• CORE SPUN YARN :

Core-spun yarns are two-component structure

with Core and sheath. Generally continuous
filament yarn is used as core and the staple
fibres used as sheath covering. The core-spun
yarn used to enhance functional properties of
the fabrics such as strength, durability and
stretch comfort. 
• Methods for production of Core spun yarns

The production of Core-spun yarns done

successfully by many spinning systems. Each
system has its own features .The conventional
ring spinning is simple and economy but the core
positioning in the centre is difficult and major
strip back problem may arise during subsequent
process and the core filaments get twisted. In
Dref III the core positioning can be set accurately
and used to produce the industrial and
conductive yarns. Probable methods of core-spun
yarn production are discussed below.
• 1. Conventional core spinning attachment
with ring spinning systems
2. S.R.R.C Core wrap spinning method
3. A.R.S. Patterned Spinning system
4. Core-twin spinning system
5. Composite electrostatic spinning system
6. Rotor spinning system
7. Friction spinning system and 
8. Air jet spinning system
 Conventional Core spinning
attachment in Ring frame
• A core spinning attachment in ring spinning is
shown in Fig.1. The attachment consists of metal
plate (Bracket) bent to a shape. One end of the
device is fitted on the roving traverse guide bar
such that the relative position of the roving and
the core filament may be kept constant all the
time. There is a provision to vary the position of
the device if required. The other end of the plate
is fitted with a porcelain guide that feed the core
filament at a precise position behind the front
drafting rollers. This device is fitted with
• a pre-tensioner and is kept in a horizontal
plane. Varying the number of tension discs
may vary the input tension of the core
filament. The package containing core
filament material is suspended from a bar
such that they could rotate easily, thus
avoiding any tendency to stretch the filament
before it is fed to the tensioning device.
 S.R.R.C. Core wrap spinning system
• Southern Regional Research Center has developed a core
spinning system is shown in Fig. 2. In conventional core-
spinning system yarns are merely a ply twisted and does
not have good core coverage, strip back problem may arise
during subsequent mechanical processing. The core wrap
yarns produced by the SRRC core spinning system consists
of a central core of a particular filament or staple fiber and
core material is almost coaxially and totally wrapped with
cotton on any other staple fiber. It is claimed that a high
degree of coherence is obtained between the constituent
fibers. The core-wrap assembly is used as twist breaker,
which helps the sheath fibres to cover the filament.
 A.R.S. spinning system
Harakawa has developed and patented a Core twin
spun yarn system as shown in Fig. 4. The figure is
a schematic illusion for the core twin spin yarns.
In the spun silk ring spinning frame the drafting
part was equipped with an apron device for
cotton fibers, because they were shorter then the
silk fibers. The continuous filament core-spun
yarn passes through a control disc inserted
directly behind the front roller in a drafted strand
of either cotton or spun silk via a core yarn guide.
The drafted spun silk and cotton
• strands and the scoured silk continuous filament core
yarns were twisted together as they emerge from the
front rollers.
Usually the core yarn guide remains at a fixed position
and also possible to move them by moving the position
rollers. When the rollers change the position of the
guide, the core yarns migrate periodically from the
spun silk to cotton and from cotton to spun silk. When
scoured silk core yarn is inserted in the spun silk strand
only, this yarn was called �silk �sided� core twin
spun yarn; when the core yarn is inserted in the cotton
strand only, this yarn is called �cotton-sided� core
twin spun yarn; when the core yarn inserted
periodically in the both strands, this yarn is called
�migrated �core� twin spun yarn.
 Composite yarn by Electro static
filament charging method
• Smith & others developed a method for producing
with the mixed construction of staple and filament
fibers involved with use of the frictional contact
methods by using electro static system and short
comings with this system was only hydrophobic fibers
can be handled, and often filaments tend to break and
wound around the rotating components. This system
prone to safety problems because of the high voltage
required and a water supply required for imparting the
electrical conductivity to the continuous filament yarn.
• Another electrostatic filament charging method
shown in the figure.5 uses two electrodes to
separate the multifilament yarn. The filament
charging device is described which is based on
the principle of two electrodes system; this was
employed to separate a multi filament yarn. The
separated filaments were then mixed with the
staple fibers of roving at the roller nip on the ring
spinning system as illustrated in the figure5. The
blended ribbon was subsequently twisted to
form a yarn. This is an effective measure for
resolving the strip back problem.
 Electro static filament charging 
• The charging device consists of a pair of hollow cylindrical
electrodes shown in the figure 6 made of brass which were
fixed in a Perspex cylinder, the top electrode had a inner
dia of 1.5mm and the lower electrode with 6mm inner dia
was mounted 1.5-2.0mm below the upper one. The tip of
the upper electrode is slightly tapered for the purpose of
intensifying the electric field strength. The condition of the
filament yarn was passed through the narrow passage of
the upper electrode to which was connected the positive
side of a high voltage supply of at least 4000 Volts. A
ceramic guide is attached to the lower electrode to prevent
the separated filament from containing the electrode.
• The continuous filament yarn is first electrically
charged by connecting the top electrode, so that
the individual filament s constituting the yarn
tend to repel one another because they will carry
the same charge sign, furthermore owing to the
action of electrostatic filed established between
the electrode, there is attention between the
filaments and the lower electrodes, reinforcing
the tenancy of the filament s to be pulled
outward to form a balloon liken shape. To reduce
the resistance of the yarn in the path it was
applied with anti static agent (Permalose TM).
• It was noted that the width of the filament spread over
decreased with increase in the roller speed. At 0.33%
antistatic fish on core with positive top electrode
appeared to give largest spreading effect. Incase of
0.15 %antistatic finishes on the core with negative top
electrode give a better filament spread .C.V% of
measurements found to be large due to migration
during the coating or drying out in the processes and
variation in the feed tension.

It was reported that filament spread improved as the

potential difference of the applied voltage between
the electrodes increased, due to intensified electric
field. The yarn produced by this system has sufficient
twist to prevent the surface fibers from sliding along
the filament core.
 Effect of Process variables on Ring
Core-spun yarn properties
• The process variables that affect the core-
spun yarn properties are:
• � Core sheath ratio
� Pre tension applied to the core material.
� Spinning draft
� Number of roving feed and
� Twist
 Core- sheath ratio

• It has been found that decreasing sheath content

will increase the strength of the core-spun yarn.
Apart from this there is an improvement in the
extension and the evenness properties. In the
case of core-spun sewing threads, a 2: 1 ratio of
core sheath gives poor core coverage, and may
raise problem of stripping off the sheath during
the sewing, whereas, with a 1:1 core sheath ratio
the stripping off problem reported to minimize.
 Pre- tension to Core material
• The pre tension is needed to regulate the geometrical position of
the filament. This input tension varies with the twist factor, size and
the quality of the filaments used. Researcher furnished a method
for optimizing the tension of the core filament in the core spinning
process. Colored filament was passed over a tension device of
attachment and fed before the nip of the front roller of the ring
frame. The pre tension was gradually raised until the colored
filament is completely covered by the cotton fibres, and this value
was taken as the optimum input tension. It was approximately 10%
of the breaking load of the core yarn. An introduction of a
compensatory tensioner can be reducing the tension variation . An
extension of 1 % to the core filaments while feeding to the ring
frame ensures no buckling or curling of sheath fibres. Core yarns
are usually pre- tensioned to an extension of around 5-10% for flat
continuous filaments yarns, about 30% for textured yarns and up to
400% for an electrometric core. If insufficiently tensioned, the
filament will either periodically appear at the yarn surface, grin
through or become wrapped around the fibre ribbon as the ribbon
being twisted .
 Spinning draft
• Spinning drafts can be varied to obtain the required
yarn count based on the core the sheath ratio.
Number of Roving feed
The possible ways of feeding the core material at the
front roller nip with respect to roving are:
� Filament at the center of the rovings
� Filament at the sides of the roving
� Filament on the top of the roving.
• Two-rove feeding (Filament at the center of the
rovings) provides better core positioning and control
during spinning influences the structure and properties
of core-spun yarns [8].
 Twist

• Adequate cohesion obtained in individual

yarns at high twist rates and it is minimize the
sheath slippage .In addition to this, the
filament pre-twist in opposite direction to the
ring twist reduce the sheath slippage. The
extension of the core-spun yarn tends to
reduce at higher twist levels.
 Core-spun yarn production by Rotor
spinning system
• Nield and Ali have developed a technique in rotor-spinning
machine to produce core-spun yarns as shown in Fig. 8.
Twist efficiency and pre-tension of filament are the
influencing factors in core spinning. In order to increase the
contact area between yarn arm and doffing tube (for
increasing the twist efficiency), a copper flange was
soldered to the inner end of the doffing tube. The doffing
tube was mounted on a ball bearing, rotated by a separate
drive opposite to the rotation of the rotor with a speed
ratio of 1:9. The rotating doffing tube inserts a false twist
and pushes twist back to the peel-off point. The rotation of
rotor wraps the yarn arm around the continuous filament
core. A minimum pre-tension is necessary to avoid filament
flung out in to the rotor-collecting surface. The core is not
twisted during this process. It is economical to produce
coarse core-spun yarns through rotor machine than the
ring core-spun yarns.
 Core-spun yarn production by
Friction spinning system
• In friction spinning system the fibres are individually
collected and twisted to form yarn. A wide range of
staple length can be processed by this system. In Dref II
system, the deposition and the twist of fibres on to the
yarn tail is to be replaced by a filament core to obtain
full coverage of core. Dref-III (Wrap spinning system) is
a frictional spinning process; a drafted ribbon of
parallel fibres that constitute the bulk of the spun yarn
is wrapped by either surface fibres protruding from the
ribbon or by continuous filaments so as to impart
coherence and strength to the resulting yarn. 
• It is believed that the core is false twisted by the
rotation of the friction drums before being
wrapped by the sheath fibres. Strength of the
Dref III core-spun yarns have direct relationship
with the strength of core filaments and number
of sheath fibres that are active in generating
radial pressure due to their structural helical
configurations. The effectiveness of wrapping of
sheath fibres depends on physical and
mechanical characteristics of fibres,
configuration, length variations, firmness of the
wrap and wrap angle.
 Core-spun yarn production by MJS
spinning system
• It was reported that the Air-jet spinning could be used
for producing core yarns after optimizing process
parameters. A relatively higher first nozzle pressure is
advantageous for improving sheath-slippage
resistance. The use of higher spinning speed and wider
condenser markedly improves the tenacity, breaking
extension, initial modulus and sheath-slippage
resistance and affects the yarn hairiness, mass
irregularity and flexural rigidity. However, yarn
properties deteriorate at high spinning speed
especially for finer yarns [12]. The schematic diagram
of MJS spinning system for the production of core-
spun yarn is shown in Fig.9
 Core-spun sewing threads
• The sewing thread is subjected to heavy stresses and strain
at the various points during the processes. The speed of the
needle is accelerated to over 180 km/hr in the forwarded
direction brought to rest suddenly and again accelerated to
backwards before returning to the rest. The whole cycle is
repeated approximately 120 times per seconds. Incase of
lock stitch the seam sewn at 12 stitches per inches each
length of thread is passed through the needle up to 40
times before being set in to the fabric. Depends on fabric
thickness, the sewing machine needle reaches temperature
of about 360 degree C at 4000 r.p.m., the temperature of
the needle during the operation depends on the number of
piles of fabric to be sewn and the frictional forces between
the needle to fabric and needle to thread. 100%Cotton
threads has difficult to accompany the sewing machine
with high speed rate, similarly 100%Synthetic threads has
limitations due to high needle temperature. Hence the
Core-spun sewing threads can meet the high speed.
 Doubling

• Two or three ends are twisted together to make sewing

thread. This twisting process improves the cotton covering
of the core-spun yarn. Disadvantages of the single core
yarn are that the outer cover of staple fibers may rather be
easily removed from the core filament by abrasion, this is
not recommended for sewing thread, since thread ism
severally abraded against the needle during the sewing. It
requires higher resistance to abrasion. The doubling
together of two or more single core-spun yarn effectively
overcomes this problem by binding with the structure
fibers more firmly with the structure. 
 Heat setting
• Fibres and filaments used for the spinning core yarns
having different characteristics and the resultant yarn may
shrink differently, so to achieve balance and set of these
yarns, heat setting has to be done. Setting of twist is done
by steaming the yarn in an auto calve with steam pressure
of 0.6 kg/cm2 for 30-60 minute. Temperature of the steam
has to be maintained with 100-105 degree C. The steaming
time is decided on the basis of twist level in the doubled
yarn. The heat-setting leads to stabilization and
equalization of the elongation properties of the thread and
it prevent the snarling. Polyester and Nylon threads
required high pressure steaming and the industrial sewing
threads needed low pressure steaming.
 Hot stretching
• Hot stretching is a process of heating the thread
to pre determined and controlled temperature in
the range of 180-240 degree Centigrade with
tension and length control. Heat setting
operation causes a decrease in the modulus and
increase in the extensibility of the thread.
Consequently when high modulus thread
requires subsequent stretches. This hot
stretching improves the thermal stability and
reduces the extensibility. The sewing thread
length improved 4. -6%. The specific tenacity
improved to 3-5%. This helps to get improvement
in dyeing and kink free sewing thread.
 Wet processing
• After heat setting threads has to be converted
in to hank form for required wet processing
treatments. High color fastness and precise
shade matching are the key factor
requirements for Core-spun sewing threads.
Normally to get uniformity, cross wound
packages with high pressure equipment��s
used.
 Lubrication
• Gliding and cooling effect on the needle could
be done with effective lubricants. Good
lubricant must not clogs on the needle eye or
causes stain. The lubricant must allow the
thread to unwind evenly from the package.
The friction between the abrading surface
should be minimized with lubrications
inexpensive lubricants will be preferred.
 Final Winding
• The core spun sewing threads after the
treatments, to be wound on a suitable
package like spool, cop or king spool with
required length .
 Advantages of Core-spun yarns

• Development of core-spun yarn with ring

spinning system unveils path for new products
including high performance textiles, sewing
threads and in the garmenting areas due to its
exceptional strength, outstanding abrasion
resistance, consistence performance sewing
machine, elasticity for the stretch
requirements, excellent resistance in
perspiration, ideal wash and wear
performance and permanent press.