Spinning Educatee Textile Testing and Quality Control-I Spinning Educatee

Chapter-4: Fiber Dimensions (Length)

Influences of fiber length on yarn and fabric properties:

Fiber length is one of the three most important fiber characteristics. It influences:

1) Spinning limit, 2) Yarn strength, 3) Yarn evenness, 4) Handle of the product, 5) Lustre of
product, 6) Yarn hairiness and 7)productivity

**Productivity is influenced via the end breakage rate, the quantity of waste, the required turns of
twist (which affect the handle), and general spinning conditions.
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Chapter-4: Fiber Dimensions (Length)

**It can be assumed that fibers of under 4-5 mm will be lost in processing (as waste and fly), fibers upto
about 12-15 mm do not contribute to strength but only to fullness of the yarn, and only those fibers above
these lengths produce the other positive characteristics in the yarn.

** SFC% will be increased after carding process.

The following length groupings are currently used in stating the trade staple:

Short staple= 1 inch or less (25mm or less)

1 1
Medium staple= 1 32 inch to 18 inch (26 mm to 28mm)
5 3
Long staple= 1 inch to 1 inch (29mm to 33 mm)
32 8
13
Extra-long staple= 1 inch to above (34 mm to above)
32
*shorter fibers are often quite coarse, but longer fibers are available in finer.

* Fiber below the length of 12.7 mm are considered as short fiber. ( In china below 16.5 mm ).

*cotton and cotton waste with a high short fiber content (<12.7mm) can be processed successfully using
the rotor spinning principle.

*Fiber length measurement:

Baer sorter/comb sorter method : Comb sorter is used to determine the length of the fibre. Length is the
most important property of a fibre. Comb sorter can be used with cotton, wool, viscose or polyester
yarn/fibre to determine its length. Cumulative fibre length distribution is determined. Effective length,
mean length, percentage of short fibres and percentage of dispersion are other important parameters
determined by this method.

Merits:

1. Effective length is close to grader’s staple length.

2. Provides accurate estimate of short fibre content.

Limitations :

1. Time consuming (2 hours per sample).

2. Calls for considerable operator skill in sampling and preparing the diagram.
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Chapter-4: Fiber Dimensions (Length)

Figure 2.1 Comb sorter apparatus

Sample preparation: A representative sample of cotton is made into a sliver by drawing and doubling
several times with the fibres straightened and parallelized. The bundle of fibres must be as narrow as
possible throughout the whole process.

Procedure :

1) The sorter is placed with the back facing to the operator. The prepared sample is slightly pressed
and placed on the bottom combs at the right- hand side of the sorter with a small portion half
protruding.
2) From the protruding end all the loose fibres are removed by means of tweezers, until ends are
aligned. The removed loose fibres are kept separately and introduced in the original sample later.
3) A tuft of fibres are pulled out, combed and transferred to the left-hand side of the sorter, so that
the comb is nearest to the operator from the starting line for the tuft while at the other end the
longer fibres protrude out. This tuft is pressed into the combs by means of depression.
4) The process is repeated till all the fibres on the right-hand side are transferred to the left side. The
top combs are inserted in their position to grip and control the slippage of fibres.
5) The sorter is then turned around so that the front faces the operator.
6) The bottom combs are dropped one by one successively till the tips of the longest fibres are seen.
7) The fibres are pulled by the tweezers, combed, straightened and laid perpendicular to the baseline
on the black velvet pad. When these fibres are exhausted, one more comb is dropped and fibres
are fixed in the order of similar lengths, pulled once and laid on the pad. All the fibres are
carefully spread out with uniform density and the process is continued until the tuft is exhausted
and the entire fibre array is obtained.
8) Later a pattern is built using a transparent scale rectangle-shaped with one side marked with 1/8”
lines (Y axis) and the other side marked with ½” lines (X axis).
9) Using the readings on the transparent scale, the values of the co-ordinates are marked on the
graph sheet and the pattern is drawn. This diagram is called ‘sorter diagram’. This diagram is
analyzed for the following. ○ Effective length ○ Mean length ○ Percentage of short fibres ○
Dispersion of fibre length.
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Chapter-4: Fiber Dimensions (Length)

Analysis of the sorter diagram;

Q is the midpoint of OA, that is, OQ = 1/2 OA.
From Q, QP’ is drawn parallel to OB to cut the curve at P'.
PP’ is drawn perpendicular to OB.
K is marked on OB, such that OK = ¼ OP and the perpendicular line KK' is drawn.
S is the midpoint of KK'. From S, SR› is drawn parallel to OB to cut at B'. The perpendicular line
RR› is drawn to OB. L is marked on OB, such that OL = 1/4 OR.
From L a perpendicular line LL' is drawn to cut the curve at L' (LL' = effective length).
Mark M, such that OM = 3/4 OR and draw MM' perpendicular to OB to cut curve of M'. Draw
NM' parallel to OP to cut at N.
In the diagram OQ = 1/2 OA
OK = 1/4 OP
KS = 1/2 KK’
OL = 1/4 OR.
Short fibre percentage = (RB/OB) × 100%
LL’ = Effective length (because many m/c settings are related with this length)
“Effective length is a characteristic of the bulk of the longer fibres”.
American staple length = 0.91* effective length
LL’-MM’ = NL’=Inter-quartile range
Dispersion% = NL’/LL’
(For flatter middle zone, dispersion is minimum)
𝐴𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑜𝑓 𝑂𝐴𝐵
Mean length=
𝐿𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑡ℎ 𝑜𝑓 𝑂𝐵
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Chapter-4: Fiber Dimensions (Length)

Modal length: Highest frequency length in staple diagram.

L (n,w) is the mean length by number or by weight.

 Mean length “by number” shows the true fiber length distribution in sample. Short and
long fibers are treated equally.
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Chapter-4: Fiber Dimensions (Length)

 Length “by weight” is based on the weight of the fibers and is always biased towards the
longer fibers since the longer fiber weigh more than the shorter fibers.

**In textile processing, it is recommended that the length by number be used to determine machine and
equipment settings and also to determine fibre damage as represented by short fibre content. Instrument
such as the AFIS is capable of providing the length by number information.

Fibrograph: The Fibrograph is an automated method of measuring the fibre length of a cotton sample. It
uses an optical method of measuring the density along the length of a tuft of parallel fibres. The first part
of the measuring process is the preparation of a suitable sample. This can be done either by hand or with a
Fibrosampler. The Fibrosampler has a rotating brush which withdraws cotton fibres from a perforated
drum and deposits them on a comb. The outcome is that the fibres are placed on the comb in such a way
that they are caught at random points along their length to form a beard. After the loose fibers are brushed
out the sample is scanned optically by the fibrograph to measure the fiber length and length uniformity.
The beard is scanned photoelectrically by the Fibrograph from the base to the tip. The intensity of light
that passes through the beard at a given position is used as a measure of the number of fibres that extend
to that distance from the comb. The sample density is then plotted against distance from the comb to give
a Fibrogram. Fibrogram is an arrangement of fibers from shortest to longest in terms of span lengths.
Fibrogram test are required for determining the length uniformity of fibers in the sample of cotton.
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Chapter-4: Fiber Dimensions (Length)

**At any instant in time, fibers caught by the roller nips will depend on the randomness of their
overlapping lengths; therefore, not all the length of a given fiber projects into draft zone. The lengths that
project into the draft zone are called the span lengths, and the cumulative frequency distribution of the
span length gives the Fibrogram. The system is capable of testing 180 samples per hour.
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Chapter-4: Fiber Dimensions (Length)

The tangent to the curve at its starting point A cuts OY at P and OX at M. Then OM is the mean length of
the fibers in the original population longer than 0.15 inch (3.8 mm). If OP is bisected at Q and the tangent
to the curve from Q cuts OX at R, then OR is the upper-half mean length, UHML, and the ratio of OM to
OR is a valid index of uniformity.
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Chapter-4: Fiber Dimensions (Length)

Span length: x % Span length is the distance spanned by x %of fibers in the specimen being tested when
the fibers are parallelized and randomly distributed and where the initial starting point of the scanning in
the test is considered 100%.

The ratio between 50% span length and 2.5% span length is called uniformity
ratio, express as a percentage.

Floating Fiber Index (FFI):

Fibers in the drafting zone that are not clamped by either of the pairs of
rollers of drafting zone are referred to as floating fiber index. It is expressed
as a percentage and calculated by the following equation.

Model Questions:

1. Why fiber length measurement is important in spinning department? Explain in details.

2. Discuss the influences of fiber length on yarn and fabric properties.
3. Give the classifications of cotton fiber based on trade staple.
4. Describe the Baer sorter method for measuring fiber length.
5. Calculate mean fiber length, effective length and dispersion% from a typical sorter diagram. How
you will interpret dispersion percentage?
6. Define modal length from a sorter diagram.
7. Describe the working principle of fibrograph to determine the fiber length and length uniformity.
8. Define uniformity index and uniformity ratio.