Indian Journal of Fibre & Textile Research

Vol. 17, December 1992, pp. 201-208

Factors effecting changes in the structure and properties of open-end

rotor yarns
C A Lawrence" & E Finikopulos
The University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, Manchester M,60 I QD, UK
Received 21 July 1992

The effect of certain doffing tube parameters on yam and knitted fabric properties were studied.'The
surface appearance of yams made from various doffing tube types was examined microscopically, and
the differing surface structures classified. Changes in the doffing tube effected changes in the frequency
of certain classes of wrapped structure and in a number of the measured parameters defining the handle
of the knitted fabrics . It was found that the smooth doffing tubes gave the lowest frequency of wrapper fi-
bres, and resulted in the best measured values for the softness of hand of a single jersey knitted fabric.

Keywords: Doffing tube, Knitted fabric, Open-end rotor yam

1 Introduction Wrapper fibres are an inherent feature of the ro

Over the last 23 years the open-end rotor spinn-
ing has been the subject of much intensive research
which has led to many modifications of the spinning
unit design and improved automation of the pro-
cess. However, the basic features, operating princi-
ple and the arrangement of the spinning unit conti-
nue to be the same.
EconorIDc considerations and intense commer-
cial competition have led to the desire to spin finer
rotor yam counts, i.e. as fine as 10 tex. Consequent-
ly, increased rotor speed of up to 1,50,000 rpm,
smaller diameter rotors (of the order of 32 mm), in-
creased efficiency of automation and on-line quality
and production data monitoring systems have re-
ceived much attention l - 7 .
To obtain art acceptable spinning efficiency and
yam quality, sliver preparation is an important fac-
tor. Much is reported in the literature in respect of
the required sliver cleanliness, short- and long-term
irregularity and the sliver count8- 1O • These consider-
ations pertain not only to the advancements in the
rotor system, but also developments in carding and
drawing and, more recenty, in combing 11 . 12 . Despite
these reported developments for improved econ-
omics and yam quality, some yam buyers are still
critical of the unique surface structure of the rotor
yam 13, which they believe restricts its suitability for
some commercially important end-uses, in particu-
lar for knitted fabrics where yams are required with
a low twist for a soft handle.
' Present address: Department of Textile Industries, 1Jniversity
of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
tor yam structure. These fibres and the usually re-
quired higher twist level than in ring-spun yams
cause rotor yams to have a harshness of handle. The
faster rotor speeds and the smaller rotor diameters,
necessary for improved economics, have accompa-
nying increases in wrapper fibres l 3 . Some machin-
ery manufacturers 14 claim that the developments in
the doffing tube navel design u'tilize a false-twist ef-
fect 15 to modify the wrapper-fibre surface structure
as well as to.reduce the twist level required to spin a
yam. Little, however, is reported on the modified
structures that can be obtained with differing navel
designs. This paper considers this aspect in more
detail.
1.1 Factors Affecting the Wrapper Fibre Structure
It is widely reported l6 - 19 that a rotor yam is basi-
cally a two-zone structure. There is a core of fibre~,
densely packed and aligned with the helix of the
nominal yam twist, forming the bulk of the yam, and
an outer zone of fibres which occurs irregularly
along the core length. These outer zone fibres are
twisted around the core at differing angles that are
significantly greater than the core twist and, at times,
have an opposite twist direction. They are common-
ly called wrapper fibres. The mechanism of the
wrapped structure formation has been studied by
several authors 16.20.21. It is reported that the number
of wrapper fibres increases with rotor speed, re-
duced rotor diameter, reduced rotor groove angle,
increased yam count and fibre fineness. The
changes in a number of these parameters are, how-
ever, necessary for improved spinning performance
202 INDIAN J. FmRE TEXT. RES., DECEMBER 1992

and yarn tensile properties. Effort has, therefore,
heen directed towards other means of reducing the
number of wrapper fibres, and in this respect the
type of doffing tube navel is an important factor.
The central force acting on the peel-off point in
the rotor groove, the air-drag and coriolis forces in
the rotor and the force pul1ing the yam out of the
doffing tube, give rise to a frictional force between
the running yarn and the navel of the doffing tube. A
component of the frictional force produces the
false-twist effect which al10ws yarns to be spun at
lower twist factors . Importantly, it controls the peri-
pheral twist extent in the rotor groove and, there-
fore, al10ws the doffing tube's geometry and surface
texture to be used to control the occurrence of
wrapper fibres in the rotor yam structure.
types, two 1 kg packages of yarn were spun on each
of 10 rotor units. An Hitachi KP-140E/ K CeTV
camera mounted on a optical microscope and
linked to a vedio monitor was used to study the sur-
face structure of the yarns, and the differing appear-
ances were classified. With this apparatus, incre-
mental lengths of 4.5 mm were observed at a magni-
fication of 50 x . After dispensing with the first me-
tre, five 100 mm lengths were randomly chosen for
study from the next 15m of each package. Thus, for
D

2 Materials and Methods

Cotton rotor yarns (44 tex) were spun on a RU 11
Rieter (Schubert & Salzer) Spineomat rotor spinner, Fig. I-Cross-section of doffing tube ID-Outer diameter,
using seven differing types of doffing tube navel. d-Bore; R-Base radius; H-Flange thickness; and x-Inclina-
The cotton was obtained in sliver form from an in- tion of groove 1
dustrial source. The tested fibre properties and the
details of the spinning conditions are shown in Table 1-Measured fibre properties
Tables 1 and 2 respectively. Effective length (mm ) 32.0
The 44 tex is a yarn count used for single jersey Fineness (mtex ) 295.0
knitted sport shirts, and the twist factor is a recom- Short fibres (%) 18.6
mended value l4 for such yams. From trial runs, us- Micronaire (glin) 4.8
ing the smooth navel type steel doffing tube, and Maturity ratio (M) 0.6
aimed at elucidating the effects of twist on the yarn
and knitted fabric properties, the recommended va- Table 2-Spinning conditions
lue gave yarns with the lowest irregularity and hairi- Sliver count (ktex ) 5.0
ness, a tenacity and breaking extension of 12.1 cN/ Total draft 112.7
tex and 6.5% respectively, and resulted in a knitted Opening roller type OB20
fahric with a pil1 rating (ICI) of 3 and a bursting Opening roller speed (rpm ): 7200
strength of 538 kPa. Rotor diameter (mm) 35 .0
The basic shape of the doffing tube navels is illus- Rotor groove angle (deg) 32.0
trated in Fig. I , and Table 3 gives the changes in the Rotor speed (rpm ) 76 ,900
dimensions indicated. For each of the seven navel Twist factor (S.I.) 3950

Table 3-Changes in doffing tube parameters

Nozzle type D(mm ) d(mm ) R l mm ) H (mm ) x(deg) Features
Ceramic
CSMO 17.0 2.5 6.2 4.0 30 Smooth
CSP( 16.5 2.5 7.0 3.9 30 Spiral
C4NO 15.4 2.5 7.0 4.0 30 4 Notches
C6NO 16.5 2.5 7.0 3.9 30 6 Notches

Steel
SSMO 17.0 2.5 7.0 4.0 30 Smooth
S4NO 17.0 2.5 3.5 4.0 30 4 Notches
S6NO 17.0 2.5 3.5 4.D 3D 6 Notches
D-outer diameter; d-bore; R-base radius; H-flange thickness; and x-inclination of groove
 LAWRENCE & FINIKOPUWS : OPEN-END ROTOR YARNS
Table 4-Knitting conditions and fabric tests
Machine diameter (in) 14.0
Number of feeders 8.0
Gauge (needles/in) 12.0
Loop length (cm ) 0.5
Fabric test ICI Pill Box
Burst strength
Kawabata KES-FB
each doffing tube navel type, a total length of 5 m
was studied. From the overall analysis, seven classes
were established and the % relative frequency and
mean length of each class noted, and their products
calculated to obtain an estimated % cover length.
The tensile properties, irregularity and hairiness
of the yarns spun were measured. The yarns were
subsequently knitted into single jersey fabrics using
the conditions given in Table 4. The fabrics were
then washed within a domestic detergent without
softener at 60°C in a Wascator FOM 71 laboratory
washing machine. After being dried at 60°C for 15
min, the fabrics were conditioned for 24h in an at-
mosphere of 65% RH at 20°C and then subjected to
the tests listed in Table 4. From the results obtained
the effects of the doffing navel types on yarn surface
structure and properties and knitted fabric propert-
ies were determined.
3 Results and Discussion
3.1 Classification of Rotor Yam Surface Structure
Fig. 2 shows the scanning electron micrographs of
the seven classes devised from the observed yarn
surface structures.
Class /- May be termed as ordered structure, be-
cause few, if any, outer zone fibres are present and
the fibres are uniformly twisted.
Class JI- Here, superimposed on the uniform
structure of the core fibres , can be seen outer zone
fibres loosely wrapped around the core. Their
wrapping angles differ from the twist angle of the
core fibres and vary along the observed yarn length.
Class /I/-ln this class, the outer zone fibres are
loosely attached to the yarn and appear entangled.
They give a hairy appearance to the surface struc-
ture.
Class /V- May be termed as multiple wrapped,
because part of the wrapping fibres are tightly coiled
around the core, whereas their remainder adopt
lower wrapping angles. With the take-up direction
as reference, invariaby the tightly coiled sections
precede the sections of lower wrap angles.
Class V- In this class, the outer zone fibres have
an opposing helix to the twist helix of the core fibres,
and their wrap angle can be up to 75°.
203
Class V /- Here, the surface fibres appear tightly
and closely wrapped around the core. These sec-
tions of yarn look uniform and have no protruding
fibre l~nds or loops. The angle of wrap is approxi-
mately 90°.
Class VI/-In this class, one or two fibres are ob-
served tightly wrapped around the core at an angle
of 90°, forming a ·belt' shape owing to the locally
concentrated winding.
3.2 Effect of Doffing Navel Type
3.2.1 Yam Surface Structure
The relative frequencies of the observed classes
are depicted in Figs 3-5. For the sake of brevity the
values for the mean lengths of the classes are omit-
ted, but the % cover lengths are given in Table 5.
Fig. 3 shows, for each class, the minimum and
maximum frequencies of all the measurements tak-
en. In general, classes I, II and III occurred more fre-
quently and had the greater mean lengths and %
cover lengths. As Fig. 4 shows, the ceramic doffing
tubes gave a higher frequency for class I than the
steel doffing tubes, and lower values for classes II
and III. Differences were seen in the % cover length
for the two types of material, but these were too
small to be of practical significance.
The frequency of class I did not show any signifi-
cant change with the number of grooves present in
the doffing tube (Fig. 5 ). Howeve r, the mean length
of class I did decrease as the doffing tube navel be-
came more grooved. Hence, the smooth doffing
tubes gave the highest cover lengths (Table 5 ). The
frequency.of class II decreased but its mean length
increased with the number of grooves. Its % cover
length was, therefore, unaffected by the differing
doffing tubes. The parameters for class III increased
with the number of notches, whereas those for
classes IV and VII showed only a decrease he tween
navels with and without notches; the numher of
notches present had no effect. Classes V and VI
were not affected hy the changes in the doffing tuhe.
3.2.2 Measured Yam Properties
Table 6 gives the values for the measured yarn
properties. The tensile properties of thc yarn were
unaffected by the different navels. However, the
irregularity and hairiness increased as the navel be-
came more grooved. The number of thin and thick
places and neps were not affeCted hy the doffing
tube navels.
3.2.3 Measured Fabric Properties
The changes in the doffing tube navel had no ef-
fect on bursting strength and a pill rating of 3 was
204 INDIAN J. FffiRE TEXT. RES., DECEMBER 1992

IV

v
11

III VII
Fig. 2- Scanning electron micrographs of yarn surface struc-
tures [I-Ordered ; II-Loosely wrapped ; III - Hairy; IV- Multi-
ple wrapped ; V-Opposingly wrapped ; VI -Tightly wrapped ;
and VII-Belt wrapped ]
 LAW R ENCE & FINIKOPU LOS : OPEN- E ND ROTOR YARNS 205

30~-------------------------------' ohtain ed for all the fabrics . Table 7, howeve r, shows

that th e re were not iceable changes in the average
numbe r of pills pe r \0 cm ". BeslJ es de te rmining
25 . . . Maximum
th ese ave rage va lues, the fuzziness o f the fabric test
DMinimum spec ime ns was quantifi ed by counting the number
of points whe re entangled fibres we re present on the
~20
fabric surface wh ich, with add itional tumhling, may
..
u
c:
~
CT
lead to pill forma tio n. The fu zzin ess val ues are also
.. 15 given in Tahle 7 . It may be seen fro m the data that
..
at
>
the notched a nd sp iral navels result ed in greater fuz-
ziness, and that the increases were highe r for th e
o 10
Qj steel doffi ng navels.
a:
Table R gives the results of the fabric tes ts on the
5
Kawabata KES-FB instruments. Because the edges of
the test specimens cut fro m the sin gle-je rsey fabrics
tend ed to roll up , the bending test was omitted.
o The fabric tensile properties, particularly elonga-
II III IV V VI VII
Slructurt' Classt's
tion, decreased as the numbe r of notches in th e doff-
ing tuhe navel inc reased. This does not correspond
Fig. ] -Frequency distribution of structure c lasses
with the results for the yarn te nsil e properties, which
did no t vary with navel type. T he mechanical shear
30
IIICt'ram ic 30r----------------------------------,
_ Smooth ~4-Groov~s
25 DStt't'1
25 CJ 6- Groov~s

• 20
;-
>.
u
~_ 20
>-
~
5- 15 . ."
c

~ ..
:l
0"" 15

..
LL

>
:.:; 10
at
.
>
o
Qj
o 10
a:

5 5

o o
II III IV V VI VII \1 \11
Structurt' Classes Structure Closses

Fig. 4 - Effect ()f material type o n occurrence of structure Fi g. :; - Effect of doffing tuhe features on th e occurrence of
c lasses structure c lasses

Ta hl e :; - Ca lc ulat ed cove r le ngths

C lass UI.. Cover le ngth . mm
stru c ture D o ffin g
lUbe CS MO CSP I C4NO C6NO SSMO S4NO S6NO
3 1.0 :mo IH.) I) .0 :W . I IH.H I).)
[I 24/) 24.7 24 .7 24.) 24 .6 24 . .1 2H\
III 2 1. :" 27 ..1 2H.2 .12 . 1 21.H 2LJ.O 3 1. :;
[V 6. 1 10. 1 10.4 10 ..1 6 .6 10 .0 10.4
V LJ.7 LJ.H LJ .LJ LJ.6 LJA LJ.6 9.4
VI ).x 6 ..\ 6.0 6.3 6.3 :;LJ :;.H
V II U I.X 2.] 2 .2 1.2 2.4 2 .6
206 INDIAN J. FIBRE TEXT. RES., DECEMBER 1992

parameters show differences between the fabrics re-
lated to the steel and the ceramic doffing tubes. Ex-
cepting .for the smooth type, the ceramic doffing
tubes generally gave the higher values. The mea-
sured values also show a tendency to increase with
increased number of notches. These differences
may be related to the increase in yarn hairiness,
which would increase the inter-yarn friction at the
loop intersections of the fabric. The combination of
the tensile properties -tensile energy (WT ) and res-
ilience (RT )- and the shear properties influence the
fabric stiffness. The higher the values of the former
and the lower the values of the latter, the less stiff
and more smooth and soft the fabric 22 . It appears,
therefore, that for both the ceramic and steel materi-
als, the use of smooth doffing tubes results in the
softer knitted fabric.
It may be seen from Table 8 that the coefficient of
fabric fri ction (MIU) increased as the doffing tube
navel became more grooved. This may be attributed

Table 6- Measured ya rn p roperties

Pro perty Doffing tube

CS MO CSPI C4 NO C6 NO SSMO S4NO S6NO

Irregularity (U%) 8.8 9.5 10. 1 10.9 9.0 9.8 10.6
Neps ( + 280%) 0 0 0 1.0 0 0 1.0
Thin places ( - 50%) 0 0 0 0 1.0 0 1.0
T hick places ( + 50% ) 3.0 3.0 2.0 2.0 3.0 3.0 2.0
Hairiness
H (Us ter va lue ) 4.0 4.5 4.8 5.0 4.5 5.1 5.6
Cv% (Uster va lue ) 1.1 1. 2 1.2 1.2 1.2 1.3 1.5
Tenacity (cNltex ) 12.7 12.4 12.6 12.5 12.6 12.5 12.4
CV % 5.2 5. 1 5.2 5. 1 5.3 5.3 5.2
Extensio n (%) 6.6 6.5 6.4 6.6 6.7 6.5 6.4

Table 7 - Pilling, fuzziness and bursting strength of fa brics

Doffing Pill rating Fuzziness Bursting strength
tube
Mean CV% Mean CV% Pressure CV%
(No./ IO cm 2) (No./ IO cm 2) (kPa )
CSMO 2.7 0 .5 2.0 600 0.2
CSPI 3.2 0.4 2.8 538 0.2
C4NO 3.5 0.6 3.5 544 0.3
C6NO 3.6 0.6 3.5 600 0.4
SSMO 3.4 0.5 2.6 600 0 .2
S4NO 3.5 0.6 4.2 600 0 .3
S6NO 3.9 0.4 4.4 600 0.3

Table 8- KES - FB mechanical and surface properties

Parameter Doffing tube

CSMO CSPI C4NO C6 NO SSMO S4NO S6NO

Tensile
E m (% ) 23.2 26 .0 22.) 21.1 25.6 23.8 2 1.4
LT 0.87 0 .96 0.97 1.04 0.83 0 .89 1.10
WT (gf-cm/cm 2) 5.4 6 .1 5.7 6.0 5.9 6.3 5.5
RT (%) 3(l.X 24.4 23.7 26.0 49.6 36 . 1 29.7

S heari ng
G (gf/ cm-deg) OAO 0.43 0.)2 O)X OAI 0.57 0.67
2 HG (gflc m ) 1.3 1 2.22 2.44 2.)4 1. 13 1.3 X 1.94
2 HG5 (gf/ cm ) 1.43 2.37 2.6 1 2.72 1.23 I.4X 2.03

Conic!
 LAWRENCE & FINIKOPULQS : OPEN-END ROTOR YARNS 207

Table 8-KES - FB mechanical and surface properties - Contd

Parameter Doffing tube

CSMO CSPI C4NO C6NO SSMO S4NO S6NO

Compression
LC 0.39 0.44 0.45 0.44 0.32 0.38 0.36
WC (gf-cm/cm) 0.34 0.36 0.33 0.39 0.45 0.49 0.51
RC(%) 36.7 33.9 39.3 38.2 42.3 44.3 34.9

Surface
MIU 0.31 0.29 0.29 0.31 0.28 0.29 0.29
MMD 0.Q21 0.023 0.032 0.024 0.021 0.022 0 .022
SMD (microns) 9.7 10.3 10.3 10.4 9.2 9.5 11.0

Weight
W (mglcm2 ) 0.95 0.98 0.97 0.96 0.92 0.94 0.99

Thickness
TO(mm) 1.45 1.35 1.28 1.26 1.56 1.42 1.53
Em-elongation) LT-linearity; WT -tensile energy; RT-resilience; G-shear stiffness; 2HG-hysterisis at OS; 2HG5-hysterisis
at 5°; LC-Iinearity; WC-compressional energy; RC-resilience; MIU-coefficient of friction; MMD-mean deviation of MIU;
SMD-geometrical roughness; W-weight per unit area; and TO-thickness at 0.5 gf/ cm2.

to the increased wrapping of the yarn structure, and
it can be reasoned that increased wrapping gives
harshness to a fabric handle.
Fabrics related to the steel navels had, on the
whole, a greater thickness (TO) than those related to
the ceramic navels. The values for their compres-
sion energy (WC) were therefore higher.
4 Conclusion
The work reported forms only a part of an ongo-
ing study of the spinning factors that affect the han-
dle of knitted fabrics made from rotor-spun yarns
and, therefore, at this stage, no final,conclusions can
be drawn. However, the following points should be
noted.
The surface appearance of the rotor yarns pro-
duced varied according to seven classified surface
structures. The belting structure (Class VII ) is the
most well known and is commonly referred to as the
wrapping structure. It was, however, the least preva-
lent of the wrapping structures observed. The
wrapping structures of classes II and III occurred
most frequently , but only the latter appeared to be
substantially affected by the changes in the doffing
tube parameters.
The effect the changes in doffing tube parameters
had on yarn surface structure was reflected in a
number of measured parameters for fabric handle.
Irrespective of material type, the smooth doffing
tubes gave the lowest frequencies for class III and
the best measured values for softness of hand of the
knitted fabrics.
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