Introduction:
Cotton Stickiness:
The two main causes of sugars or honey dew becoming sticky are heat
and moisture
Stickiness will cause lint to stick to card clothing and draft rollers in subsequent
processes.
Sticky fibres even if they pass through the spinning back process will create extra
centrifugal forces during ballooning causing the yarn to break.
In the OE frames stickiness will clog the turbine. No matter how we look at stickiness it
will reduce efficiency and production to a considerable extent during spinning.
Low humidity will dry the sugars and they will cease to be sticky. If however, humidity is
allowed to rise, sugars will become sticky again.
Effect of Stickiness on Weaving:
Stickiness has minimal effect on warp as it is usually sized and the sugar present gets
either dissolved in the hot size mix or is covered by it. However, in weft, sugar starts
building up in shuttle, gripper or air jet and weaving efficiency drops to a level where it
becomes uneconomic to continue weaving. Frequent cleaning of wefts passage would,
therefore, be required. This is time consuming and expensive
Economics of Stickiness:
• To growers - stickiness means higher costs for insect control and reduced cotton
marketability. Cotton price is reduced for stickiness by the market at a rate
proportional to the perception of risk.
• At the textile mill - stickiness means reduced processing efficiency, lower yarn
quality, excessive wear and increased maintenance of machinery may occur even
with slightly sticky cotton.
For everyone concerned, stickiness means reduced profitability.
During Cultivation:
The most efficient way now to prevent stickiness is by managing sugar sources in the
field. These honeydew-producing insects may be managed by avoiding conditions
leading to outbreaks, carefully sampling pest populations, and using effective insecticides
when populations reach predetermined thresholds. The risk of having excessive plant
sugars can be minimized by harvesting mature seed cotton.
In Ginning:
If stickiness is a problem while ginning, the ginning rate of honeydew contaminated
cotton can be increased by increasing the heat of the drying towers to reduce humidity.
Conclusion: