Cotton processing From fibers to yarns: spinning

With a production of 26 million tonnes for the 2019/2020 season, cotton is the most widely used natural fiber in the world, with a predominant role in the clothing and furnishings sector.

Known since ancient times, cotton has been cultivated and used to make clothing in India for at least 3,000 years. Indiennes", fabrics printed with flower motifs in shades of madder red, became popular in Europe in the early 16th century. The ban on their import from 1686 to 1759 led to smuggling, but also to the development of local and neighboring crafts. As a result, Mulhouse, an independent republic at the time, underwent significant development, first in dyeing and printing, then in spinning and weaving, and finally in the production of textile machinery.

Mechanization in the textile industry really began in the second half of the 17th century, with the inventions of Hargreaves (spinning jenny), Arkwright (carding and first prototype of the "continuous spinning machine") and Crompton (mule-jenny). The use of water power in the early days, and later electric power, enabled the textile industry, and spinning mills in particular, to increase production capacity while significantly improving product quality.

At the beginning of the 21st century, cotton spinning obeys the same general principles as when textile machinery was first mechanized. Thus, it can be defined as the art of transforming disordered, highly intermingled and unsuitable fiber clusters into linear textile structures, called fiber yarns, or more commonly threads, with acceptable characteristics according to the specifications defined for their use. To achieve this, the cotton flocks must be untangled, cleaned of impurities and homogenized. The fibers must then be individualized and oriented to form linear structures, slivers and rovings, which are finally refined to form a yarn, the main quality criteria of which are: mechanical strength, elongation, mass irregularity and hairiness. Spinning remains a fundamental stage in the manufacture of surface textile structures, such as woven and knitted fabrics, originally intended for clothing and furnishings, but also for technical applications.

Development trends in the spinning industry focus on three areas: increasing yarn productivity while maintaining the required level of quality, improving existing processes with the aim of improving yarn quality, and developing new and alternative processes for producing yarn and/or intermediate products.

This article deals with the transformation of cotton fiber into yarn and explains the operations involved. Despite the emergence of environmental constraints at the beginning of the 21st century, cotton still occupies a very important place in the clothing...