METHOD FOR DETERMINING BROKEN FIBER CONTENT IN RING-SPUN YARN

摘要

This project developed out of a more general study in which fiber breakage in cotton was tracked through various processes in yarn production. The specific task reported here was to develop a method for the quantitative characterization of the amountof broken fibers in ring-spun yarn. Our approach was to carefully remove the twist from yarns by use of a twist-measurement device, to recover the individual fibers from the de-twisted yarns in a representative and unperturbed form, and to manually shapethe fibers into a sliver suitable for use as a measurement specimen. This manipulation had to be done according to precise untwisting techniques, the development of which was a significant element of this project. The length distribution of the cotton fibers in the hand sliver was then measured by use of the Advanced Fiber Information System (AFIS) length-measurement instrument. A numerical breakage model was applied to the length distribution data to determine the Broken Fiber Content (BFC), or fraction by mass of broken fiber in each unbroken yarn. Preliminary results support the view that the breakage accumulated by cotton during processes of production and utilization can total more than 50% of the mass of the fiber by the time it has been transformed into yarn.