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TWIST LIVELINESS: CAUSES OF MANY TROUBLES TN PROCESSING

Article · August 2002

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Md.Mahbubul Haque
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TWIST LIVELINESS: CAUSES OF MANY TROUBLES TN PROCESSING

Dr. M M Haque
- Assistant Professor & Head Of The Dept..
BGMEA Institute of Fashion & Technologr

1. Introduction:
Twist is an important parameter of spun yarn structure. Certain twist is essential for staple yarn, however excess of it has dis-
advantages. Initial twist causes the fibres of a yarn to remain in the yarn structure, further twist will increase the strength so
that the processing performance will be increased in the subsequent processes. In spinning the higher the twist the lower is the
production, therefore high twisted yarn is a costly yarn. The level of twist have both merits and demerits, e.g. a high trvisted
yarn produces a snarl during loop formation in knitting, which may, either cause faulty fabric or break the yarn so that pro-
duction will be hampered. Apart from the snarl formation, the high twisted yarns are responsible for stiffness and spirality of
knitted fabric. Due to these reasons, yarns intended for knitting are produced with lower twist. However, as was mentioned,
if the twist is too low then the strength will be low so that yarns will be broken easily during processing. Apart from this lorv
twisted yarns are responsible for widely known problem called 'pilling' as there will be more protruding fibres on the yarn or
fabric surface.

Many experts believe that in air-jet weaving, a high twisted yarn loss twist spontaneously since its leading end is held freely
to do so. If this happens then a slightly different fabric property will be observed at the two sides of the fabric. In extreme
cases the appearance of the fabric may be somewhat different in the receiving side than that in the rest of the fabric, as the
effect of the twist loss is most severe irlthe receiving side of the fabric.

2.The untwisting tendency of a spun twisted yarn is denoted as twist liveliness. Twist liveliness is also important in the man-
ufacture of 'hard twist' carpets, which are produced from extremely, twist lively yarn so that the tip of the pile curls. The advan-
tage of this is that the pile becomes resilient so that it does not show foot marks. In self-twisting process, twist liveliness is
not merely an advantage but part of the working principle itself. In self-twisting process two tWist lively strands of fibres hav-
ing identical but opposite directional'twist are brought together. Due to the untwisting tendency the constituent yarns twist
together.

3. The reason of the twist liveliness is the residual torque. In order to insert twist, it is necessary to apply torque. In general
the torque required to insert a certain amount of twist in the yarn is not identical with torque available to untwist the yarn. The
two torques would only be identical in the virtually unknown case of a perfectly elastic yarn. In practice no yarn is perfectly
elastic i.e. practically every yarn has a certain degree of plasticity. This means that some of the twisting torque is dissipated
in the plastic deformation of the yarn. The remainder of the twisting torque is stored in the yarn in the form of potential ener-
gy as long as the two ends of the specimen are not free to rotate relative to each other and as long as no other treatment (phys-
ical or chemical) has been applied to the yarn.

4. The scientific definition of a twist lively yarn is, a yarn with a substantial amount of remaining (residual) torque. The resid-
ual torque depends on the differences between the total torque and the torque dissipated by the plastic torsional deformation.
This follows that the twist liveliness depends on the elastic behavior of the constituent fibres and not on the absolute amount
of twist that has been inserted. Different fibres have different elasticity; hence same amount of twist will produce different
twist liveliness in the different fibres.

5. Experimental details: It seems that if twist liveliness can be reduced then processing performance can be increased in cases
like knitting. In this regard two simple but successful attempts were investigated to reduce the twist liveliness. These are
reported below;

(i) Effect of storage time

(ii) Effect of steaming

(i) Effect of storage time

Yarns were spun and then stored for different lengths of time and then twist liveliness was investigated. The way it was inves-
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tigated is that at first twist was tested just after spinning, let this twist will be regarded as original twist. After that 1 m of the
yarn was allowed to hang vertically so that it can untwist freely, after free untwisting the twist was again tested. The differ-
ences between these two twist test results are treated as a measure of the initial twist liveliness. In order to investigate the
effect of storage time on twist liveliness, yarn cones were stored at room temperature for three different lengths of time e.g. I
day (24 hours), 1 week and six weeks and then again allowed to untwist freely as above. After free untwisting the residual
twist was tested and subtracted from the original twist, let us consider that the twist loss results after free untwisting are X, Y
&Zfor I day, 1 week and 6 weeks respectively.
The values of X, Y & Z are the twist liveliness results after storing for different lengths of time, these values were expressed
as percentage of the original twist and shown in the first three column of table l(1009a cotton yarn). The results shown in the
last three columns show the same results as was shown in first three columns but for 50/50 Cotton and Acrylic. The data shown
in the tables are average of thirty readings.

Table 1: Effect of storage time on twist liveliness

1007o Cotton;972 t.p.m Cotton & Acrylic blend; 917 t.p.m

7o of twist loss % of twist loss
I day 2 weeks 6 weeks I day 2 weeks 6 weeks

28 t9 13 24 t9 L]

(ii) Effect of steaming

The effect of steaming on twist liveliness was tested with the yarns mentioned above. At first twist was tested and then allowed
to untwist freely then again twist was tested, the twist loss was calculated and expressed as percentage of the original twist
and shown in the first column of the table 2. The difference between these two results are regarded as a measure of twist live-
liness before steaming and shown in the first column of the table 2. l-
After that the yarn samples were steamed in a closed container where the yarn cones were left overnight and then allowed to
untwist freely after that the residual twist was tested and subtracted from the original twist and shown in the second column
of table 2.The 3rd and 4th column shows the same results for the 50/50 Cotton and acrylic yarn while the first two column
are for the l00%o cotton. The results shown in this table are also average of thirty readings.

Table 2: Effect of storage time on twist liveliness

1007o Cotton;700 t.p.mCotton & Acrylic blend; 700 t.p.m

7o of twist loss 7o of twist loss
Before steaming After steaming Before steaming After steaming

18 5 20 -)

6. Discussion of Results
The results show that both storage time and steaming reduce twist liveliness but the effect of steaming is highly significant.
The results indicate that it will be possible to produce knitted fabric with higher twist by stabilizing the twist either by steam-
ing or by storing. In case of storage, the lead-time for export market will be a problem, unless one store sufficient amount of
yarn well ahead.

One important aspect of higher twist needs to be clarified is that if twist is high then the fabric will be stiffer which is regard-
ed as an important problem of knitted fabric. This means that the twist can only be increased up to certain limit. However, it
is not yet clear whether the stiffness is due to high twist or twist liveliness. If the stiffness is due to the twist liveliness, in that
case it will be possible to produce knitted fabrics with higher twist without hampering the softness. The use of high twisted
yarn will also contribute to the reduction of pilling propensity because at higher twist, there will be less protruding fibres on
the yarn or fabric surface.
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The idea of reducing twist liveliness is a very old and widely practiced in the industry in the name of "twist setting". The rvork
reported here will show the effectiveness of twist setting by steaming and will also provide numerical values of the eflect of
steaming on twist liveliness. This study will be useful in cases where level of twist is very important to optimize processing.
-
The way conventional steaming is carried out may not be very effective as yarns are very tightly wound in ring bobbin so that
steam can not enter into the inner coils. Apart from this, initial steaming will cause the outer layer of yarns to shrink, this rvill
resist steam to enter into the inner coils of the package. Therefore, in order to get optimum effect of steaming it may be an
idea to wound the package very loosely in a separate operation.

Section 4 suggests that different amount of twist may be required for different fibres of same count to obtain same processing
performance. An example can belrnentioned here, researchers found that Nylon & polyester have higher elastic recovery than
cotton. Therefore nylon & polyester yarn will be more twist lively than cotton yarn. This means that we have to apply less
twist in case of nylon & polyester to avoid snarling effect. In other words it can be concluded that for knitted purposes Nylon
or polyester are more susceptible to twist than cotton fibre.
The effect of fibre content or blend composition on twist liveliness is not very significant. It seems that, in order to get a clear
picture about this effect several blend compositions rather than just two would be ideal. In fact the experiments that were
reported here are part of another research where this two fibre content was considered sufficient.

Test of twist liveliness after heat setting of nylon and polyester yarns would have been an interesting study. As it was beyond
the scope of the present study therefore it was not carried out. However, it seems that heat setting will reduce twist liveliness
of synthetic yarns.
7. Conclusion
Attempts were made to explain the mechanism of untwisting of staple yarn and twist liveliness. Twist liveliness is a real prob-
lem in processing particularly in knitting. This is encountered by using yarns of lower T.M i.e. lower t.p.i./t.p.cm. Use of lower
t.p.i./t.p.cm decreases the strength of the yarn as a result the frequency of thread breakage will be increased leading to vari-
ous other faults, apart from this lower twist is highly related to pilling problem. Therefore reduction of level of twist may not
be the ultimate solution of the problem. Reduction of twist liveliness may be the better solution. In this regard two simple but
successful attempts were reported here. The results show that it will be possible to knit fabric with higher twist i.e the prob-
lem of yarn snarling can be reduped. Since higher twist is related with the stiffness of the knitted fabric it is necesgary to con-
duct research to see whether the stiffnqss is due to the higher twist or twist liveliness. If the stiffness is due to the higher twist
liveliness then it will be possible to knit fabric with high twisted yarn so that the production will be increased both quality and
quantity wise. Apart from this use of high twisted yarn will contribute to the reduction of the pilling propensity of the knitted
fabric. However if the stiffness is due to the high twist then it may not be possibie to increase the twist too much more than
that is used at present but it is quite clear that production performance will be increased.
The twist liveliness of synthetic yarn needs to be investigated. Apart from this research can be conducted to reduce the elas-
tic recovery of twisted yarn. If it is possible to reduce the elastic recovery then it will be possible to reduce twist liveliness so
that quality & quantity of production will be increased and the product will be more user friendly because of less pilling.
8. References
1. Pierce, F.T. " The plasticity of cotton and other materials" The Journal of The Textile Institute, 1975.
2. Hearle, J.W.S and et.al, " Structural Mechanics of Fibres, Yarns and Fabrics Vol.1" Wiley Intersciences; 1969.
3. Steinberger R.L, "Torque Relaxation and Torsional Energy in Crepe Yarn" Textile Research Journal, Page -83, 1936131 .

4. Morton, W.E. Hearle, J.W.S, "Physical properties of Textile Fibres" The Textile Institute;1975.
5. Schreiber, O and Post, G. "Effect of duration of storage time of spinning bobbin on the curling tendency, the winding
process and the further processing of the yarn" Textile Praxis International, 1986,41, No-4.
6. Hepworth, B ,"Spirality in knitted fabrics caused by twist likely yarns; a theoretical investigation" MELLIAND ENG-
LISH,6/I993,
1. De Arauja M.D. "Spirality of knitted fabrics" Tekstil & Teknik, March 1991.
8. J.O Ukponmwan and et.al "Pilling" Textile progress, The Textile Institute, Volume-28, Number 3.
9. Haider, Md. Lutful, General Manager, Keya SpinningLtd., Private Communication'
10. Hossain, Moffazzal (Peters), General Manager, Babylon Group, Private Communication.
11. Haque, M.M. Ph.D. thesis 1996, University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), U.K.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: The experimental results of this article are part of the authors Ph.D. works. The author is highly
indebted to Dr K Greenwood, an ex academic of "The University of Manchester Institute Of Science and Technology, U.K.",
for guiding and supervising the Ph.D.research.

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