constant. Feil claims that a high degree of air turbulence exists in the flat/cylinder
zone. A combination of centrifugal forces, mechanical contact with the flat wire and air turbulence causes
the trailing ends of fibres attached individually to the cylinder clothing to vibrate and shake loose trash and
dust particles. Short fibres which cannot adequately cling to the cylinder clothing will also be shaken free,
and along with impurities become part of the flat strips.

Fibre Dynamics in the Revolving-Flats Card - 3

Fibres that are deeply embedded in the flats, and cannot be reached by the cylinder wires become flat
strips. For this reason the closeness of the flats setting to the cylinder is important. It may be assumed that
closer flats/cylinder setting and faster cylinder speeds will give more effective carding and combing actions
as described by Varga and thereby improve web quality through reduced neps and trash . Cylinder
diameters vary and Karasev showed mathematically that for a given cylinder rotational speed the carding
power will be greater for a larger cylinder diameter with a higher number of working flats. However, because
of lower mechanical stresses, smaller cylinders can be rotated at higher speeds than larger cylinders.

The above advantage is therefore reduced the higher the speed of the smaller cylinder. Artzt
studying the influence of card clothing parameters and cylinder speeds on yarn imperfections, report that the
teeth density of the flats and cylinder, and the speed of the cylinder must prevent tuftlets lying within the
spiral pitch of the cylinder clothing. If this occurs the tuftlets generally become the thick places in the yarn. It
was found that high teeth densities and low cylinder speeds were as effective as lower teeth densities and
high cylinder speed. High teeth densities with high cylinder speeds did not give effective carding, but no
reason was reported for this.

Since the action of the cylinder in this region is to individualise fibres, the wire clothing on the cylinder has a
steeper rake and a higher point density than the wire clothing of the flats. Thus, with closer settings and
higher cylinder speeds greater forces may be involved and may result in fibre breakage. However, the work
of Li indicates that the withdrawal forces needed to separate an entangled fibre mass was largely
dependent on the density of the fibre mass and the contact angle fibres made with the wire clothing, than on
the machine speeds.

Van Alphen reports that increasing cylinder speed causes more fibre breakage than increasing taker-in
speed and that this is reflected in the yarn properties. Rotor yarn tenacity was reduced by up to 5% with
increasing cylinder speeds between 480 –600 r/min. Whereas ring yarns showed a 5% reduction for speeds
between 260 – 380 r/min and 10% at 600 r/min. The higher sensitivity of ring yarns to fibre breakage was
attributed to the negative effect of short fibres during roller drafting. Krylov reports that no fibre shortening
was observed for cylinder speeds up to 380 r/min.

It may be reasoned that the smaller the tuftlets and the more parallel fibres in tuftlets are to the direction of
mass flow the lower the probability of fibre breakage. Honold attributes fibre damage to the cylinder/flat
interaction and suggested that the degree of damage depends on the size of the tuftlets entering the working
area; the smaller the tuftlets, the closer the setting that can be used and the lower the fibre breakage .
Hodgson’s work showed fibre length is also an important factor. For cottons, fibre breakage was only found
to have occurred when the staple length was greater than 25mm. Increasing the flat speed appears to have
no effect on fibre breakage. However, the amount of flat strips increased proportionally with the flat speed
and the mean fibre length of the strips increased significantly. This means that faster flat speeds result in
larger amounts of useable fibre in the waste. Interestingly, when carding cottons, immature fibres were not
readily found in the flat strips. The coarser rigid fibres seem more easily retained by the flats. The
effectiveness of the carding and combing actions within the cylinder/flats area is, inter alia, dependent on the
quantity of fibre mass on the cylinder, and this includes the recycling layer, Q2. It is of interest therefore to
consider how the Q2 is formed during fibre transfer from cylinder to doffer, and its importance to the card
web quality.

Zone 3: Cylinder / Doffer Interaction

Varga reports that the action of fibre mass transfer to the doffer is similar to the transfer at the input to the
cylinder-flats zone. The regions above and below the line of closest approach of the cylinder to the doffer
(i.e. the setting line) are important to the mechanism of fibre mass transfer and the transfer coefficient, K.
The two regions may be termed the top and bottom co-operation arcs or top and bottom zones. Simpson
claims that transfer can occur in both zones and that the particular region in which transfer actually occurs
influences the fibre configuration and the nep level of the card web, although cylinder-flats action is more
important in reducing neps. Which zone transfer occurs in is dependent on the cylinder-doffer surface speed
ratio, C/D. For high C/Ds, transfer occurs in the top zone and results in a larger number of trailing than
leading hook fibres and a low nep level. The reverse occurs when transfer takes place in the bottom zone
owing to lower C/Ds. Simpson does not however say at what C/D value transfer changes from one zone to
the other. Although reference is made to other authors who have proposed a mechanism for fibre transfer in
the top zone, no mechanism or experimental evidence is given to support the idea of fibre transfer in the
bottom zone. Lauber and Wulfhorst used laser-doppler anemometry and high-speed cine photography to
study fibre behaviour in the bottom zone, i.e. up to110 mm below the setting line. Their findings showed no
evidence of fibre transfer within the bottom zone.

Since Morton and Summers’ work in 1949 other researchers have confirmed that the values given in Table
1 for the five classes of fibre configuration observed in slivers. It is of interest to note that the hooked lengths
are greater for leading than trailing hooks. Although, the calendar draft can be used to change the relative
proportions, Gosh and Bhaduri showed that the method of removing the web from the doffer does not
influence the propensity of any class of configuration. It is the mechanism of transfer that is seen as
principally responsible for the shape fibres have in the sliver.

Table 1: Classification of Fibre Configuration in Card Sliver

Several studies have been reported on the fibre-mass-transfer mechanism. A number used tracer fibres with
one end of a fibre dyed a different colour from the other. The reported findings suggest that fibre mass
transfer occurs by fibres acting independently and not as a web of fibres. Observations showed that prior to
transfer, nearly 70% of fibres on the cylinder had leading hooks, only 9% had trailing hooks. On transfer the
relative proportions changed as indicated in Table 2. Half the number observed underwent reversals, with
greater than 70% changing their configurations [e.g. leading hooks becoming trailing hooks]. Of those that
transferred without reversals ca 90% did so with a change of configuration.

Table 2: Mode of Fibre Transfer from Cylinder to Doffer

Ghosh and Bhaduri report that tracer fibres were noted generally to go around with the cylinder for several
revolutions before being transferred by the doffer. On occasions transfer only happened when the cylinder
speed was increased. Debar and Watson’s work with radioactive viscose tracer fibres showed that a fibre on
the cylinder wire passes the doffer up to a maximum 20 times before being removed by the doffer,
sometimes interchanging several times between the cylinder and flats, during the 20 revolutions on the
cylinder. Hodgson found that cotton fibres make between 10 and 25 cylinder revolutions before being
removed by the doffer. With the continuity of fibre mass flow through the card, this means that the doffer
web is built up over many cylinder revolutions and that the recycling layer, Q2, is comprised of multiple
fractional layers of the fibre mass transferred from taker-in to cylinder during these cylinder revolutions .

Figure 5: Mechanism of fibre transfer for trailing hook formation

A proposed hypothesis for the mechanism of fibre transfer is illustrated in Figure 5. Here the trailing ends of
fibres are lifted from the cylinder surface by centrifugal forces and become hooked around the teeth of the
doffer clothing. The frictional drag of the doffer clothing eventually removes these fibre from the cylinder
clothing. This mechanism only explains the formation, without reversal, of trailing hooks in the doffer web.
However, the importance to fibre transfer of the relative angles and tooth lengths of the cylinder and doffer is
self evident from the figure. Baturin developed equations that showed the importance of tooth angle and
teeth density of the cylinder and doffer wires to the value of K and thereby Q2. Other investigators have
reported experimental data that verify Baturin’s equations. It was found that the more acute the working
angle of the doffer wire compared to the cylinder wire, the higher the value of K, and the lower Q2, and that
higher teeth densities on the doffer increased K. These findings would tend to suggest that the proposed
mechanism is a principal action by which fibres are removed from the cylinder. However, this mechanism of
fibre transfer does not explain the change of fibre configuration with reversals and the formation of leading
hooks in the doffer web. It also does not explain how fibres forming the recycling layer, Q2, are subsequently
removed, even though an input layer of fibre mass is added to Q2 each time it passes the taker-in.

The above studies did not take account of the degree of fibre parallelism on the cylinder prior to transfer, nor
the number of fibres per tooth on the cylinder and consequently the likelihood of fibre interaction during
transfer. Fujino and Itani used a microscopic technique to observe the orientation of fibres on the cylinder
surface above the taker-in and just before the doffer, and in the doffer web. They found that fibres showed
the highest degree of parallelism when on the cylinder surface just above the doffer. The degree of
parallelism decreases on transfer to the doffer, and further deteriorates when the web is removed from the
doffer to form the sliver, even though the calendar draft helps to maintain some degree of parallelism.
Grimshaw and others report the use of fixed flats just before the cylinder/doffer top transfer zone, to
improve fibre parallelism in the card web.; up to 20% reduction in fibre hooks and 25% improvement in fibre
parallelism were obtained in the card web, resulting in improved yarn properties. Figure 3 shows that the
fixed flats in this region are more effective in improving yarn properties compared with the fixed flats above
the taker-in. The action of the flats fitted above the doffer is not fully understood. It is assumed that they tend
to lift the fibres to the tip of the cylinder wire for more effective transfer to the doffer, particularly at high
cylinder speed. Lauber and Wolfhorst , Kamogawa, report that in this region aerodynamic forces affect the
parallelism of the fibres and the way they are transferred to the doffer. However, no details are given.

Owing to the higher speed and larger diameter of the cylinder, it is assumed that during transfer in the top
zone the fibres are more substantially affected by the flow of air transported with the cylinder’s than by the
doffer’s wire clothing. High-speed photographs showed that in the bottom zone the main flow of fibre mass
was with the doffer at close to the doffer speed, even when the fibres were just below the cylinderdoffer
setting line. However, some fibres were seen to be free of both the doffer and cylinder and tended to move
with the air currents and eventually with the motion of the cylinder surface. From the above discussion, it can
be seen that work is still needed to establish a more detailed understanding of fibre mass transfer between
the cylinder and doffer. The results of such work may also help in better explaining how fibres remain on the
cylinder to form the recycling layer Q2.

Varga suggests that with fibre transfer in the top zone, the thicker layer of web on the doffer surface
protrudes above the doffer wire and into the gap setting between doffer and cylinder. The faster moving
cylinder wire clothing combs through the doffer web and thereby pulls fibres back onto the cylinder surface.
De Swann showed that fibres can be readily transferred from the doffer to the cylinder as well as from
cylinder to doffer. In Hodgson’s study , changing cylinder/doffer setting affected the neppiness of the web
but did not affect K, which seems to contradict Varga’s view. Baturin and Simpson however showed that K
will increase if the region of interaction between the cylinder and doffer is reduced by decreasing the doffer
or the cylinder diameter and this tend to supports Varga’s suggestion for a combing and robbing action of
the cylinder. It is reasonable to assume that the combing action could lead to fibres in Class II and IV (Table
1), but there is still no verified explanation of how fibres in Classes I, III, and V are formed, with and without
reversals.

Much of the research on the cylinder / doffer interaction concerns the effect of machine variables on the size
of Q2 (or the operational layer, Qo), on the web quality and changes to the relative proportions of the
classified configurations, and on ultimately the yarn quality. Sing and Swani developed a Markovian model
for the carding process in order to determine the probabilities of fibre transfer between cylinder and flats and
cylinder and doffer, taking into account the recycling of fibres. It was shown that the times spent by a fibre on
the cylinder, Tr, and in the flats/cylinder region, Td, are given by:

Tr = 1 / K and Td = Tr . Pf …………. (1)

Where K = Q1 / Qo and Pf = Qf / Qo
Reported values for K would seem to vary between 0.2% to 20% , depending on doffer and cylinder speeds,
on the relative profiles of the saw-tooth wire clothing, and on the sliver count. Simpson suggests that fibre
properties are also of importance, in that there is a tendency for low micronaire cottons to give higher
cylinder loading and for fibres with low shear friction and good compression recovery to result in higher K
values. No physical explanation is given for these findings and no other studies are reported on the effect of
fibre properties. Further work is therefore needed in this area.

Figure 6: Effect of Cylinder and Doffer Speed on K and Pf

A popular view is that a low fibre mass entering the cylinder/flats interface, i.e. a low fibre load on the
cylinder, results in better quality carding . This would seem to imply that the higher the value of K the better
the carding since less fibre mass is recycling to be added to the mass transferred from the taker-in.
However, there are several ways of increasing K and not all of them result in improved carding quality.
Figure 6, shows that for a given cylinder speed and sliver count, increased doffer speed increases K and
reduces Pf , whereas keeping the doffer speed and sliver count constant and increasing the cylinder speed
increase both K and Pf . For constant cylinder and doffer speeds, increased sliver count was found to
reduce K and Pf. If the same up stream machinery is used, then the best measure of effective carding is the
quality of the carded ring-spun yarns produced . Gosh and Bhaduri’s work showed that for a fixed carding
rate, with increasing doffer or cylinder speed, K increases but Qo and the yarn imperfections decrease; no
trend was found with yarn tenacity or irregularity. Singh and Swani studied the properties of yarns made
from slivers corresponding to differing K and Pf values and found that Pf was the more important of the two
parameters, in that the higher the value of Pf the better the yarn quality. Kaufman reports that the lighter the
fibre load is on the flats, the better the carding quality. Thus, the use of Pf does not give an adequate
understanding of the importance of the recycling layer nor of the size of the fibre mass load at the
cylinder/flats interface.

Figure 7: Effect of Doffer Speed on Carding Parameters

Baturin reports an alternative approach to the above in which the following expression was derived for the
number of cycles, Np, under steady state conditions that fibres on the cylinder clothing make pass the flats
before being removed by the doffer:

Np = 1 + Vc/KVd ………….. (2)

Where K is the transfer coefficient

Vc and Vd are cylinder and doffer surface speeds (m/min).

Since this gives the number of times the recycling fibre mass is subjected to the carding action, it may be a
better indication than Pf of the importance of Q2. From the expression, Np decreases when K increases by
increasing doffer speed. Figure 7 shows that for a constant production rate, web quality decreases when Np
decreases with doffer speed, even though the cylinder load decreases and a high number of cylinder teeth
per fibre is obtained. The last two parameters are usually taken as indicative of good carding. Figure 8
shows the effect of increased doffer speed and sliver count on web quality and there is a consistent trend
which suggests that increasing the production rate by increasing the sliver count, instead of doffer speed,
gives better web quality. With regard to sliver irregularity, several investigators report theoretical and
experimental studies showing that increasing the recycling layer, Q2, reduces the short-term irregularity.

Figure 8: Effect of Doffer Speed and Sliver Count on Web Quality

Karasev attempted to show experimentally the importance of Q2 by removing it during carding using a
suction extractor. It was found that without Q2 a large proportion of the fibre mass transferred from the
takerin became embedded into the empty teeth of the cylinder clothing. Only the larger tuftlets and groups of
individual fibres would then be subjected to the carding and combing actions. Hence, there is a greater
chance of small groups of entangled fibres being removed by the doffer. Q2 therefore acts as a support to
new layers of fibre mass being transferred form the taker-in, keeping the new fibre mass at the tips of the
cylinder wire teeth and thereby promoting the interaction of tuftlets with the flats and cylinder clothing. This
idea, however, does not facilitate an explanation of the mechanism by which fibres leave the recycling layer
to form part of the doffer web, Q1 . Gupta suggest that the rotating cylinder could be considered as a large
centrifuge that would cause fibres, impurities and seed fragments to migrate to the cylinder periphery and
thereby make contact with the flats clothing and, presumably, the doffer teeth.
However, no experimental verification of this hypothesis is reported. Many of the authors have reported the
effect of machine variables on fibre configurations within the card sliver and several have related yarn
properties to the observed configurations. Generally it was found that for a fixed sliver count increasing the
carding rate by increasing the doffer speed, increased the number of minority hooks and reduced the
number of majority hooks, irrespective of cylinder speed. However, for a given doffer speed, increased
cylinder speed gave the reverse trend for minority hooks, but no clear trend for majority hooks. Baturin and
Brown showed that increased cylinder speed decreases cylinder load owing to the effect of centrifugal
forces and Simpson showed that increased cylinder speed also increased minority hooks and decreased
majority hooks. Bhaudri reports that when the fibres are forced nearer the surface of the cylinder teeth,
either by increasing the fibre load or increasing the centrifugal force on the cylinder, the proportion of
minority hooks increases. Simpson found that there was a direct relation between yarn imperfections and
increased occurrence of minority hooks and that spinning end breakage rates and yarn imperfection
increased with increased card production speed owing to minority hooks. Gosh and Simpson found that
heavier slivers had fewer minority hooks. However, the increased draft needed to process the heavier slivers
into yarn led to increased yarn imperfections.

Conclusions

1. The taker-in action separates the fed fibre mass into tuftlets and individual fibres. Although it is reported
that the taker-in action gives a normal mass distribution of tuftlet sizes, this is speculation. Little research
has been reported on the effect of taker-in parameters, fibre properties and the blowroom process on tuftlet
size distribution and on the relative proportions of tuftlets to individual fibres.

2. The perceived benefits of combing segments built into the taker-in under-screen and of stationary flats
fitted before and after the revolving flats are well known, but only limited experimental findings have been
reported to support the use of these attachments. There are conflicting views on the benefits of triple taker-in
systems, concerning whether the fibre opening by such systems would give a high misalignment of fibres to
the direction of mass flow during transfer to the cylinder and degrade the subsequent carding action. A
better understanding is therefore required of the fibre mass transfer from taker-in to cylinder, since the
surface speed ratio of these components is seen as a key factor in the proper functioning of high production
cards.

3. The cylinder-flats and cylinder-doffer interactions have been well researched. Published
findings show that each flat acquires two-thirds of its load at the beginning of its cycle of contact with the
cylinder, and that separation of a given tuftlet occurs over a few flats. With regard to clothing parameters and
cylinder speed, high teeth densities and lower cylinder speeds gave similar results to the converse
arrangement. However, a high teeth density and cylinder speed did not give effective carding. Results
showed that high cylinder speeds caused more fibre breakage than high taker-in speed.

4. A high cylinder to doffer speed reduces cylinder load, gives a higher K value and a better web quality.
Increasing doffer speed was also found to increase K, but the web quality deteriorated. The reported
mechanism of fibre transfer from cylinder to doffer does not adequately explain the effect of the cylinder–
doffer speed ratio, or the various reported changes in fibre configuration during transfer. Further work is
therefore still needed in this area.

METALLIC CARD CLOTHING

INTRODUCTION:

As Carding machine design improved in 1950's and 60's, it became apparent that card clothing was a
limiting factor

Much time and effort was spent in the development of metallic card clothing.
There are two rules of carding

The fibre must enter the carding machine, be efficiently carded and taken from it in as little time as possible
The fibre must be under control from entry to exit
Control of fibres in a carding machine is the responsibilitgy of the card clothing
Following are the five types of clothings used in a Carding machine

Cylinder wire
Doffer wire
Flat tops
Licker-in wire
Stationary flats
CYLINDER WIRE: The main parameters of CYLINDER Card clothing
Tooth depth
Carding angle
Rib width
Wire height
Tooth pitch
Tooth point dimensions

TOOTH DEPTH:

Shallowness of tooth depth reduces fibre loading and holds the fibre on the cylinder in the ideal position
under the carding action of the tops. The space a fibre needs within the cylinder wire depends upon
its Micronaire/denier value and staple length. ould have to be reduced.
The recent cylinder wires have a profile called "NO SPACE FOR LOADING PROFILE"(NSL). With this
new profile, the tooth depth is shallower than the standard one and the overall wire height is reudced
to 2mm , which eliminates the free blade in the wire. This free blade is responsible for fibre loading.
Once the fibre lodges betweent the free blade of two adjacent teeth it is difficult to remove it.Inorder
to eliminate the free blade, the wire is made with a larger rib width

FRONT ANGLE:

Front angle not only affects the carding action but controls the lift of the fibre under the action
of centrifugal force. The higher the cylinder speed , the lower the angle for a given fibre. Different fibresM
have different co-efficients of friction values which also determine the front angle of the wire.
If the front angle is more, then it is insufficient to overcome the centrifugal lift of the fibre
created by cylinder speed. Therefore the fibre control is lost, this will result in increasing flat waste
and more neps in the sliver.
If the front angle is less, then it will hold the fibres and create excessive recyling within the carding
machine with resulting overcarding and therefore increased fibre damage and nep generation.
Lack of parallelisation, fibre damage, nep generation, more flat waste etc. etc., are all consequences
of the wrong choice of front angle.

TOOTH PITCH:
Each fibre has a linear density determined by its diameter to length ratio. Fine fibres and long fibres
necessitates more control during the carding process. This control is obtained by selecting the
tooth pitch which gives the correct contact ratio of the number of teeth to fibre length.
Exceptionally short fibres too require more control, in this case , it is not because of the stiffness but
because it is more difficult to parallelise the fibres with an open tooth pitch giving a low contact ratio.
RIB THICKNESS:

The rib thickness of the cylinder wire controls the carding "front" and thus the carding power.
Generally the finer the fibre, the finer the rib width. The number of points across the carding machine is
determined by the carding machine's design, production rate and the fibre dimensions. General trend is
towards finer rib thicknesses, especially for high and very low production machines.

Rib thickness should be selected properly, if there are too many wire points across the machine for a
given cylinder speed, production rate and fibre fineness, "BLOCKAGE" takes place with disastrous results
from the point of view of carding quality. In such cases, either the cylinder speed has to be increased or
most likely the production rate has to be reduced to improve the sliver quality

POINT POPULATION:
The population of a wire is the product of the rib thickness and tooth pitch per unit area. The general rule
higher populations for higher production rates, but it is not true always. It depends upon other factors
like production rate, fineness, frictional properties etc.

TOOTH POINT:
The tooth point is important from a fibre penetration point of view. It also affects the maintenance and
consistency of performance. Most of the recent cylinder wires have the smallest land or cut-to-point.
Sharp points penetrate the fibre more easily and thus reduce friction, which in turn reduces wear on the
wire and extends wire life.

BLADE THICKNESS:
Blade thickness affects the fibre penetration. The blade thickness is limited by practical considerations,but
the finer the blade the better the penetration of fibres. Wires with thin blade thickness penetrate the more
easily and thus reduce friction, which in turn reduces wear on the wire and extends wire life.
BACK ANGLE:
A lower back angle reduces fibre loading, but a higher value of back angle assists fibre penetration.
Between the two extremes is an angle which facilitates both the reduction in loading and assists fibre
penetration and at the same time gives the tooth sufficient strength to do the job for which it was designed.

Metallic card Clothing - Page 2

HARDNESS OF WIRE:
The cylinder wire needs to be hard at the tip of the tooth where the carding action takes place.The hardness
is graded from the hard tip to the soft rib. High carbon alloy steel is used to manufacture a cylinder wire and
it is flame hardened. Rib should not be hardened, otherwise, it will lead to mounting problems.
The design or type of clothing, selected for the fibre to be carded is important,but it is fair to
state that within reason, an incorrect design of clothing in perfect condition can give acceptable carding
quality whereas a correct clothing design in poor condition will never give acceptable carding quality.
There is no doubt that the condition of the clothings is the most important single factor affecting quality
at high rates of production.

Wire condition and selection of wire are considered to be the two most important factors which influence the
performance of modern high production carding machines.
The condition of the clothing may be defined as the collective ability of the individual teeth of the
clothing to hold on to the fibre against the opposing carding force exerted by other teeth acting in the carding
direction. For a given design of clothing the condition of the teeth determines the maximum acceptable
production rate that can be achieved at the card.

The speed of the main cylinder of card provides the dynamic force required to work on
separating the fibres fed to the card but it is the ability of the carding teeth on the cylinder to carry the fibre
forward against the opposing force offered by the teeth of the tops which determines the performance of the
card. Increasing cylinder speed increases the dynamic forces acting upon the carding teeth and thus the
condition of teeth becomes more important with increased speed.If the condition and design of the cylinder
wire is poor, the teeth will not be able to hold onto the fibre through the carding zone, thus allowing some of
the freed fibre to roll itself into nep.
DOFFER WIRE:
The doffer is a collector and it needs to have a sharp tooth to pickup the condensed mass of fibres
circulating on the cylinder. It also requires sufficient space between the teeth to be efficient in fibre
transfer from the cylinder, consistent in the transfer rate and capable of holding the fibre under control
until the doffer's stripping motion takes control.

A standard doffer wire has an overall height of approx. 4.0 mm to facilitate the deeper tooth
which must have sufficient capacity to collect all the fibre being transferred from the cylinder to meet
production requirements. Heavier webs require a deeper doffer tooth with additional collecting capacity
to hanndle the increased fibre mass.
The doffer wire's front angle plays a very important part in releasing the fibre from the cylinder wire's
influence. A smaller angle has a better chance of enabling the doffer wire's teeth to find their way under
the fibres and to secure the fibre's release from the cylinder with greater efficiency.
A 60 degree front angle for Doffer has been found to give the optimum performance under normal carding
conditions. Too small an angle results in cloudy web and uneven sliver whilst too large an angle results in
fibre recirculation and nep generation.

Having collected the fibre, it is important for the doffer to retain it until it is stripped in a controlled
manner by the doffer stripping motion. The tooth depth, tooth pitch and rib width combine to create the
space available for fibre retention within the doffer wire. Thus they directly influence the collecting capacity.

If the space is insufficient, fibre will fill the space and any surplus fibre will be rejected. When
the surplus fibre is left to recirculate on the cylinder, cylinder loading can take place. Unacceptable nep
levels and fibre damage will also result. In severe cases pilling of the fibre will take place.
The point of the doffer wire normally has a small land which helps to strengthn the tooth. The extremely
small land of around 0.05 mm ensures that the doffer wire height is consistent, has no adverse effect on
fibre penetration and is considred essential for efficient fibre transfer from the cylinder. The land has
micropscopic striations which are created during manufacturing or grinding.

The striations help to collect the fibres from the cylinder and keep them under control during the doffing
process. It has been found that a cut-to-point doffer wire penetrates the fibre better than does the landed
point wire but is less likely to keep the fibre under control during the doffing process. Sometimes a cut-to-
point doffer wire is accompanied by striations along one side of the tooth for this reason.
Until recently 0.9mm rib thickness is standardised for doffer wire, regardless of production and fibre
characteristics.This rib thickness has been found to give optimum results. However doffer wires with a
0.8mm rib thickness have been introduced for applications involving finer fibres.

In general 300 to 400 PPSI(points per square inch) has been found to perform extremely well under
most conditions. Doffer wire point population is limited by the wire angle and tooth geometry. Higher
population for doffer does not help in improving the fibre transfer.

As the production rate rises, the doffer speed also increases. The doffer is also influenced by the
centrifugal force, as is the cylinder.But cylinder wire front angle can become closer to counter the effect
of centrifugal force, to close the front angle on a doffer wire would reduce its collecting capacity and result
in a lowering of the production rate. The solution is to use the wire with striations, which will hold the
fibre until the doffer is stripped.
The hardness of the doffer wire is a degree lower than that of the cylinder but sufficiently hard to
withstand the forces generated in doffing and the resultant wear of the wire. The reason for this slightly lower
hardness requirement is the longer and slimmer tooth form of the differ wire.
The fibres which are not able to enter the wire will lay on top, i.e.completely out of control.
There fore instead of being carded by the tops the fibres will be rolled. Similarly a fibre buried too deep
within the cylinder wire will load the cylinder with fibre, weaken the carding action and limit the quantity of
new fibres the cylinder can accept. Therefore, the production rate would have to be reduced.

LICKER-IN WIRE:

Licker-in with its comparatively small surface area and small number of carding teeth, suffers the hardest
wear of all in opening the tangled mass of material fed to it.
Successful action of the Licker-in depends upon a penetrating sharp point rather than a sharp leading
edge as with the cylinder wire. Therefore the licker-in wire cannot be successfully restored to optimum
performance by grinding.

The most satisfactory system to adopt to ensure consistent performance is to replace the licker-in
wire at regular intervals before sufficient wear has taken place to affect carding quality.
The angles most widely used are 5 degrees negative or 10 degrees.
There is no evidence to suggest recommendation of a tooth pitch outside the range of 3 to 6 points per inch.

It is better to use Licker-in roller without groove. Interlocking wires are used for such type
of licker-ins. This avoids producing the eight precise grooves and to maintain them throughout its life.
Interlocking wire is almost unbreakable and thus no threat to the cylinder, tops and doffer in the event of
foreigh bodies entering the machine.

FLAT TOPS:

The flat tops are an equal and opposite carding force to the cylinder wire and it should be sharp,
well maintained and of the correct design.
The selection of flexible tops is very much related to the choice of cylinder wire, which in turn is related
to the cylinder speed, production rate and fibre charactersitics, as previously stated.
The modern top is of the semi-rigid type, having flexible foundation and sectoral wire. The points are
well backed-off and side-ground to give the necessary degree of fineness. The strength of the top from a
carding point of view is in the foundation and is affected by the number of plies and the type of material
used.
 The position of the bend in the wire is determined by stress factors, at around 2:1 ratio along the
length of the wire protrusion.
The modern top is made from hardened and tempered wire to increase wear resistance , thus improving
the life of the flat top.
Life of the cylinder wire depends upon

Material being processed

production rate
cylinder speed
settings

Wear is the natural and unavoidable side effect of the work done by the vital leading edge of the metallic
wire tooth in coping with the opposing forces needed to obtain the carding action which separates fibre from
fibre.

When the leading edge becomes rounded due to wear, there is a loss of carding power because the point
condition has deteriorated to an extent where the leading edge can no longer hold on to the fibre against the
carding resistance of the flats. This ultimately leads to fibres becoming rolled into nep with consequent
degradation of carding quality. Therefore it is important to recognise that, due to the inevitable wear which
takes place during carding, metallic wire must be reground at regular intervals with the object of correctly
resharpening the leading edge of each tooth.

Metallic card Clothing - Page 3

GRINDING:
GRINDING A CUT-TO-POINT CYLINDER WIRE:
Wire points of cylinder have become finer and the tip is cut-to-point.Because of this new profile,
it has beccome necessary to recommend a little or no grinding of the cylinder wire following mounting.
TSG grinding machine of GRAF(wire manufacturer) can be used to sharpen these modern wires.
TSG grinding is a safe method of grinding.

Picture1. BARE CYLINDER GRINDER

Before grinding , the wire should be inspected with a protable microscope to ascertain the wear. Based on
this and the wire point land width, no of traverse for TSG grinding should be decided. If the width of
the wire point tip is bigger and the wear out is more, the number of traverse during grinding should be more.
For a new wire, 3 or 4 traverses may be enough. But it may require 10 to 30 traverses for the last grinding
before changing the wire, depending upon the maintenance of the wire.

GRINDING A NORMAL CYLINDER AND DOFFER WIRE:

The first grinding of the metallic wire on the cylinder and doffer is the final and most important step leading
up to providing the card with a cylinder in the best possible condition for carding well at maximum produciton
rate.Grinding the lands of the teeth provides the leading edge of each tooth with the final sharpness
reqauired for maximum carding power.

The first grinding should be allowed to continue until at least eighty percent(for cylinder) and 100% (for
doffer) of the lands of the teeth have been ground sufficient to sharpen the leading edge of the tooth.
To ascertain this stage of grinding, it is necessary to stop the cylinder regularly and use a simple
microscope to examine the teeth at random across and round the cylinder.
If the wire on the cylinder is of good quality and has been correctly mounted, the initial grinding
period should be completed with in 20 min.
It is essential to avoid over-working the wire before taking corrective action. The regrinding cycle
must be determined accurately for the conditions applying in the individual mill, by using the microscope.

If regrinding is done properly, there are several advantages

carding quality will remain consistent

There is no risk of overworking the wire
Time required for regrinding is very short
The exact condition of the clothing is known
The working life of the wire is likely to be longer because the points are never allowed to become worn
beyond recovery

To obtain acceptable grinding conditions at the low grinding speed, the grindstone must always be
SHARP, CLEAN and CONCENTRIC. If the grinding stone is gradually allowed to become dull and glazed
through constant use, the limited cutting action available will eventually disappear, resulting in burning
and hooking of the carding teeth.

Due to the low peripheral speed of the grindstone which has to be used, it is most important that the
speed of the wire to be ground is as high as is practicable to provide a high relative speed between
the grindstone surface and the cardig teeth.If wire speed is low, the individual carding tooth spends too
long a time in passing under the grindstone, thereby increasing the risk of hooking and burning the tooth,
which is usually irreparable.

With cylinder grinding, speed is no problem because the normal operating speed of the cylinder is more
than sufficient. The speed of the doffer for grinding is more commonly a problem and this should be driven at
a minimum speed of 250 m/min, to avoid damage when grinding the wire, the design which is particularly
susceptible to hooking due to the long fine, low angled teeth needed on the doffer.
The directions of rotation for metallic wire grinding are normally arranged so that the back edge
of the tooth is first to pass u nder the grindstone. This is termed grinding "back of point"
Flat end Milling Machine

Multi roller Mounting machine

GRINDING FLAT TOPS:

Flat tops provide the opposing carding force against the cylinder wire and hence can equally effect
carding quality.It is essential to ensure that the tops are kept in good condition to maintain maximum
carding power with the cylinder.Again, the only reliable approach is to examine the tops with the
microscope and decide whether grinding is required or not.

For cards fitted with regrindable tops, it is good practice to regrind the flats at regular intervals
thus ensuring that the conditions of the two principal carding surfaces are always complementary one to
other.
Introduction to Open End Spinning
• 1.In conventional spinning ,the fibre supply is reduced to the required
mass per unit length by drafting & then consolidated into a yarn by the
application of twist.
• 2.There is no opportunity for the internal stresses created in the fibres
during drafting to relax.
• 3.In open end spinning, the fibre supply is reduced, as far as possible , to
individual fibres, which are then carried forward on an air-stream as free
fibres.
• 4. This permits internal stresses to be relaxed & gives rise to the term
“free fibre spinning”.
• 5.These fibres are then progressively attached to the tail or “open end” of
already formed rotating yarn.
• 6.This enables twist to be imparted by rotation of the yarn end.
• 7.Thus the continuously formed yarn has only to be withdrawn & taken up
on a cross-wound package.