Wool carpet yam setting technology - R & D fundamentals

摘要

Recent advances in nanotechnology and current environmental demands on industry have re-invigorated technological innovation in the twist setting of wool carpet yarn [1,2]. Measuring set retention in the yarn is the cornerstone for these developments, but there is no standard method based on fundamental yarn torsional parameters, such as yarn torque, and this has left the door open for alternative pragmatic approaches. One of these, the Wronz Set Tester (WST) [3], proved critically important to the development of the ground-breaking Chemset technology [4-7] that gave the wool carpet industry a uniformity of processing and yarn quality previously beyond reach. However, a combination of McKinnon's review [8] being short on R&D fundamentals - including details of how the WST enabled the process of innovation - and a loss of corporate knowledge within the wool research community in the interim, may neither fully inform nor provide the necessary insight for future successful developments.