Cottonspec – A Cotton Fibre and Yarn Quality Management Tool

Cottonspec – A Cotton fibre and yarn quality management tool

S. Yang and S. Gordon

CSIRO Materials Science & Engineering, Australia

Geelong, Victoria

L.Wu

China Chongqing Sanxia Technical Textile Co. Ltd.

Wanzhou, Chongqing, China

Abstract

A cotton fibre and yarn quality management software package, Cottonspec, is introduced that aims to predict yarn property from measured fibre quality parameters. The package has been developed at CSIRO utilizing a comprehensive industrial spinning database and employing sophisticated theoretical modeling. The package can be used by spinners to select the most suitable cottons, which best meet the spinner's needs, or as a quality control tool to benchmark performance against “best commercial practice”.  It can also be used as a trading tool for merchants to promote the value of a particular growth, or used by cotton researchers and grower collectives to promote new cotton varieties. The role of cotton fibre properties, including length, short fibre content, tenacity and elongation, linear density, maturity, nep count and Micronaire, are reviewed. The importance of these properties to yarn quality is discussed and trade-offs between fibre length, tenacity, elongation and linear density have been derived. The rankings and trade-offs gives flexibility in the preparation of a laydown.  It allows an optimum raw material price to be achieved while meeting yarn customer's needs. The current status and operation of this computer program is described and its ability to predict yarn quality is demonstrated.  Currently, Cottonspec is undergoing mill validation.