Yarn

Technical Specifications &

selection guidelines

Fabric quality means different properties of finished

fabric which depends on yarn properties and fabrics
construction.

Knit goods are known for their high structural

sensitiveness to deformation during manufacturing
process or at their end use.

Yarn is the fundamental unit of fabric.

Yarn contains a lot of properties (variables) which

can affect knitted fabric finished quality.

The quality of hosiery yarn has to be considered with

due weightage to Fluidity of knit structures and their
influence on quality of knit fabrics.

The crucial yarn properties to be considered would

be twist in yarn for shortest possible gauge length,
yarn irregularity, within variation of friction in yarn,
flexural rigidity and torsional rigidity.

Carded and combed yarns of same count have

many different properties because of different
manufacturing process.

Combed yarn is of superior quality and carded yarn

is of inferior quality.

Knitting

Knitting requires a relatively fine, smooth, strong yarn with

good elastic recovery properties.

Main Characteristics of Yarn to be

Considered for Knitting
1. Count & count variation (CV%).
2. Twist and twist variation.
3. Evenness or regularity of the yarn.
4. Imperfections in the yarn:
a) Thick places b) Thin places c) Neps d) Hairiness
5. Yarn strength and its variation.

Technical Specifications

Technical Specifications

Combed vs Carded

A same count carded and combed yarns have

many different properties which influence the fabric
quality.

Combed vs Carded

The finished knit fabrics made by carded yarn and

combed yarn have no significant change due to
color fastness to wash and color fastness to
light. But,

in case of color fastness to rubbing, a little effect is

found on finished knit fabric made by a same count
carded and combed yarn. Some cases combed
yarn shows better result than carded yarn.

Combed vs Carded

Shrinkage of all types of fabric produced from carded

yarn is more than that produced from combed yarn,
while the yarn count is same.

Generally combed yarn strength is higher than carded

yarn of the same count.

Carded yarn is more hairy.

Combed vs Carded

Pilling is a fabric surface fault which gives the garment

unsightly appearance.

Pills are formed in fabric by entangling the loose fibers or

hairy fibers.

When the garment undergoes wear & washing these pills

are formed on the fabric surface.

The resistance of pilling effect on fabric produced by

combed yarn gives better result than same count carded
yarn.

Combed vs Carded

Carded yarn and combed yarn have great effect on GSM.

Combed yarn produces higher GSM fabric than carded
yarn, while using the same count for both yarn types.

More loose hairy fibers are removed from carded yarn by

knitting process and pretreatment process than combed yarn.
As a result fabric produced from combed yarn shows more
GSM than fabric produced from carded yarn after finishing.

From this discussion, it can be said that in case of producing

fabric from carded yarn should maintain higher GSM than
combed yarn fabric to achieve same finished GSM.

Combed vs Carded

Normally combed yarns are more uniform and more

lustrous than carded yarns.

Fabric made of Combed yarn is gentle against the

skin.

Carded yarn TPI is more than combed yarn.

A fabric knitted with a highly twisted yarn will have

higher Spirality.

However,
Carded yarn production process is easier than
combed yarn production process and carded yarn is
also cheaper than combed yarn.

Trade practice
The spinning mills are putting different colored labels on the
cones for easy identification.
Green

Label (GL) : Semi combed

Violet Label (VL) : Combed
Red Label (RL) : Super combed

Yarn Count

Yarn Count is the numerical expression of fineness.

The number indicating the mass per unit length or

length per unit mass of yarn is called count.

Count CV%

CV% is a statistical measure of the variation of the

individual readings.

The variation of the yarn count (CV count) is the variation

of count from one bobbin (or, cone) to the other.

The lower the value the better.

If this variation is more than 2% the difference in the

fabric is visible with bare eyes.

For a fault-free yarn with random variations in

thickness or linear density, the following relationship
exists between the U value and the CV value.
CV =1.25U

The size of the cross-section variations is expressed

in mean linear irregularity (U%)

General classification

Coarser Count (Up to 24s).

Medium Count (24 to 70s).
Finer Count (Above 70s).

We will discuss other parameters in next edition.

Until then,
Bye Bye.

Note:
This is a Training material prepared for internal training purpose.