Yarn Manufacturing Process Step by Step

What is Yarn Spinning Process?

Spinning is the process of converting the raw fibers into a continuous strand of fibers known as yarn. The spinning process twists the fiber strands together through sequence of operations namely blow room, carding, drawing, roving and spinning process. During the process, these processes include drawing out the fibers, inserting the twist and winding the yarn on to a bobbin. The yarn spinning process involves several key steps to convert raw fibers into strong, fine yarn suitable for textile production.yarn spinning process

Yarn Spinning Process Step by Step

All these steps together are called as spinning process. The most common spinning methods used for staple fibers (small strands of fibers) are called as ring spinning or spun yarn spinning process. The process sequence of the yarn spinning process is provided in Figure below. The inter department wise information regarding the type of work performed are reported in the following sections.

Process sequence of yarn spinning
Figure: Process sequence of yarn spinning

1. Mixing and Blending

(a) Mixing:

It is a process of combining same types of fibers of different quality/grades or from different bales together for the purpose obtaining a uniform quality in the final yarn. The important benefits of mixing process are,

  • Mixing of different quality fibers reduces the cost of the raw material activities
  • It reduces the quality deviations and improves the overall performance of the yarn
  • Produces good quality of yarn without many deviations in its desired properties

(a) Blending:

It is a process of combining various types of fibers together to improve the overall quality of the yarn or specifically to improve any particular property of the yarn. In the process of blending mostly similar grades/quality of different fibers are only mixed to obtain the final product. The main benefits of blending the fibers are:

  • To obtain desired characteristics
  • The blending proportion should be maintained and can be modified accordingly
  • It is cheaper process than the mixing
  • Example: Cotton, polyester blending to obtain high strength and lustre with comfort properties.

2. Blow room

The blow room is the first process of spinning, where the fibers from the bale sare mixed together, cleaned and prepared for the carding process. The general functions of the blow room machine are listed as follows,

(a) Opening:

To open the compressed bales of fibers & to make the cotton tuft as small as possible.

(b) Cleaning:

To remove dirt, dust, broken seeds, broken leaves, and other foreign materials from the fibers.

(c) Mixing & Blending:

Uniform mixing/blending of fibers of different varieties.

(d) Lap or flocks formation:

To transfer opened and cleaned fiber into sheet form of definite width and length which is called lap or in modern system, material is directly fed to the carding machine in flock form.

3. Carding

Carding is one of the main processes in spinning as it directly decides the yarn properties. The main objectives of the carding process are,

  • To individualize the fibers from tufts prepared from the blow room machine
  • To remove impurities from the separated fiber
  • To clean cotton thoroughly off the lighter dirt and trash as well as to remove a certain proportion of neps and short fibers from the opened material.
  • To convert blow room lap/ chute feed sheet into the loose, roughly parallel, untwisted strand fibers called ‘sliver’.

4. Draw frame

The main function of the draw frame is to draft the fiber strand (sliver) and perform the doubling action to produce a quality yarn. Hence, the process is known as drafting. The main functions of the draw frame machine are:

  • To straighten the curled and hooked fibers.
  • To make the fibers parallel to their neighboring fibers.
  • To improve uniformity of fibers by drafting and doubling.
  • To reduce weight per unit length of sliver.
  • To remove micro dust from slivers by air suction pipe.
  • To blend raw material of same hanks perfectly.

5. Comber

Combing is an optional process in the spinning to produce high quality yarns with lower hairiness in yarn structure. This process removes good fibers also if its staple length is lesser than expected. Hence, yarns produced through this process are costly and of good quality. Draw frame output is fed to the comber as an input. The main functions of the comber are,

  • To remove the short fibers below a pre-selected length so that the spinner produces finer or better quality of yarn that cannot be possible using carding process alone.
  • Elimination of remaining impurities.
  • Elimination of large proportion (not all) of the neps in the fiber.
  • Formation of sliver having maximum possible evenness.
  • To straighten the fibers.

6. Speed frame or Roving frame

The draw frame slivers are fed as an input to the speed frame and the speed frame reduces the diameter of the drawing sliver by drafting it further. The output fiber strand is lesser in diameter than the draw frame sliver and called as roving. As the roving frame inserts twist to the roving, the strand is bit stronger than the sliver. The main functions of the roving frame are:

  • Attenuation of draw sliver to a suitable size for spinning.
  • To insert a small amount of twist to strengthen the roving.
  • To wind the twisted strand roving into a bobbin.

7. Ring frame

The ring frame is used to convert the roving, the output from the roving frame into a yarn for the subsequent fabric manufacturing process. This process imparts higher level of twist to the roving and increases the strength of the output yarn significantly. This process is generally referred as ring spinning process. The main functions of the ring frame are,

  • To draft the roving fed to the ring spinning frame i.e., to convert roving into very fine strand called yarn.
  • To impart strength to the yarn by inserting the necessary amount of twist.
  • To collect twisted strand called yarn onto handy and transportable package by winding the twisted thread on a cylindrical bobbin or tube.

8. Winding

The output obtained from the ring spinning process is wound in the package called cop. As it accommodates very less amount of yarn in it, cop is not suitable for further processing like dyeing, weaving or knitting process. Hence, to attain the requirements, the cops are wound as a larger package known as cone and this process is called as winding. The main functions of the cone winding process are:

  • To wind the yarn into a bigger package which are suitable for further processing
  • To remove the yarn faults during the process

The general processes followed in a spinning mill are explained above with their objectives. The process flow is changed based on the type of yarn, fiber and blends processed. The process flow for carded and combed yarns is different and similarly it is different for blended fiber spinning like polyester/cotton. The process flow changes according to the process in which mixing/blending is done in the case of blended fibers. The process sequence followed has a direct bearing on the cost of the yarn produced as more processes, more wastage, more machinery usage will lead to increase in the cost of the yarn. It is imperative to understand the different process sequences followed in spinning different types of yarns.

Conclusion:
Yarn spinning process is a crucial stage in textile manufacturing, transforming raw fibers into high-quality yarn through a series of well-defined steps. From fiber preparation to spinning, winding, and finishing, each stage plays a vital role in ensuring the strength, uniformity, and desired characteristics of the final yarn.

References:

[1] Rathinamoorthy, R., Surjit, R., & Vardhini, K. J. V. (2024). Handbook of Textile and Apparel Costing. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781032629896

[2] Purushothama, B. (2016b). Handbook on cotton spinning industry. In WPI Publishing eBooks. https://doi.org/10.1201/b19594

[3] Kumar, R. S. (2014b). Process management in spinning. In CRC Press eBooks. https://doi.org/10.1201/b17452

[4] Kiron, M. I. (2024a, June 14). Cotton yarn spinning process step by step. Textile Learner. https://textilelearner.net/cotton-yarn-spinning-process/

[5] Kiron, M. I. (2021a, April 4). Basic concept of yarn manufacturing process (Machine flowchart). Textile Learner. https://textilelearner.net/concept-of-yarn-manufacturing-process/

Share This Article!

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Scroll to Top