The Spinning of Cotton Yarn

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• What is Spinning?
• Types of Spinning
• What is Yarn?
• How is Cotton manufactured from the Yarn?

Cotton is a naturally extracted plant fibre from the cotton plant. Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fibre widely used to produce shirts, sarees, trousers, socks, towels, earbuds, blankets, medical purposes, and other medical or cosmetic products.

Spinning is the process of winding together drawn-out strands of fibres to form a yarn. It is a major part of the textile industry. Spinning is used in manufacturing various textile fibres. The different types of spinners used in the textile industry are Ring, Rotor and Air-jet spinners.

The polymer is first converted into a fluid state. A thermoplastic polymer is melted, and other polymers are treated chemically or dissolved in a solvent to form thermoplastic derivatives. The fluid polymer is then passed through the spinneret. The polymer upon cooling and solidifying forms a rubber-like material.

There are four main types of spinning methods:

Dry Spinning

This type of spinning is used for fibres formed in a solution. The polymer is solidified by evaporation. The solvent gets evaporated by the stream of inert gas or air.

This process is used for manufacturing spandex, acetate, triacetate, acrylic, etc.

Wet Spinning

This is an old process used for fibre-forming substances dissolved in a solution. This is known as a wet method because the polymer solution is pushed directly into the precipitating liquid. It is used to produce acrylic, rayon, modacrylic, spandex, etc.

Melt Spinning

The fibre-forming substance is melted and pushed through the spinneret. It is then solidified by cooling. This method is used to produce nylon, olefin, saran, sulfur, etc.

Gel Spinning

In this, the polymer is not in the true liquid state during extrusion. It is used to obtain high-strength fibres.

Also Read: Synthetic fibres and it’s types

The yarn is a raw material produced from the fibres, which is used for making fabrics or textiles and later used to make different clothes out of these fabrics. Cotton yarn is produced from a group of filament or staple fibres twisted together.

The Processing of cotton involves the following steps:

Preparatory Processes → Spinning → Weaving → Finishing.

Spinning is the crucial and significant stage of processing textile products. In the method of spinning the extracted fibres are made into yarn and are used in the production of textiles. The thread is a type of yarn intended for sewing, knitting, weaving, embroidery, etc.

Before spinning cotton yarn, the obtained plant fibre has to go through several procedures to remove impurities such as blending, opening, cleaning, and drawing to obtain a final yarn of desired thickness.

Now let us discuss the cotton yarn spinning process.

Cotton Yarn Spinning

The spinning of cotton yarn is the initial stage of textile product processing. The process of producing yarns from the extracted fibres is called spinning. In this process:

• The strands of cotton fibres are twisted together to form yarn.
• The yarn is placed on the rings of the spinning frame and is allowed to pass through several sets of rollers, which are rotating at a successively higher speed.
• The yarn is rolled by the rollers and wound up on the desired bobbins.
• This is the final stage of spinning the cotton yarn, in which drafting, twisting and winding of the yarn are all completed in one operation.
• The bobbins filled with yarn are then removed from ring frames and used for processing for bleaching, weaving, etc.

Weaving of Cotton

Two sets of yarn are interlaced so that they cross each other at right angles. This process is accomplished either manually or by machines.

Finishing of Cotton

The woven cloth is converted into useful material, this is known as finishing. The textile material is treated with bleach and dyes to enhance its quality.

Also Read: Fibre to fabric

This was a brief introduction to the Spinning of cotton from fibre to yarn. For more information about the cotton fibre, yarn and its processing stay tuned with BYJU’S Biology.