Utilization of Gin Motes in Rotor Yarn Production

Increased prices for greige cotton paired with an increase in domestic consumption of cotton along with a push to increase sustainability requires a way to reduce costs for domestic textile mills while increasing the availability of raw materials to be processed and reducing the environmental impact of cotton production.  Gin motes, and other cotton byproducts, are often viewed as waste material which must be disposed of; however it is known that some amount of mote material is fiber of sufficient quality for textile production.  Motes of various quality were collected and subjected to a battery of tests in an effort to assess both the lint quality and quantity as well as the effectiveness of the test methods themselves.  Rotor spun yarns were produced with various levels and qualities of mote materials to determine the feasibility of utilizing motes in rotor spun yarn production.  Fiber quality, processing efficiency, and yarn quality were examined for blends of up to 40% mote material with upland cotton.  Issues with existing test methods for examining fiber quality were identified.