Introduction to New Spinning Technologies

In today’s technology, many spinning systems are used commercially to produce spun yarns with
a wide range of values of characteristics. Among these systems, ring spinning enjoys the greatest
diversity and the highest quality levels. Ring spinning has been able to supplant almost all other
conventional spinning methods and has proved very resistant to inroads by the newcomers. This
can be attributed mainly to its flexibility, universal applicability, and yarn quality.

Other new spinning systems such as rotor spinning, air-jet spinning, and friction spinning suffer
inherent limitations that make them suitable for only narrow ranges of yarn count and twist
levels. However, the major limiting factor in ring spinning is their low production rate in
comparison with all new spinning technologies. Typically, ring-spinning can only operate at a
production speed of up to 30 m/min, while other systems producing comparable yarns (such as
rotor spinning and air-jet spinning) can operate at production speeds of up to 250 m/min. The
low production rate in ring spinning is primarily attributed to the use of the ring/traveller system
for twisting and winding.
Concerns with Ring Spinning
 The dependence of the yarn linear speed (or delivery speed) on the rotational speed of the
traveller, or more precisely on the rate of twist insertion;
 The continuous need to stabilise yarn tension during spinning, and the significant
dependence of this stability on the traveller speed;
 The impact of traveller speed on the performance of fibres in the spinning triangle, and in
the ring/traveller zone.

As regards yarn quality, ring spinning has recently made a remarkable step further ahead with the
introduction of compact spinning. However, there are also problems associated with the ring
spinning machine. For one thing, this machine is difficult to automate. For another, ring frame
productivity is currently limited by traveler speed (around 45 m/s), yarn tension in the balloon
and spindle speed (around 25,000 rpm), and major improvements above these levels are not
easily imaginable.
New Spinning Systems:

Search for new solutions offers the prospect of basic advances in the spinning field in future.
This search began on a broad front at the end of the 1960s. The newer spinning systems
developed since then include rotor spinning, air-jet spinning, friction spinning, vortex spinning,
electrostatic spinning, core spinning, wrap spinning, twistless spinning and others. The
structures of yarn obtained from these systems are also different and vary in many aspects. The
ring yarns have helical structure and even twist distribution, but sometimes there can be problem
in ring spun yarn related to twist liveliness and migration of fibres inside yarn. For improving
these aspect new structures came into picture, which are different from ring spun yarn structure
and these structures will also behave differently in fabric stages.

The Figure 1. shows the typical yarn structures that are obtained from these technologies in
comparison to that of ring spinning.

Figure 1. Different Yarn Structures

Twist distribution in yarns from different technologies:

Figure 2. Twist Distribution in Different Types of Yarns

Yarn structures obtained with new spinning systems:
The structure of yarns from new spinning systems differ from that of ring spun yarns. Although
detailed discussions are provided in the following lectures, the basic structural features of the
yarns from major new spinning technologies are provided.

Rotor yarns:

 In rotor spinning, the fibres are added to the yarn tail continuously almost one at a time,
with the result that the fibres exhibit individual helix structure.
 The yarn structure will have two distinct regions, namely the core characterised by helical
twisting of fibres and, the sheath constituted by individual or a thin ribbon of wrapper
fibres, which form belts on the yarn surface. The belts may be wrapped loosely or tightly
with varying sense of twist.
 The rotor spun yarn, therefore, has ‘Bipartite Structure’, which exhibit differential twist.
 As the rotor spun yarn has bipartite structure the core exhibits twist structure more or less
similar to that in ring spun yarns and the sheath is characterised by belts having varying
intensity and direction of wrapping.
 The fibre in the core are twisted helically with the fibres near the yarn axis showing low
helix angle while those near the surface have greater helix angles. Further since the fibres
are attached to the yarn tails almost one at a time, the fibres exhibits individual position
with a wide range of helix angles. The mean helix is angling around 35 degree. The
wrapper fibres also show wide range of variation in respect of tightness and direction of
wrapping over the yarn length. Due to this reasons it is evident that the rotor spun yarns
exhibits differential twist structure.
Air-Jet Spun Yarns

 The air-jet spinning system with distinct way of yarn formation results in the production
of unique structure.
 The air-jet-spun yarn is fascinated yarn consisting of a core of parallel fibres held
together by wrapper fibres.
 The structure of air-jet-spun yarn is essentially that of comparatively straight central core
of fibres held together by taut surface fibres wound onto the central core helically. The
straight fibres termed as “core fibres” while the taut, helically fibres called as “wrapper
fibres”.
 The fascinated yarn structure was classified into three distinct classes as below:

Class 1: In this structure, a part of yarn that has regular helical wrapping and the yarn
core is crimped the crimpiness is due to the buckling force generated by wrapping fibre
torque and tension. The angle of wrap varies between 40 to 45 degree.

Class 2: This structure has twist less core randomly wrapped by fibres, in singular state
and group with angle of wrap varies between 45 to 90 degree.

Class 3:This structure consists of unwrapped section of yarn core, at time having residual
twist. The yarn structure resembles that of ring yarn with very low twist in fibres.
Friction Spun Yarns

 A friction spun yarn appears like a ring spun yarn visually, but its internal structure
differs from that of ring spun yarn or rotor spun yarn.
 The yarn is characterised with inferior fibre orientation and loose packing of fibre in the
cross section.
 The structure of friction spun yarn varies depending upon mode of yarn formation like
DREF 2 and DREF 3.
 The internal structure of open-end friction spun yarn is characterised by inferior fibre
orientation, buckled and folded fibre configurations and loose packing of the fibres
associated with low tension during yarn formation.
 The degree of fibre orientation and extension is so low that the fibres of 40 mm length
can be found in 10 mm long section in case of DREF 2 and in DREF 3. The fibre extent
of sheath of yarn is 19 mm which corresponds to 50% fibre length utilisation of fibre of
38 mm and for core structure the fibre extent is 32 mm for 38 mm fibre length which
gives spinning coefficient of 0.85. DREF 3 yarn has good fibre extent as compared to
DREF 2 yarn.
The main problems of the new spinning processes:

 yarn character differing from that of ring-spun yarn, which still represents the basic
standard for comparison;
 characteristics occasionally bordering on the unusable;
 difficulties in maintaining consistently uniform yarn characteristics;
 greater demands on the raw material;
 market segments limited to:
– a narrow count range;
– specific raw material types;
– specific end products;
 a high level of process know-how; and
 expenditure on repair and maintenance.
Advantages of new spinning systems:

 high production rates;

 elimination of processing stages;
 a considerable reduction in:
– personnel and
– space; and
 relative ease of automation.