Indian Journal of .

Fibre & Textile Research

Vol. 36, September 2011, pp. 211-214

Novel technique for improving yarn quality and reducing hairiness in

conventional ring frame
R Murugana & C Vigneswaran
PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore 641 004, India
and
Anindya Ghosh
Government College of Engineering & Textile Technology, Berhampore 742 101, India

Received 21 September 2010; revised received and accepted 25 May 2011

An attempt has been made to produce condensed yarn using mingling chamber fitted in the front drafting zone in the
conventional ring spinning machine. Three combed cotton yarns of 60s, 80s and 100s Ne have been spun on the existing and
modified ring spinning systems. A test of significance at 95% level confirms that the condensed yarns produced by the
proposed system are much better in strength, elongation, hairiness and imperfections as compared to the yarns produced on
existing system. The proposed method of yarn condensing has great potentiality to be used as an alternative method of
compact spinning as it is capable of producing optimum quality yarns at lower cost.

Keywords: Condensed yarn, Compact spinning, Mingling chamber, Ring spinning, Yarn quality

1 Introduction embraced by an indirectly driven perforated lattice

Although new spinning technologies solved the
problem of production and automation to a greater
extent, ring spinning still dominates over the others and
will continue in the future as a dominant technology,
because it exhibits significant advantages in terms of
yarn quality and flexibility in comparison with the new
spinning process. The spinning triangle is the most
troublesome and weakest zone in the yarn formation
process in ring spinning as it increases end breakage,
fibre loss and yarn hairiness. The introduction of
compact spinning has minimized the negative influence
of the spinning triangle in ring spinning.
Compact spinning has been generated through re-
engineering the established ring spinning process by
attaching a condensing device which ensures the
compaction of fibre band issuing from the drafting
system1, 2. The compaction of the fibres can be
accomplished either by using mechanical condenser
or pneumatic condenser. There are two major
manufacturers for compact spinning, namely Sussen
Elite Spinning and Rieter Comfor Spin.
The attached condensing device of Sussen Elite
Spinning consists of a tubular profile, which is closely
apron. The tubular profile has a small slot, which
ensures the air suction through the lattice apron. The
air current seizes the fibres after they leave the front
roller nipping line and condenses the fibre strand,
which is conveyed by the lattice apron and
transported to the delivery line.
In Rieter Comfor Spin, the delivery roller of the
drafting system is replaced by a perforated drum,
which is fitted with a suction system. There is a
stationary diagonal slot inside the drum to allow the
passage of air. A subsequent second top roller also
presses the drum. The fibres supplied from the
delivery nip line of the drafting system are held firmly
on the surface of the perforated drum and move with
the circumferential speed of the drum. The fibre band
emerging from the drafting system is thus condensed.
Compact spinning realizes a noteworthy
enhancement in yarn quality through better
exploitation of fibre length3-7. However, the compact
spinning has some practical problems8. As a
consequence, it has been deprived to gain commercial
acceptance on a large scale in India. Some
technological problems associated with the aforesaid
compact spinning systems are discussed below.

a
To whom all the correspondence should be addressed. As far as the Sussen Elite Spinning is concerned,
E-mail: rmuruganavd@gmail.com the maintenance cost is very high because of the
212 INDIAN J. FIBRE TEXT. RES., SEPTEMBER 2011
frequent cutting of perforated aprons and profile tube.
This may be attributed to the contact pressure gradient
resulting from the apron passage over different radii
of curvature of the tubular profile. Moreover, the
rubber embraced delivery top roller which negatively
drives the apron in the condensing zone is very
smooth and thereby makes the apron more prone to
slippage and causes speed variation, which results in
deterioration of yarn quality8.
In the context of Rieter Comfor Spin, the diameter
of bottom perforated roller is much larger than the
diameter of ordinary bottom roller which restricts
minimum setting for short fibre processing. Further,
the absence of tension draft between front top roller
and delivery top roller may cause disturbance in fibre
orientation since the condensing forces act normal to
direction of fibre movement. Moreover, the absence
of flutes on the perforated bottom roller may assist
slippage of top rollers leading to deterioration in yarn
qualities. In addition, the diameter of hole of
perforation is very large in comparison to the fibre
diameter. Consequently, there is a strong possibility
that some amount of fibres may get sucked through
the perforation of the bottom roller8.
In the wake of current economic slowdown, it is
always advisable to look for cheaper alternatives. In
view of the supra, there appears a need for developing
an alternate method for yarn compaction which is free
from the aforesaid problems associated with the
existing compact spinning systems. The present
investigation is endeavored to design a mingling
chamber as a means for yarn compaction and
hairiness reduction. A comparison has been made
between the quality of yarns spun with modified and
existing ring spinning systems.
2 Materials and Methods
The MCU5 and DCH cottons were processed
separately on a Laxmi-Rieter blow room line and
carded on LR C 1/3 card. The carded slivers were
given two passages through sliver lap former and
ribbon lap former and then processed on Laxmi LK
250 comber. The combed slivers were again given
one passage of drawing on Rieter RSB-851 to
produce finisher slivers of 0.18s Ne. The roving
samples of 2.3s Ne with 1.2 twist multiplier (TM)
were prepared from MCU5 cotton on a Lakshmi
LF1400A speed frame. Similarly, from DCH cotton,
roving samples of 2.8s Ne with 1.12 TM were
prepared. The yarn samples of 60s, 80s and 100s Ne
counts were spun using both existing and modified
ring spinning systems. Yarns of 60s count (4.05 TM)
were spun from MCU5 cotton and DCH cotton was
used to spin 80s (4.08 TM) and 100s (3.93 TM)
counts. The process parameters employed for each
machines were those that are considered appropriate
by commercial spinners based on their experience.
The specifications of the cotton fibres are given in
Table 1.
For the condensed yarn production in the ring
spinning system, the conventional ring spinning
machine (Laxmi LG 5/1) having SKF PK 225 drafting
system with 3/3 drafting arrangements (Fig. 1) was
modified. The mingling chamber with pneumatic
pipeline was designed for individual spindle. The
mingling chamber was made out of aluminum bar
with two holes on either side and was fitted with
pneumatic pipe line of group connections. The
medium size cradle was replaced with a shorter cradle
in the drafting system (Fig. 2). The mingling chamber
was fixed between the front and the middle drafting
rollers with suitable air connections. Mingling
chamber ensures the condensation of drafted fibre
strand by means of intertwining the jet of compressed
air in anticlockwise direction. The air pressure of
pneumatic pipe line was controlled with the air
regular. A pressure of 4.5 bar was chosen after several
Table 1Quality particulars of cotton fibres
Parameter MCU5 cotton DCH cotton
2.5% Span length, mm 32.67 34.27
50% Span length, mm 15.78 16.45
Uniformity ratio, % 46.79 48.00
Tenacity, g/tex 23.31 24.63
Elongation, % 6.22 6.35
Trash, % 3.45 2.53
Maturity coefficient 0.77 0.79
Fig.1Existing drafting system arrangement in conventional ring
spinning machine
 MURUGAN et al.: NOVEL TECHNIQUE FOR IMPROVING YARN QUALITY & REDUCING HAIRINESS 213

trials for trouble free processing. Figures 3 and 4

show the pneumatic pipe arrangement with mingling
chamber attached in the front drafting zone. The roller
settings of front and back zones for existing and
modified drafting arrangements are given in Table 2.
The experimental samples were conditioned in a
standard atmosphere of 65 2% RH and 270C 20C
temperature for 24 h. The Uster tester 3 was used to
measure yarn unevenness (U%), imperfections and
hairiness index. The yarn samples were subjected to
the tensile testing in an Instron universal tensile tester
with standard time to break (20 2 s). Each sample
was subjected for 30 tests to determine the average
value of tenacity and breaking elongation. Fig. 3Pneumatic pipe arrangement with mingling chamber

3 Results and Discussion

Table 3 depicts the test results of various quality
parameters corresponding to 60s, 80s and 100s Ne
yarns spun on both existing and modified spinning
systems. The statistical t-test has been conducted to
find out the significance difference between the
results at 95% confidence level. The significant

Fig. 4 Pneumatic pipe with mingling chamber attachment in

drafting system

Table 2Roller settings of existing and modified drafting systems

Roller Roller setting, mm
Existing system Modified system
Front zone Back zone Front zone Back Zone
Fig. 2Modified Drafting system with mingling chamber Bottom 54 60 57 60
arrangement Top 58 58 61 58
Table 3Comparison of existing and condensed yarns
Parameter Existing yarn Condensed yarn
60s Ne 80s Ne 100s Ne 60s Ne 80s Ne 100s Ne
Tenacity, cN/tex 16.76 16.41 14.61 18.09 (S) 18.46 (S 15.44 (S)
Strength CV% 8.40 9.13 8.21 7.58 (S) 8.41 (S) 7.85 (S)
Breaking elongation, % 4.10 4.07 3.84 4.35 (S) 4.27 (S) 4.09 (S)
Elongation CV% 10.51 12.04 11.34 9.72 (S) 10.96 (S) 9.75 (S)
Hairiness index 4.95 4.76 4.67 4.31 (S) 4.13 (S) 4.05 (S)
U% 11.97 11.89 13.06 11.94 (NS) 11.56 (NS) 13.10 (NS)
Thin place (-50%) 34 21 88 28 (S) 12 (S) 82 (S)
Thick place (+50%) 98 142 214 85 (S) 106 (S) 190 (S)
Neps (+200%) 232 338 280 212 (S) 256 (S) 216 (S)
Total imperfections 364 501 582 325 (S) 374 (S) 488 (S)
SDifference is significant and NSDifference is not significant (at 95% confidence level) .
214 INDIAN J. FIBRE TEXT. RES., SEPTEMBER 2011
differences are observed between all the quality
parameters of yarns produced on these two systems,
except U%. A reduction in yarn hairiness index is
observed for all yarns using the modified system,
when compared with the existing system. For
instance, percentage improvement of 12.9, 12.8 and
13.3 in hairiness index is observed for 60s, 80s and
100s Ne yarns respectively. The reduction in yarn
hairiness can be ascribed to the better binding of the
edge fibres in the drafted ribbon due to the mingling
action at the front drafting zone.
A significant improvement in yarn imperfection is
also noticed in the condensed yarns when compared
with the existing ring-spun yarns. The percentage
improvement of the condensed yarns is found to
be 17.6, 42.8 and 6.8 in thin places, 13.3, 25.3 and
11.2 in thick places, and 8.6, 24.2 and 22.8 in neps
level respectively for 60s, 80s and 100s Ne yarns. The
improvement in yarn imperfection may be attributed
to the fact that the compaction of drafted ribbon at the
front drafting zone due to the mingling action causes a
higher fibre-to-fibre cohesion, which leads to better
control on short fibre motion while drafting.
The condensed yarns are also found to be stronger
and more extensible than the existing ring yarns. An
improvement of 7.9%, 12.5% and 5.7% in tenacity,
and 6.1%, 4.9% and 16.5% in breaking elongation is
observed for 60s, 80s and 100s Ne yarns respectively
in case of condensed yarns. It is also observed that the
strength and elongation CV% of condensed yarns are
less in comparison with the existing ring yarns. The
consolidation of yarn tensile properties can be
ascribed to the better integration of edge fibres as well
as coherent structure of the condensed yarns.
4 Conclusion
The condensed yarns as produced on the
conventional ring frame with mingling chamber fitted
in the front drafting zone show better quality in
comparison to the existing ring-spun yarns for all
three yarn counts. There is a significant improvement
in yarn strength, elongation, hairiness and
imperfections for the condensed yarns spun on the
modified system. The proposed method of producing
condensed yarns may substitute the compact spinning
in textile industry as it produces the optimum quality
yarns with reduced cost of production. This study is
rather a preliminary trail for producing the condensed
yarn by adopting mingling chamber in the front
drafting zone in the conventional ring spinning
machine. More studies need to be conducted for
improving the process and optimization of yarn
quality using the proposed method of yarn
condensation.
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