Abstract
AbstractThe objective of this research work was to investigate the use of steam as a substitute fluid for air in spun-like textured yarn manufacturing. The new substitute product holds the potential for competitive advantage, lower manufacturing costs and streamlined manufacturing capabilities. Generally high-pressure steam is known to be cheaper to produce than compressed air. An existing air-jet texturing machine was modified to supply either air or steam to the texturing nozzle. Using an identical nozzle, both air-jet and steam-jet textured yarns were manufactured. The influence of effect-yarn parameters on the steam-jet texturing performance has been studied. Furthermore, steam-jet texturing was compared with air-jet texturing in terms of the processing parameters and the textured yarn properties. The results show that spun-like textured yarn manufactured using steam has lower loop instability, lower loop density and higher tensile properties than air at comparable fluid pressures. SEM image analysis shows that the entangled structure of the steam-jet textured yarns is comparable to the air-jet textured yarns. To verify the commercial feasibility of the new product, sewing threads were manufactured using both steam-jet and air-jet textured yarns and tested for sewability under commercial specifications. Sewability results indicated that the steam-jet textured sewing threads can withstand sewing at high-speeds like air-jet textured threads and are therefore suitable for manufacture of sewing threads. Therefore, it can be concluded that steam can be used as an alternative fluid for air in making spun-like textured yarns.
Highlights
One of the significant texturing processes in current use, air-jet texturing, operates by mechanical interlocking and not by heat setting in the case of the other texturing techniques such as false-twist
The effect-yarn draw ratio is maintained at a lower level than the core-yarn, so that one can later reduce the loop size by heat setting of the textured yarn
Core-yarn tension (T1) and textured yarn tension (T2) Figure 1 shows that at constant effect yarn overfeed for air-jet and steam-jet texturing, T1 and T2 values are not sensitive to the effect-yarn draw ratio
Summary
One of the significant texturing processes in current use, air-jet texturing, operates by mechanical interlocking and not by heat setting in the case of the other texturing techniques such as false-twist. It is a cold fluid texturing process that converts flat, continuous synthetic filament yarns into an entangled, convoluted, bulky, spun-like yarn. Wickramasinghe (2003) has investigated the use of steam as an alternative fluid for air in spun-like textured yarn manufacturing and studied the performance of sewing threads manufactured using core-effect steam-jet textured yarns. He reported that steam could be used as an alternative fluid for air in manufacturing core-effect spun-like textured sewing threads
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