Short Staple Spinning: Major Processes Bale Preparation (Blow Room) Lap or Flock Carding (Card) Carded Sliver

(Can)
Open/ Mix/Clean Open/ Mix/Clean

Carding
Flock Feed (Direct from Blowroom)

Sliver

Can

Flats

Carding
Functions:

Cylinder Lap Feed

Opening/disentanglement Cleaning Mixing Sliver forming

Cotton Card: Revolving-flat Card

Card Clothing
Main Types

Flexible: wired teeth protruding from foundation of laminated structure

Metallic (rigid): toothed steel strip

Depth (C)

Overall height (h)

=Carding (working) angle

Metallic clothing Pitch (t) Base width (a)

Card Clothing
Important parameters Working angle Depth Point density Sharpness

Flexible Clothing

Card Clothing: Arrangement

Point-to-Point

Setting
Possible Actions between Two Surfaces with Card Clothing

Point-to-Back

Carding (Point-to-Point) Action

Brushing (Back-to-Back) Action

Fibre clusters divided by two surfaces

Fibres brought to the gap between two surfaces (not used in cotton card)

Stripping (Point-to-Back) Action

Point to Point: Carding Point to Back: Stripping Back to Back: Brushing

Fibres transfer to faster surface

Carding Operations
Feeding Carding Doffing / sliver forming

Feeding Area
Fibres fed by feed roller/feed plate in lap form Pressure =2V2 Lap opened to small tufts by taker-in Trash extracted by mote knifes/grids Fibres transferred to cylinder =1000V1

Key parameters
S1= 0.25-0.5 S3 S2 L1 L2 (1) Lap density Speeds Settings Taker-in clothing

Carding Area
Intensive opening Carding action between flats and cylinder separates fibre tufts to single fibres Trash extracted by flats/removed by fly comb Slow Setting

Flats Cylinder
Fast

Mixing Key parameters Speeds Settings Card clothing Cylinder loading

Fast

Slow

Doffing Area
Fibre transfer (cylinder to doffer) Point to point action Transfer factor: 20-30% If too low: over carding of fibres over loading of cylinder To increase transfer factor: Increase doffer wire working angle and depth Increase doffer speed Decrease cylinder-doffer setting Doffer web removed by stripping roller Web condensed into sliver and deposited in sliver can by coiler

DRAFT
Input Linear Density L1 Machine Input (Feed) Speed V1 Technical draft (actual draft) TD Mechanical draft MD Without Wastage: L1xV1=L2xV2 V2 V1 or L1 L2 = V2 V1 With Wastage: Output (Delivery) Speed V2 L1 L2 Input (Feed) Speed V1 Output Linear Density L2 Input Linear Density L1

DRAFT
Output Linear Density L2 Machine Output (Delivery) Speed V2

Waste (W% of Feed) L1xV1=L2xV2+L1xV1xW% MD=TD (1-W%)

Production Rate
Vd x 60 x Ls (Kg/h) 1000 Vd: Sliver delivery speed (m/min) Ls: Sliver linear density (Ktex) Production rate is affected by: Fibre type Fibre length/thickness Trash content Machine design, settings, maintenance Type Micronaire Staple Length Max. Kg/h Indian 5.0 16-24 41 Low American 4.5 24-26 39 Good American 4.2 26-28 32 Sudan/Egyptian 3.8 29-35 20 Long Egyptian/Pima 3.4 >35 16

Recommended Production Rates (Platt Type 600)

Draft & Production Calculation Example

Given:

Fibre Configuration in Card Sliver

Fibres largely aligned along sliver length

Feed lap linear density: Sliver linear density: Waste: Feed roller diameter: Feed roller speed: Calculate: Total Technical Draft Total Mechanical Draft Production rate (Kg/h)

700 Ktex 5 Ktex 5% 100 mm 3 rpm

Most fibres have hooked ends: 50% (majority) trailing hooks 25% leading hooks 15% double hooks 10% straight

Leading hook in

Trailing hook out

Each process reverses hook direction

Fibre hooks adversely affect:

Yarn strength Yarn appearance Performance of subsequent machines

Sliver quality needs further improvement