Blow room-2

Properties of cotton fibres considered by cotton spinners: (cont.)

5. Strength:
• Toughness of fibre has a direct effect on yarn and fabric strength. With the
increase of fibre strength, yarn and fabric strength will also increase.
• Very weak cottons tend to rupture during processing both in blow room and
carding, creating short fibres and consequently deteriorate yarn strength and
uniformity.
• Minimum strength for a textile fibre is approximately 6 CN/Tex. Some
significant breaking strength of fibres are:
Polyester: 35-60 CN/Tex
Cotton : 15-40 CN/Tex
Wool : 12-18 CN/Tex
• In relation to cotton, the strength of fibre bundles is measured and
stated as the Pressly value.
Breaking load in lbs
The Pressly Index=
Bundle weight in mg

The following scale of value is used:

Below to 70 Weak
71-75 Fairly strong
76-80 Medium Strong
81-86 Strong
87-92 Very strong
93 and above Excellent value
6. Fibre cleanness:
In addition to usable fibres, cotton stock contains foreign matter of
various kinds:
• Vegetable matter:
Husk portions, Seed fragments, Stem fragments, Leaf
fragments, Wood fragments
• Mineral material:
Earth, Sand, Dust, coal
• Other foreign matters:
Metal fragments, Cloth fragments, Packing materials
Foreign matter causes:
1. Drafting disturbance
2. Yarn breakage
3. Filling up of card clothing
4. Contaminated yarn
5. Metal particles damages card clothing and cause fire.
6. Mineral matter causes high wear rate in machines.
The scale below represents the degree of contamination of cotton fibre in a bale:
Up to 1.2% Very clean
1.3% to 2% Clean
2.1% to 4% Medium
4.1% to 7% Dirty
7.1% and above Very dirty
7. Color:
• Color is particularly important as a measure of how well a yarn or fabric will
be dyed or bleached.
• Instrumental techniques for determining the color of samples are now
available.
• HVI measurement of color provides reasonably accurate results of average
reflectance and yellowness in a sample.
Color of American upland cotton:
1. White
2. Light spotted
3. Spotted
4. Tinged
5. Yellow stained
Grading of American upland cotton:
1. Good Middling (GM)
2. Strict Middling (SM)
3. Middling (M)
4. Strict low Middling (SLM)
5. Low Middling (LM)
6. Strict Good Ordinary (SGO)
7. Good Ordinary (GO)
Nickerson-Hunter Color Diagram for American Upland Cotton:

Example:
Color grade=11,21,22 etc.
8. Fibre elongation:
• Elongation is specified as a percentage of the starting length.
• Textile products without elasticity is hardly usable.
• Products must be able to deform and also be able to return in its
original shape after removing the stress.
• Fibre elongation should be at least 1-2% (glass fibres) and
preferably slightly more.
• The greater crease-resistance of wool compared with cotton arises,
for example, from the difference in their elongation: cotton=5-10%;
wool=25-45%.
Spinning Consistency Index (SCI):
SCI is a calculation for predicting the overall quality and spin ability
of the cotton fibre. The calculation is based on a multiple regression equation
which takes in to account almost all important HVI properties and calculates
one value to be used for each cotton sample tested.
In general, the higher the index value, the higher the yarn strength and
the better the overall fibre spin ability.
The equation for the SCI value:
SCI = - 414.67 + 2.9 × strength (g/Tex) – 9.32 × Mic. value + 49.17 ×
UHML (inch) + 4.74 × Uniformity Index + 0.65 × Rd + 0.36 × (+b)
Where:
UHML is upper half mean length in inches,
Rd is the reflectance degree, and
(+b) is the yellowness of cotton fibre.
Examples:
SCI = -414.67 + 2.9 × 33.7 – 9.32 × 4.58 + 49.17 × 1.16 + 4.74 × 83.2 +
0.65 × 78.1 + 0.36 × 11.0
= -414.67 + 97.73 – 42.68 + 57.04 + 394.37 + 50.76 + 3.96
= 146.5  146
SCI = - 414.67 + 2.9 × strength (g/Tex) – 9.32 × Mic. value + 49.17 ×
UHML (inch) + 4.74 × Uniformity Index + 0.65 × Rd + 0.36 × (+b)
SCI= -414.67 + 2.9 × 29.9 – 9.32 × 4.41 + 49.17 × 1.12 + 4.74 × 75.7 +
0.65 × 76.2 + 0.36 × 11.8
= -414.67 + 86.71 – 41.1 + 55.07 + 358.82 + 49.53 + 4.25
= 98.61  98
Bale Management:

• Testing, sorting and mixing bales according to fibre properties for

producing specific good quality yarn at minimum cost is called bale
management.

• By this method a few number of bales are selected for daily mixing
as per fibre quality and end use in such a way that day to day mixing
have the same consistency of fibre quality.

• If bale management is absent, lot to lot variation will occur and this
will produce color variation and barre effect in the finished fabric.