Textile Research Journal

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Effects of Fiber Opening on the Uniformity of Rotor Spun Yarns

L.X. Kong, R.A. Platfoot and X. Wang
Textile Research Journal 1996; 66; 30
DOI: 10.1177/004051759606600105
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30

Effects of Fiber

Opening on the Uniformity of Rotor Spun Yarns

L. X. KONG AND R. A.

PLATFOOT

School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, The University of New South Wales,
Sydney 2052, Australia

X. WANG
School of Fiber Science and Technology, The University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia
ABSTRACT
We have studied the dependency of rotor spun yam uniformity on variations of
rotor speed, opening roller speed, and twist level. The number of points per fiber (ppf),
which reflects the level of fiber opening, is useful in evaluating the effects of spinning
parameters on yarn uniformity. Experiments based on a 60 tex yam indicate that the
properties of yarn unevenness and incidence of imperfections improve as ppf increases
due to improved fiber separation. A critical value of the ppf is identified for CV%
values and other measures of imperfections. Beyond this critical value, further increases
in the ppf do not lead to any significant improvement in those yam properties. This
is due to the high level of fiber breakage at high ppf values.

Open-end rotor spinning has emerged as a successful

textile engineering strategy for spinning short staple
yarns, due to its high output rates, low labor requirements, and the elimination of the speed and winding
frames before and after spinning. With improved fiber
separation and transportation, twist insertion, and yam
piecing-up, rotor spinning is a competitive and effective
technology for producing high quality fine yarns [ 7 ] .
The objectives of contemporary rotor spinning
studies are to improve yarn properties, increase production rate, and reduce production costs [ 7 ] . Properties of rotor spun yarns are generally compared with
those of ring and friction spun yams [ 8 ] . The specific
aims of property modifications are to produce stronger
yet finer rotor spun yarns for a wider range of quality
products. Generally, fine but strong fibers are better
suited for the high rotor speeds used in rotor spinning
[ 13 ] . Because rotor spinning machines operate at high

speeds and the spinning aerodynamics

are

complex,

variations in operating parameters may introduce a

wide scatter in yarn properties.
Spinning parameters may be classified into three
major groups according to the machine and operation
set-up: speed parameters of opening-roller, rotor, and
take-up [ 13 ] ; structure parameters of the geometries
of the opening roller, fiber transportation zone, rotor,
and yarn extractive tube [1, 5, 6]; and pneumatic parameters of air speed and volume, and negative pressures at the inlet and outlet of the transfer channel

The work described above has provided some insight

into the dependency of yarn properties on spinning
parameters, but there remains a need for more quantitative analysis to identify the potential for improved
yarn properties by optimizing the spinning process.
Such optimization may include improving the design
of the spinning components and smoothing the distribution of the fiber flow from the opening roller to the
rotor. In our work, we have concentrated on using the
number of points per fiber ( ppf) to study variations in
several processing parameters and to evaluate their influences on the CV% and imperfections of rotor spun
yams.

Material and Methods

The properties of the cotton fibers used in this study
listed in Table I. In order to minimize any differences introduced by material preparation and proare

TABLE I. Fiber

[9, 11].
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propertia.

31

cessing within the experimental program, the various

samples of cotton fibers were processed in an identical
fashion. Raw cotton samples were fed continuously
through the Shirley analyzer four times, so as to be
well cleaned and separated. The opening and cleaning
passages remained at a constant setting for all fibers
used in each experiment to minimize material variation

number of imperfections. The sensitivity levels for thin

and thick places and neps were - 30, + 3 5, and + 14096,
respectively, which were more sensitive than the standard levels and allowed better examination of the effects
of fiber opening on the imperfections of rotor yarn

effects in the final results.

The slivers were subsequently prepared on the Shirley miniature equipment. Approximately 24 grams of
cotton fibers were processed through the Shirley carding
machine two times, producing laps of 30 g/m. Double
carding yielded laps in which the fibers were well separated, uniform, and parallel. The laps were processed
into second-drawing slivers of 4.25 g/m on a Shirley
drawframe wi~ seven doublings at the second drawing
and a draft of seven at both the first and second drawings. Care was taken at both the first and second drawings to avoid any ends reversal and to induce the majority of hooks in the second drawing slivers to be in
the trailing direction. This step was in response to Salhotra [ 12 J , who reported that tenacity loss is greatest
when the card sliver is fed into a rotor spinner with
the majority of hooks in the leading direction. We used
a Suessen rotor spintester with four heads in this series
of experiments. In each test case, only one spinning
variable was changed while the remaining parameters
were held constant; this allowed the effects of various
parameters on yam properties to be assessed. Two yarns
of 60 and 34 tex were spun; Table II lists the experimental variables.

Results and Discussions

properties.

In order to evaluate the effects of rotor speed, twist

we introduced the
number of points per fiber (ppf), which is generally

level, and opening-roller speed,

defined

as

[ 3]

and can be calculated

mula :

according to the following for-

TABLE 11. Experimental variables.

where C~ ~ the number of points per fiber, n = speed

of opening roller ( rpm), p, total points on the surface
of the opening roller, v~~ = speed of sliver feed (m/min),
n/ tex of sliver ( mg/m ), M/ fiber linear density
( millitex ), and L mean 6ber length (mm).
From this definition of ppf, it is apparent that the
term reflects the level of fiber separation that may be
expected from the machine set-up and operation. If
the ppf is higher, more opening elements will be acting
on the fibers and better fiber separation can be achieved
by the opening roller. A modified ppf may be used to
evaluate the level of 6ber opening for various kinds of
opening rollers by introducing a tooth factor:

Yams of 1500 m were spun for each machine setup shown in the schedule and subsequently tested on
an Uster tester 3 to determine uniformity and the

where Cpprm modified ppf, and a the tooth factor

related to the angle and shape of teeth or pins and the
I
tooth type on the surface of the opening rolkr; a
if the same opening roller is used; otherwise a is determined empirically.
The ppf reflects the influences of 6ber separation
relative to mass now of fibers through the spinning
machine. As the weight of fibers flowing through the
machine increases, the potential for effective separation
will ckarly decrease. Hence the ppf may be viewed as
a measure of expected separation for a certain
throughput of yarn. We have included tooth factor here
for completeness, but we have not evaluated it within
the current study. In the event of comparing different
opening rolkr profiles, values of a may be empincaiiy
evaluated. The ppf values for all the cases discussed in
this paper are shown in Table III.

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..

32
TABLE 111. Number of points per fiber with variation of rotor
speed, take-up speed, and opening roller speed.

ROTOR SPEED

Figure 1 shows the uniformity and imperfections of

thin places, thick places, and neps of the 60 and 34 tex
yarns spun at rotor speeds from 20,000 to 50,000 rpm.
For the 60 tex yam used in this study, the coefficient
of variation (CV%96 ) increased as rotor speed increased.
The number of imperfections also increased with rotor
speed, especially when it reached 50,000 rpm. This

FIGURE 1. Effect of rotor speed

on

high rotor speed had a deleterious effect,

the
number of imperfections in the yams.
increasing
Note that when the rotor speed increases, the sliver
feed rate also increases on the machine used. This leads
to the changes in the ppf shown in Table III. From
Figure 1 and Table III, we see that when the ppf decreases from 6.74 to 5.36 as rotor speed increases from
40,000 to 50,000 rpm, the number of thin places, thick
places, and neps for the 60 tex yam increases abruptly.
We also obtained similar results for the 34 tex yams,
which we compared to previous data obtained with the
60 tex yarns. In most cases, an increase in rotor speed
led to a gradual deterioration in yam uniformity. The
number of thin places gradually increased with increasing rotor speed, while the number of thick places
and neps tended to level off. Obviously, ppf for the 34
tex yarn was higher than that for the 60 tex yarn at
each rotor speed ( Table III ) . These results suggest that
excessive increases in ppf above a certain limit may
not lead to a significant improvement in yam properties.
meant that

(a) CV ( 96 ), (b) thin places, (c) thick places, (d) neps.

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33
TWIST LEVEL

OPENINGROLLER SPEED

In order not to introduce any variation due to

changes in rotor and opening roller speeds, we varied
only the take-up speed to change the twist level. Figure
2 shows the coefficient of variation and the number of
imperfections at take-up speeds from 60 to 80 m/min.

The effect of opening-roller speed on the coefficient

of variation and the number of imperfections is shown
in Figure 3. The CV% and the number of yarn imperfections decreased as the opening-rolkr speed increased
from 5000 to 7000 rpm, but then increased slightly at
8000 rpm. The difference in uniformity and the number of imperfections for opening rolkr speeds of 6000,
7000, and 8000 rpm was not significant, but improvements in both CV% and the number of imperfections
were large when the opening roller speed increased. from
5000 to 6000 rpm. This may be explained by the ppf
exceeding a certain level to appropriately separate the
fibers. If the yarn is spun at an opening-roller speed
that gives insufficient separation of fibers, its uniformity
and number of imperfections will significantly deteriorate. On the other hand, excessive action of the opening roller on fibers will not continue to improve yarn
quality, but it may lead to the deterioration of yarn

Referring to Figure 2, both the coefficients of variation

and the number of imperfections increased with takeup speed. With an increase of take-up speed from 60
to 80 m/min, the ppf decreased from 6.74 to 5.77 due
to the corresponding increase in the sliver feed rate
( Table III). This result further demonstrated that the
separating action of the opening roller affects yam regularity and imperfections. The greater the degree to
which fibers are separated, the greater the improvement
in those yam properties. Additionally, yarn structure
varies with take-up speed for a constant rotor speed.
This variation is a potential reason for deteriorating
yam quality caused by poor separating action.

FIGURE 2. Effect of take-up speed

on

(a) CV (%), (b) thin ptaces. (c) thick plaoes, (d) neps.

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34

quality due to fiber breakage. This coincides with Dysons suggestion [ 2 ] that a lower linear density of sliver
and a lower opening roller speed can minimize fiber
breakage and improve yarn properties. Furthermore,
a greater centrifugal force of fibers, caused by higher
opening roller speed, will clump them within the inlet
of the transfer channel at a speed close to, or even
higher than, that generated by aerodynamic forces. This
increases the probability of fiber accumulation at the
inlet of the transfer channel. Lunenschloss et al. [9]]
found that single fibers show improved straighteningout at higher air velocity and lower opening roller
speed. We will further investigate this phenomenon
using numerical fluid dynamic analysis and the experimental program planned for the next stage of our research [ 4 ] .
From Figure 3, the mathematical relationships between both the coefficient of variation (CV%) and the
number of imperfections of yarns and the. opening
roller speed may be curve fitted using a general function
for these four curves:

The coefficients for each curve may be obtained using

the regression method. Four optimized values of opening roller speed come from CV% and imperfections.
Providing a weighting of equal significance to each yam
property, the optimum opening roller speed may be
approximated as the mean of those four values. The
resulting value is 6732 rpm, close to the optimum re-

ported by Marino et al. [ 10 ] , which they determined

by optimizing yam tenacity. Hence, there appears to
be a good correlation between our method and Marinos in determining optimum opening roller speed.
.

Analysis of Fiber Opening Effects

Figure 4 illustrates the effects of the ppf on yam

irregularity and yarn imperfections for the 60 tex yams.
Although we obtained the change in ppf by varying
different variables, the tendency of its influence on
CV% and imperfections appears consistent. Yarn uniformity (CV%) generally improved as the ppf in-

FIGURE 3. Effect of OR speed on (a) CV (%), (b) thin places, (c) thick places, (d) neps.

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35

creased, but the improvement was not significant after

the ppf reached a specific threshold. This trend reflects
the combined effects of the degree of fiber opening,
fiber breakage, and air flow on yarn uniformity.
Similar trends prevail for the thin places, thick places,
and neps as well. This may be explained by remembering that the yarn imperfections, particularly for
neps, are mainly influenced by the degree of fiber
opening. When the ppf is small, even a slight increase
in ppf may lead to the removal of a significant number
of neps, since the presence of the neps is at a relatively
high level. In our study, the number of neps started to
level off at a ppf of about 8 (Figure 4d), probably because most of the neps were removed already with the
ppf at this level, and were not further reduced in any
significant degree as the ppf further increased.
This analysis illustrates that the optimum range for
the ppf is not as broad as would immediately be
thought, although the set-up of a spinning machine
with a higher ppf may yield yarns of betterquality in
uniformity and number of imperfections. As indicated

by its definition, the ppf is directly proportional to the

opening roller speed and inversely proportional to the
sliver feed speed and sliver count using the same fibers.
Because of limitations in increasing the opening rolkr
speed and decreasing sliver count, an increase in ppf
actually infers a reduction in yarn production rate. For
example, the production rate decreases by more than
30% as the ppf increases from 8 to 12, with the same
opening roller speed and yanis of the same count. There
is no significant improvement in yarn qualities to oftiet
the problem associated with reduced production. This
suggests that selecting the correct ppf is a trade-off between maximizing production rate and ensuring the
highest possible yarn quality.
Conclusions
Our intent in this work was to establish the effcet of

varying operations on yarn quality and provide a technique for quantifying machine set-up. The focus of
this work has been on yarn uniformity and imperfec-

FIGURE 4. Effects of the number of points per fiber on (a) CV ( 96 ), (b) thin places, (c) thick ptsoes, (d) nept.

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36
3. Klein, W., A Practical Guide to Opening and Carding,
Manual of Textile Technology, The Textile Institute,
1987.
4. Kong, L. X., and Platfoot, R. A., Two-Dimensional
Simulation of Air Flow in the Transfer Channel of Rotor
Open-End Spinning Machines, Textile Res. J. (submitted
for publication).
5. Lawrence, C. A., and Chen, K. Z., A Study of the Fibertransfer-channel Design in Rotor-spinning, Part I : The
Fiber Trajectory, J. Textile Inst. 79, 367-392 (1988).
6. Lawrence, C. A., and Chen, K. Z., A Study of the Fibertransfer-channel Design in Rotor-spinning, Part II: Optimization of the Transfer-channel Design, J. Textile Inst.
79, 393-408 ( 1988).
7. Lawrence, C. A., and Chen, K. Z., Rotor-spinning, Textile Prog 1-5 (1984).
(4),
13
.
8. Louis, G. L., Salaun, H. L., and Kimmel, L. B., Comparison of Properties of Cotton Yarns Produced by the
DREF-3, Ring, and Open-End Spinning Methods, Textile Res. J. 55
, 344-351 (1985).
9. Lunenschloss, J., Tortosa, C., and Siersch, E., Fiber Flow
and Fiber Orientation in the Fiber Duct of an OE Rotor

tions rather than improvements in strength or tenacity,

which has been encouraged by the trend to attempt to
spin finer yarns with the rotor spinning technology.
We have investigated the effects of rotor speed, takeup speed, and opening roller speed on the uniformity
and imperfections of yarns. The number of points per
fiber is useful for the purposes of this study. We have
demonstrated that as the ppf increases, the CV% and
imperfections of yams produced will generally improve
until a critical ppf value of about 8 is reached. Beyond
this value, further increases in the ppf would not lead
to a significant improvement in those yarn properties.
Too high a ppf might actually lead to deterioration of
yarn properties due to excessive fiber breakage and
would sacrifice machine productivity. Hence, in planning a machine set-up to spin a specific kind of yam,
there is merit in developing charts ofBoptimum ppf
versus those yarn properties. Such charts may be used
to identify trade-offs between yarn quality and machine
throughput. With further research into the effect of
different profiles of opening roller pins, there would be
additional scope for comparing the suitability of alternative opening roller clothing.

10.

A., The Influence of the Under-Pressure in the Rotor on

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We wish to thank Dr. M. D. Young for his assistance
in the experimental work. Mr. Kong has been partially
supported by special grants from the Faculty of Engineering, UNSW.

Literature Cited
1. Bauer,
in the

W., Application of Laser-Doppler Anemometry

Optimization of Fiber/air Flow Parameters in

Open-end Spinning Analysis of Processes during Fiber
Transport in the Opening Roller Housing. Textil Prax.
Int. 45, 773-779 (1990).
2. Dyson, E., A Study of Open-end Spinning by Circumferential Assembly with Especial Reference to the Spinning of Modified Rayon, J. Textile Inst. 65, 588-594
(1974).

965. 26/78,
Spinning Machine, Chemiefas./Textilind
975 (1976).
Marino, P. N., Carpintero, J., Manich, A. M., and Barella,

Properties of Open-End-Spun Cotton Yams at Different Values of the Rotor Speed and Opening-Roller
Speed, J. Textile Inst. 76, 86-102 (1985).
11. Polyanskii, Yu. B., and Mayanskii, S. E., Study on the
Effect of the Dimensions of the Fiber Transport Channel
and the Rotor Vacuum in an Open-end Spinning Ma25-28
chine on Yam Quality, Tekhnol. Tektil Prom. 4,
the

(1992).
12. Salhotra, K. R., Dutta, B., and Sett, S. K., Influence of
Twist on Fiber Migration in Rotor-Spun Yam, Textile
Res. J. 51, 360-363 (1981).
13. Simpson, J., and Patureau, M. A., Effect of Rotor Speed
on Open-End Spinning and Yam Properties, Textile Res.

J.

49, (1979).
468-473

Manuscript received February 16. 1995; accepted April 24, 1995.

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