See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/303940139

Spinnability of cotton/milkweed blends on ring, compact and rotor spinning

systems

Article  in  Indian Journal of Fibre and Textile Research · April 2016

CITATIONS READS

2 105

2 authors:

Karthik Thangavel Ramachandran Murugan

PSG College of Technology KCG College of Technology
61 PUBLICATIONS   207 CITATIONS    21 PUBLICATIONS   104 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Artificial immune system for dynamic economic dispatch View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Karthik Thangavel on 14 June 2016.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

Indian Journal of Fibre & Textile Research
Vol 41, March 2016, pp. 26-32

Spinnability of cotton/milkweed blends on ring, compact and rotor

spinning systems
T Karthik & R Murugana
Department of Textile Technology, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore 641 004, India

Received 17 June 2014; revised received and accepted 27 October 2014

The physical characteristics of cotton/milkweed yarns spun on ring, compact and rotor spinning systems in relation to
blend proportion and chemical treatment of milkweed fibres have been studied. During spinning of milkweed fibre blends,
greater fibre losses in carding and flies during drafting are observed in further stages. It is observed that amongst the ring,
compact and rotor yarns, the compact-spun blended yarns show higher yarn tenacity and elongation values followed by ring
and rotor-spun yarns. The rotor-spun blended yarns show lower yarn unevenness, imperfections and hairiness values than
compact and ring-spun yarns due to its mechanism of yarn formation. With the increase in milkweed proportion, the yarn
quality deteriorates, irrespective of spinning systems due to lack of cohesiveness and brittleness of milkweed fibres, and
drastic reduction in yarn quality is noticed for 40/60 cotton/milkweed blend. By considering the effect of chemical treatment
of milkweed fibres, it is observed that the alkali-treated milkweed fibre blended yarns show better yarn properties due to
improvement in fibre friction and elongation values followed by dyed and untreated milkweed fibres.

Keywords: Compact yarn, Dyeing, Milkweed yarn, Ring yarn, Rotor yarn, Spinning blended yarn

1 Introduction yarn due to its smooth surface. Because of its short

The textile manufacturers are continuously striving length, milkweed floss has been blended with cotton
to get new approaches to produce environment- and processed to develop yarns in ring and rotor
friendly products, such as recyclable and spinning systems9,10. The milkweed generates larger
biodegradable textile materials for use in textile waste when it is processed with cotton in blended
goods1. After the second world war, the increase in form as compared to 100% cotton, presumably due to
synthetic fibre production considerably decreased the lack of cohesiveness in milkweed11. The breaking
use of natural fibres. With the increase in oil prices strength of yarns and fabrics made from the
and environmental concerns in recent years, there has cotton/milkweed blends were found much lower than
been a resurgence of natural fibres in textile and that of 100% cotton yarns and fabrics. The processing
automotive industries2. difficulty increases as the milkweed component
The Pergularia daemia is a ligno-cellulosic seed increases in the blend. It appears to be impossible to
fibre obtained from plant, naturally growing drought spin a pure milkweed fibre yarn using a classical ring
and pest resistant tree of Indian origin which is well spinning process. The lack of cohesiveness of the
known for its medicinal values3. The plant Pergularia milkweed fibres causes extreme difficulties in textile
belongs to the family of Asclepiadacea and genus of processing12-14. It is also used in oil spill clean-up15
pergularia which is considered under the milkweed and composite manufacturing16 because of its light
fibres4. The fibres are hollow, with significantly thin weight and hollow structure. The similar studies were
wall relative to their diameter, and are therefore conducted on spinnability of hollow kapok fibres by
lightweight. Owing to their structure, they posses various researchers and it is concluded that the
good insulation or buoyancy properties making them spinning of 100% kapok fibres beyond lap formation
suitable for filler fibres in comforters, life vests and stage is not possible, however, spinning of kapok
winter jackets5-8. One of the major drawbacks of fibre blended with at least 50% cotton fibre is largely
milkweed fibre is difficulty in spinning the fibres into successful17. With the increase in kapok content in the
blend, the yarn regularity and tenacity decrease while
——————
a
Corresponding author. the yarn extensibility increases, with the reduction in
E-mail: muruganavd@gmail.com the total cost of production18.
 KARTHIK & MURUGAN: SPINNABILITY OF COTTON/MILKWEED BLENDS 27

But still there is a dearth in analysis of influence of friction tester developed by Gowda & Mohanraj21. An
chemical treatment of fibres and their influence on average of twenty readings was taken as the
spinnability of milkweed fibres. Hence, in the present representative value for each sample.
study, the effect of chemical treatment of milkweed fibres 2.4 Yarn Production
on the spinnability of cotton/milkweed blends in ring, The spinning trials were conducted on a
compact and rotor spinning systems has been analysed. micro-spinning line (Trytex, India)22,23. Since 100%
milkweed (M) fibres cannot be processed on the
2 Materials and Methods
machine due to its lack of cohesiveness and low
2.1 Collection of Milkweed Fibres elongation-at-break, it was blended with the cotton
The matured pods were collected from the plant (C) fibres at three different blend ratios of C/M 80/20,
Pergularia daemia for its floss, since immature pods 60/40, and 40/60. Due to processing difficulties such as
yield floss of inferior quality. After collection, the web falling in carding and roller lapping, the maximum
floss is extracted from the pods and partly dried. The milkweed proportion was limited to 60% in the blend.
medium grade cotton variety S-4 was used to blend Three types of blended yarns such as ring, compact and
with the milkweed fibres. rotor were produced. The process parameters in
2.2 Modification of Milkweed Fibres by Chemical Treatments carding and draw frame were kept constant for all the
Milkweed fibre is a ligno-cellulosic seed fibre and three spinning systems. The process parameters in
hence possesses the inherent attributes of this class. speed frame (spindle speed 1000 rpm, TM 1.0, roving
The fibre is highly brittle and is easily hand-crushable hank 1.1), ring frame (spindle speed 10000 rpm, TM
due to high lignin content and has less cohesiveness 4.4) and rotor frame (opening roller speed 8000 rpm,
between the fibres due to smooth rod like fibre profile. opening roller wire type OS21, rotor speed 40000 rpm)
Hence, two chemical treatments namely delignification were kept constant for the production of 20s Ne in ring,
by alkali treatment19 and dyeing of fibres were done to compact and rotor-spun yarns.
modify the surface properties of milkweed fibres. 2.5 Testing of Yarn Properties
Dyeing of fibres modifies the surface characteristics of The yarn characteristics, such as single yarn strength
fibres and increases the fibre friction20. (ASTM D 2256-02), yarn evenness, imperfections
(ASTM D 1425-09) and hairiness frequency (Zweigle
2.3 Physical Properties of Fibres hairiness - ASTM D 5647-07) were tested as per
The linear density of the material was measured by standard method. All the tests were carried out after
gravimetric method using the ASTM test method conditioning the samples at the standard temperature
D1577 at standard atmosphere conditions. The tensile (21.0 ± 0.1°C) and relative humidity (65±2%). The
properties of cotton and milkweed fibres were wrapper fibres were evaluated by their rate of
determined as per ASTM D3822-01 standard in an recurrence and arrangement in the yarn surface. The
Instron tester. The fibre density determined with a average number of loosely wrapped fibres per metre
density gradient column having a mixture of xylene of yarn was observed in rotor-spun yarns.
(0.866 g/cc) and carbon tetrachloride (1.592 g/cc) as
per ASTM D1505-03 standard shows the value in the 3 Results and Discussion
range of 0.92-0.95 g/cm3. The moisture regain of fibre 3.1 Tensile Properties of Single Fibres
samples were calculated by oven drying method using The linear density of cotton and milkweed fibres
ASTM D2654-89a standard testing method. The was found to be 1.25 and 1.05 denier respectively.
fibre-to–fibre frictional coefficients of the cotton and The tensile properties of single fibres measured in
milkweed samples were measured with the help of a Instron tester is given in Table 1.
Table 1—Tensile properties of cotton and milkweed fibres
Fibre property Cotton Milkweed fibre
Raw Alkali treated Dyed
Fibre denier 1.25 (12.7) 1.05 (18.6) 1.04 (16.2) 1.04 (17.5)
Breaking strength, gf 5.1 (35.72) 3.92 (44.63) 4.02 (57.13) 3.96 (39.22)
Tenacity, g/den 4.1 (34.1) 3.73 (37.6) 3.87 (53.5) 3.81 (42.1)
Breaking elongation, % 8.1 (23.2) 3.05 (33.7) 4.83 (39.6) 3.1 (35.4)
Initial modulus, gf/den 91.87 (42.33) 210.89 (33.7) 140.8 (45.38) 197.3 (52.2)
Values in parentheses represent CV%.
28 INDIAN J. FIBRE TEXT. RES, MARCH 2016

It is observed from Table 1 that the cotton fibres cotton slivers due to more number of shorter
have higher tenacity and elongation values as milkweed fibres in the blend. The short fibre content
compared to raw and chemically treated milkweed and nep count of C/M blended sliver increase with the
fibres, and these fibres are coarser than milkweed. increase in milkweed fibre proportion, irrespective of
The initial modulus of raw milkweed fibres is chemical treatments. This could be due to milkweed
significantly higher than the cotton fibres, which fibre breakage during opening and stationary flat
could be due to the low elongation-at-break of arrangement in the carding machine respectively.
milkweed as compared to cotton. The tenacity and 3.4 Fibre Loss in Carding
elongation of alkali-treated milkweed fibre slightly Since the milkweed fibres possess less
increase as compared to the raw fibre. This may be cohesiveness because of its smooth rod like surface,
due to re-arrangement of molecular chains and it is necessary to blend them with cotton to make
formation of convolutions after alkali treatment 19. their yarn. The raw milkweed fibres have been
Such lower elongation values could result in fibre mixed with carded cotton fibres in desired weight
breakage during opening in blow room and carding ratios to produce three different blended yarns.
processes. The dyed milkweed fibre sample does not The blending process is rather easy, but a significant
show a significant difference in tensile properties than fibre loss is noticed while carding. Figure 1 shows the
in raw fibres.
3.2 Effect of Chemical Treatments on Frictional Property of
Milkweed Fibres
The fibre-to-fibre friction coefficient (μ) measured
on the fibre friction tester shows a value of 0.33 for
cotton fibre and 0.16, 0.22, 0.28 for raw, dyed and
alkali-treated milkweed fibres respectively. The
values for milkweed are relatively lower than that for
cotton, indicating a smooth surface without
convolutions or crimps. The alkali-treated fibre shows
higher friction co-efficient followed by dyed fibre.
This is due to the irregular collapse of hollow
structure and formation of convolution like structure
in the milkweed fibres19.
3.3 Influence of Carding on Sliver Properties
The carded slivers were tested for their properties
like 5% length, nep count and short fibre content in
AFIS instrument. The AFIS results of the carded
slivers are given in Table 2. It is observed that, the 5% Fig. 1—Influence of blend ratio and nature of fibre treatment of
length of C/M blended slivers is lesser than 100% milkweed on card fibre loss

Table 2—AFIS results of cotton and cotton/milkweed blended card slivers

Fibre particulars Chemical treatment 5% Length, mm Nep count/g Seed coat, Nep/g Short fibre content (n), %
100% Cotton Raw 30.4 (2.6) 90 (12.2) 2 (16.3) 28.6 (9.2)
C/M 80/20 Raw 29.6 (4.7) 111 (18.2) 2 (12.3) 39.8 (14.1)
Alkali 29.9 (3.9) 102 (16.9) 1 (8.3) 34.3 (13.9)
Dyed 29.6 (3.6) 99 (16.6) 1 (10.2) 37.4 (13.7)
C/M 60/40 Raw 29.7 (6.3) 139 (15.6) 1 (7.3) 58.9 (17.2)
Alkali 29.8 (5.3) 126 (16.2) 2 (6.9) 47.7 (15.8)
Dyed 29.8 (5.2) 132 (16.7) 1 (9.2) 53.3 (16.3)
C/M 40/60 Raw 29.8 (6.9) 171 (23.5) 1 (6.3) 73.7 (21.3)
Alkali 29.7 (6.6) 156 (22.4) 1 (3.2) 58.8 (19.7)
Dyed 29.7 (6.3) 175 (21.6) 1 (7.2) 60.6 (20.9)
Values in parenthesis indicates CV%.
 KARTHIK & MURUGAN: SPINNABILITY OF COTTON/MILKWEED BLENDS 29

fibre loss during carding with various milkweed rotor-spun yarns, it is noticed that number of loosely
proportions. With increase in the blend ratio of bound wrapper fibres increases with the increase in
milkweed, there is further increase in fibre loss. While milkweed proportion. The increase in bend proportion
carding, the short and finer milkweed fibres are of finer and less cohesive milkweed fibres leads to
preferentially absorbed as flat strips in the stationary clumping of fibres at the exit of transport tube,
flat arrangement of miniature carding. The increase causing an uneven deposition of fibres inside the rotor
in fibre loss with milkweed proportion could be groove which could result in wrapper fibre formation.
attributed to low friction coefficient and brittle nature The number of wrapper fibres per metre of yarns is
of milkweed fibres. The lickerin droppings and micro found to be 57, 62, 64 and 79 for 100% cotton, C/M
dust generation also increase with the increase in 80/20, C/M 60/40 and C/M 40/60 respectively. The
milkweed proportion. loosely wrapped fibres do not contribute much to the
3.5 Influence of Process Parameters on Yarn Tenacity and yarn tenacity positively as these fibres will not hold
Elongation the yarn structure tightly. This could be a reason for
The influence of milkweed blend proportion and lower yarn tenacity with increasing milkweed
chemical treatments on ring, compact and rotor yarn proportion in the blend.
tenacity is shown in Fig. 2. It is evident that the yarn Considering the influence of chemical treatments
tenacity decreases as the milkweed content increases of milkweed fibres on the tenacity of C/M blended
in ring-, compact- and rotor-spun C/M blended yarns, yarns, it is observed from Fig. 2 that the alkali-treated
irrespective of nature of chemical treatments. The yarns give better results, followed by dyed and raw
yarn tenacity is found higher for the compact yarns yarn samples in all spinning systems. The increase in
followed by ring and rotor yarns for all combinations yarn tenacity of alkali-treated yarns is mainly because
of C/M. This is due to the technological advantages of of the increase in inter-fibre friction and elongation-
compact spinning process. With increase in milkweed at-break of milkweed fibres. In case of dyed yarns, the
fibres in the blend, the tenacity drops due to more surface friction of fibre increases moderately, thereby
number of relatively less stronger and less cohesive increasing the tenacity as compared to untreated (raw)
fibres in the yarn cross-section. samples. The change in inter-fibre friction in both
The rotor-spun yarns have lowest yarn tenacity alkali-treated and dyed milkweed fibres has led to
values as compared to ring- and compact-spun yarns better self-locking with cotton fibres which improve
due to its mechanism of yarn formation. The less the twisting and compact packing of fibres, thus
prominent, less frictional, parallelization of fibres in leading to increased yarn tenacity. In case of yarn
the yarn surface as compared to that in ring-spun yarn elongation, a trend similar to tenacity is noticed. The
are also the reason for its lower yarn tenacity24. From elongation values decrease with increase in milkweed
the analysis of frequency of wrapper fibres in the percentage of the blend for all spinning systems. The

Fig. 2—Effect of milkweed blend proportion, chemical treatments and different spinning systems on yarn tenacity
30 INDIAN J. FIBRE TEXT. RES, MARCH 2016

elongation of rotor-spun yarns is comparable to that content increases, the shorter, finer and less dense
of ring- and compact-spun blended yarns. This could milkweed fibres move irregularly from the opening
be attributed to its differential twist structure. roller to transport channel in bunches, thereby leading
to uneven deposition in rotor groove. This results in
3.6 Influence of Process Parameters on Yarn Evenness higher frequency of loose fibre wraps which increases
Figure 3 reveals a slight improvement in yarn with milkweed proportion in the blend.
evenness of compact-spun blended yarns as compared The results are found slightly better for alkali-treated
to ring yarns but the change is not significant. The and dyed C/M blended yarns for all the three spinning
evenness values deteriorate with the increase in systems. The chemical treatment enables the milkweed
milkweed content, as milkweed fibres could not be fibres to move in a controlled manner in the drafting
controlled effectively in the drafting zone due to its zone due to improved surface and inter-fibre friction.
intrinsic nature and lesser fibre-to-fibre friction. In
compact spinning machine, the choking of fibres in 3.7 Influence of Process Parameters on Yarn Imperfection
the suction unit leads to higher yarn unevenness The influence of milkweed blend proportion and
values. The opening of fibre mass by opening roller chemical treatment on total yarn imperfections of
assembly and deposition of fibres as layers inside the C/M blended ring, compact and rotor yarns are shown
rotor groove (back-doubling) causes lower yarn in Fig. 4. Total yarn imperfections are highest in C/M
unevenness in rotor-spun yarns. As the milkweed 40/60 blend. The total imperfections of rotor-spun

Fig. 3—Effect of milkweed blend proportion, chemical treatments and different spinning systems on yarn unevenness

Fig. 4—Effect of milkweed blend proportion, chemical treatments and different spinning systems on yarn imperfection
 KARTHIK & MURUGAN: SPINNABILITY OF COTTON/MILKWEED BLENDS 31

yarns are significantly lower than those of the 3.8 Influence of Process Parameters on Yarn Hairiness
ring- and compact-spun yarns due to better fibre The effect of blend ratio, chemical treatment and
individualisation in opening roller assembly in rotor spinning systems on hairiness index is given in
spinning. At higher milkweed blend proportion, the Fig. 5. The spinning tension is higher in ring
shorter and finer milkweed fibre moves without spinning as compared to that in compact spinning
control as bunches in the drafting zone, leading to due to the formation of spinning triangle. Due
thick and thin places formation in ring and compact to the formation of spinning triangle, the
yarns. The less cohesiveness of milkweed fibres leads edge fibres under high tension escape twisting
to sliver stretch in speed frame and roving stretch in action and are partially inserted in yarn structure,
ring frame creel section respectively, leading to more leading to the formation of hairiness in yarn.
number of thin places in yarn. As the milkweed blend The increased number of shorter milkweed
proportion increases, more creel breaks were noticed fibres with high milkweed blend proportion
in ring frame. The high nep count in card sliver is also result in uncontrolled movement of shorter fibres in
translated to nep count in yarn. drafting zone, leading to increased hairiness index
In case of rotor yarns, the action of opening roller values.
leads to milkweed fibre rupture. These fibres during In compact spinning, after the fibres leave the
their travel in the transport channel can also buckle to drafting arrangement, they are condensed by a
form neps, resulting in higher nep count with increase perforated apron which slides over an inclined suction
in milkweed proportion in blend. Also with increase slot. The fibres are in complete control from the
in milkweed content, the number of loosely bound nipping line after drafting zone to the spinning
wrappers increases. The formation of wrapper fibres triangle, leading to reduction in yarn hairiness. The
in rotor-spun yarns is registered as neps in evenness increase in hairiness in compact yarns with milkweed
tester25. More irregular movement of fibres in the proportion could be due to clogging of air slots
transport tube with increase in milkweed fibre because of shorter milkweed fibres.
percentage and its uneven deposition in rotor groove The hairiness index values of rotor-spun yarns are
can also cause increased thick and thin places in rotor much lesser compared to ring-and compact-spun
yarn. blended yarns. Since the fibres are deposited in the
The alkali-treated blended yarn shows lower rotor groove before twisting, the spinning tension is
imperfection values followed by dyed and raw lower in rotor spinning, which results in lower yarn
blended samples for all spinning systems. The hairiness values. As the milkweed proportion
improvement in inter-fibre friction with alkali increases, the clumps of fibres at the exit of transport
treatment results in better drafting and hence lesser tube leads to improper deposition of fibres in the rotor
thick and thin places in the final yarn. groove. During twisting, the fibres which are not

Fig. 5—Effect of milkweed blend proportion, chemical treatments and spinning systems on yarn hairiness index
 32 INDIAN J. FIBRE TEXT. RES, MARCH 2016

deposited well inside the rotor groove could not be References

able to fully integrate into the yarn structure, leading 1 Eichhorn S J, Baillie C A, Zafeiropoulos N E, Mwaikambo L Y,
to higher yarn hairiness values. The more number of Ansell, M P & Dufresne A, J Mater Sci, 36 (2001) 2107.
2 Rout J, Misra M, Tripathy S S, Nayak S K & Mohanty A K,
loosely wrapped fibres with increase in milkweed Polym Compos, 22 (2001) 770.
fibre proportion could be counted as yarn hairiness 3 Bhaskar V H & Balakrishnan N, Int J Pharmtech Res, 1
during testing, which is also responsible for higher (2009) 1305.
rotor yarn hairiness values. Better inter-fibre friction 4 Gaur R D & Nautiyal S, Indian Forestry, 2 (1991) 193.
5 VarshneyA C & Bhoi K L, Biol Waste, 22 (1987) 157.
due to chemical treatments could have resulted in 6 Pushpanjali Prasad, J Text Assoc, 67 (2006) 63.
lower hairiness. 7 Jones D & Von Bargen K L, Trans ASAE, 35 (1992) 243.
8 Andrews B A, Linda B Kimmel, Noelie R Bertoniere &
4 Conclusion Hebert J J, Text Res J, 59 (1989) 675.
4.1 The coefficient of variation for various properties 9 Louis G L & Kottes B A, Text Res J, 57 (1987) 339.
10 Jean-Yves F Drean, Jacinthe J Patry, Gérard F Lombard &
of C/M blended yarns is found to be slightly higher Marek Weltrowski, Text Res J, 63 (1993) 443.
than expected. This is due to typical milkweed fibre 11 Patricia Cox Crews & Wendelin Rich, Cloth Text Res J, 13
properties and lab model machinery used for yarn (1995) 213.
production. 12 Sakthivel J C, Mukhopadhyay S & Palanisamy N K, J Ind
Text, 35 (2005) 63.
4.2 During the spinning trials, blends with various 13 Varshney A C & Bhoi K L, Biol Waste, 26 (1988) 229.
milkweed percentages like 20, 40 and 60% represent 14 Shakyawar D B, Dagur R S & Gupta N P, Indian J Fibre
new data, compared to the results reported in Text Res, 24 (1999) 264
literature. Because of milkweed’s specific properties, 15 Prabakaran C, Rengasamy R & Dipyan Das, Indian J Fibre
Text Res, 36 (2011) 190.
such as smooth appearance, brittleness and lack of 16 Amir Nourbakhsh & Alireza Ashori, J Rein Plas Comp, 28
cohesiveness, it is difficult to spin a pure milkweed (2009) 2143
yarn. Similar processing difficulties, such as web 17 Dauda B M D & Kolawole EG, Indian J Fibre Text Res, 28
falling in card, roller lapping, creel breaks, and end (2003) 150.
breaks in draw frame, speed frame and ring frame, are 18 Jie Liu & Fumei Wang, J Eng Fibre Fabric, 6 (2011) 63.
19 Karthik T & Murugan R, Fiber Polym, 14 (2013) 465.
also noticed even for 60% milkweed fibres in the 20 KarbalaieKarim S, Gharehaghaji A A & Tavanaie H, Fibres
blend. Text East Eur., 15 (2007) 63.
4.3 Though the physical properties of yarns made from 21 Mahendra Gowda, R V & Mohanraj, S, Res J Text Apparel,
C/M blends are found to be inferior than those of pure 12 (2008) 30.
22 Karthik T & Murugan R, J Nat Fiber, 11 (2014) 54.
cotton yarn, chemically modified milkweed fibres 23 Karthik T & Murugan R, J Text Inst, 104 (2013) 938.
show an improvement in physical properties than in 24 Pinar N Duru & Osman Babaarslan, Text Res J, 73 (2003) 907.
regular milkweed fibres. 25 Lawrence C A & Chen K Z, J Text Inst, 79 (1988) 367.

View publication stats