Yarn Manufacturing Processes

Opening, blending, mixing and cleaning Step 1: Typically, mills select bale mixes with the properties needed to produce yarn for a specific enduse. Processing begins when the bales to be mixed are brought to the opening room, where bagging and ties are removed. Layers of cotton are removed from the bales by hand and placed in feeders. The aim is to begin the sequential production process by converting the compacted layers of baled cotton into small, light, fluffy tufts that will facilitate the removal of foreign matter. This initial process is referred to as opening. The cleaning machines in mills perform the functions of opening and first-level cleaning. Dust and impurities are removed and blending takes place. Step 2: Carding The card is the most important machine in the yarn manufacturing process. It performs secondand final-level cleaning. The card successively work small clumps and tufts of fibres into a high degree of separation or openness, remove a very high percentage of trash and other foreign matter, collect the fibres into a rope-like form called a sliver and deliver this sliver in a container for use in the subsequent process.

Step 3: Drawing & Combing Drawing is the first process in yarn manufacturing that employs roller drafting. Drafting occurs when a sliver is fed into a system of paired rollers moving at different speeds. Drawing straightens the fibres in the sliver by drafting to make more of the fibres parallel to the axis of the sliver. Drawing also produces a sliver that is more uniform in weight per unit of length and helps to achieve greater blending capabilities. Weight per unit length of a finisher-drawing sliver is too high to permit drafting into yarn on conventional ring-spinning systems. Combing upgrades the raw material by removing the short fibers. Combed yarn is more uniform has greater shine smoother and pure. Step 4: Roving The roving process reduces the weight of the sliver to a suitable size for spinning into yarn and inserting twist, which maintains the integrity of the draft strands. The product is now called roving, which is packaged on a bobbin. Step 5: Spinning/Ring Frame Spinning is the single most costly step in converting cotton fibres to yarn. Bobbins of roving are placed onto holders that allow the roving to feed freely into the drafting roller of the ring-spinning frame. Following the drafting zone, the yarn passes through a traveller onto a spinning bobbin. The spindle holding this bobbin rotates at high speed, causing the yarn to balloon as twist is imparted. The lengths of yarn on the bobbins are too short for use in subsequent processes and are doffed into spinning boxes and delivered to the next process, which may be spooling or winding. Once the yarn is spun, the manufacturer prepares a correct package. The type of package depends on whether the yarn will be used for weaving or knitting. Winding, spooling, twisting and quilling are considered preparatory steps for weaving and knitting yarn. In general, the product of spooling will be used as warp yarns (the yarns that run lengthwise in woven fabric) and the product of winding will be used as filling yarns, or weft yarns (the yarns that run across the fabric).