Sevda Alta,

*Hseyin Kadolu
Ege University
Tire Kutsan M.Y.O.,
Textile Program,
35900, Tire, Izmir, Turkey
E- mail: sevda.altas@ege.edu.tr
*Ege University
Department of Textile Engineering,
35100, Bornova, Izmir, Turkey
E-mail: hkadoglu@textile.ege.edu.tr

Determining Fibre Properties and Linear

Density Effect on Cotton Yarn Hairiness
in Ring Spinning
Abstract
The hairiness of a yarn can be defined as the total number or total length of the fibres which
leave from the unit yarns surface. Yarn hairiness is formed by surface fibre edges which leave
the yarn center and spoil its appearance. Except for a few special cases, yarn hairiness is an
undesirable property in a yarn; an excessive degree of hairiness can cause serious problems
in both yarn production and in subsequent textile processes.
The aim of this study is to examine the effect of cotton fibre properties and linear density on
yarn hairiness. For this purpose, two different yarn counts were produced from 15 different
characterised cottons with the same process and machine parameters. Yarn hairiness was
tested with a Zweigle yarn hairiness meter. The fibre parameters were tested with HVI test
equipment. The fibre parameters and yarn hairiness results were analysed with the help of
the SPSS and MINITAB statistical pocket programs. We basically used multiple regression
analysis method for our test results. Among all the parameters examined in this study, yarn
linear density is the most important parameter affecting yarn hairiness. An increase in yarn
linear density increases the hairiness. Secondly, fibre length is also another important parameter which influences hairiness. The increase in fibre length decreases hairiness.
Key words: cotton yarn hairiness, regression analysis, Zweigle yarn hairiness tester, HVI
test machine.

cepted that a certain level of hairiness in

yarn is unavoidable, owing to the practical limitations of mechanical processing
machines [1].
Spinners are therefore interested in
knowing the effect of fibre properties
on yarn hairiness for the selection of
a suitable raw material. According to
previous research, fineness has the maximum effect on yarn hairiness among the
fibre properties, followed by fibre length,
whereas maturity contributes very little
towards hairiness. Fineness, length and
long-fibre percentage jointly influence
the formation of yarn hairiness to a considerable extent. An interesting finding is
that the independent relationship of longfibre percentage with yarn hairiness is
significant, whereas short- and mediumfibre percentages are not significant [2].

n Introduction
Yarn hairiness is a quite complex parameter of yarn quality that is affected
by various parameters. Many researchers have devoted their attention to the
influence of fibre parameters on yarn
hairiness. These results sometimes differ because of the nature of different
measuring principles. It is generally ac-

48

Barella was one of the first researchers

into yarn hairiness who introduced a
new technique in hairiness measurement,
based on counting the number of the fibres and their diameters as well as yarn.
Barella classified hairiness as protruding
fibre ends, the looped fibres and wild
fibres on the basis of the research done
by Morton &Yen into fibre migration in
cotton worsted and spun rayon yarn. He
also studied the various causes of yarn
hairiness by only changing the yarn twist
value. He found that the number of the
fibre ends on the yarn surface remained
constant when yarn twist was increased
in cotton yarns [3].

Barella and Manich manufactured cotton spun yarns from 34 staple stocks by
means of the ring spinning (34 yarns)
and rotor spinning (29 yarns) processes,
and tested the hairiness of these yarns
with a Shirley hairiness meter. For each
spinning system, yarns were produced at
two values of yarn linear density, but the
twist multiplier was kept constant within
the series for each spinning process. The
results showed that the hairiness of ring
spun yarns was higher than that of rotor
yarns. They also found that fibre length
and its uniformity have the greatest influence on hairiness for both ring- and rotorspun yarns, and fibre fineness has only a
slight influence on the yarn hairiness of
ring-spun yarns [4].
Pillay et al. carried out a comparative
study into the structure of rotor- and ringspun yarns from cotton and man-made
fibres. They showed that the effective
length of the fibres in yarn, as represented by the fibre spinning coefficient,
is significantly lower in OE yarns than in
ring yarns. They found that in OE yarns,
fibres migrate in a different way, and the
mean fibre position and amplitude of
migration are lower than those in conventional ring yarns [5].
Viswanathan et al. examined the influence of fibre characteristics on the hairiness of cotton yarns. They found that
fineness has the maximum effect on yarn
hairiness, followed by fibre length. There
is an independent relationship between

FIBRES & TEXTILES in Eastern Europe July / September 2006, Vol. 14, No. 3 (57)

Table 1. Experimental plan.

Machines brand/ model

Left,
tex

*Rieter/G 30 ring yarn machine

1st yarn
37
2nd yarn
16
Ingolstadt / F 4301
500
roving machine
Trtzschler / HSR 1000
2,300
II. drawframe machine

Dubbing

Draft
ratio

Drafting distance
of front-main draft
region, mm

Production
speed

1
1

14.54
32.72

71 - 48

14,000 rpm
14,000 rpm

4.4

76 - 52

800 rpm

50 - 41

300 metres/min

For a comprehensive examination of

yarn hairiness, the following hairiness
parameters should be available; (i.) total
number of hairs per unit yarn length, (ii.)
total length of hairs per unit, (iii.) the
length and number of hairs longer than
or equal to 3 mm per unit length. The
Zweigle yarn hairiness meter serves this
purpose well. We tested the yarns with
this machine and determined the number of hairs for different length classes
including 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 18,
21, 25 mm, as well as the S3 code, which
defines the total number of hairs 3 mm
and above hair lengths.

* In the ring spinning machine, an Orbit type 42 mm ring and SFB 2.8 PM dr white-coloured
and chrome-coated travellers were used.

long fibre percentage and yarn hairiness,

whereas those of short- and medium-fibre percentages are not significant. [6].
Hequet and Ethridge determined the effect of cotton fibre length distribution on
yarn quality. For the carded ring-spun
yarns, their results showed that the shortest and the longest fibres exhibited the
highest correlation with the yarn evenness (CV%), the number of thin places,
and the number of thick places. For the
combed ring-spun yarns and rotor yarns,
the longest fibres exhibited the highest correlation with the yarn evenness
(CV%), thin places and thick places.
The shortest and the longest fibres are
highly correlated with the hairiness for
all types of yarns. The shortest fibres increase hairiness, while the longest fibres
decrease it [7].

n Materials and methods

This study is focused on the effect of
fibre parameters on cotton yarn hairiness.

For this purpose, two different carded

yarn counts were spun from 15 different
raw materials which were supplied from
different textile mills in sliver form. In
the roving machine, 0.5 ktex count and
42 T/m rovings were obtained from all
the draw frame bands. These rovings
were then spun with conventional ring
machines. We used identical machine
conditions for both the roving and yarn
production processes in order to eliminate the effect of these parameters on
hairiness. The experimental part of the
work described in this article was carried
out in Ege Universitys Textile & Apparel Research and Application Centre.
Table 1 shows the experimental plan of
the study.

The results obtained from the laboratory

testing of fibre and yarn samples were
evaluated by using the SPSS statistical
program. We basically used the multiple regressing analysis method with the
significance level of =0.05 for our test
results. All multiple regression analyses
were carried out for both yarn counts
together and separately.
To select the best model for regression
analysis, we used MINITAB and chose
the best model according to their corrected R2 values. Mostly, the best model
which was selected for analysis had the
highest corrected R2 value [8].

The fibre length, micronaire, uniformity

ratio, strength, short fibre index, elongation, trash count, brightness and yellowness parameters of each cotton samples
were tested with an HVI test machine.

n Results and discussion

The measurement results of the fibre
properties used in our statistical analysis

Table 2. Fibre properties results.

Measured fibre properties

Yarn properties composed of raw material with the following denotations (code)
P1

P2

P3

P4

P5

P6

P7

P8

P9

P10

P11

P12

P13

P14

4.5

3.8

3.9

4.2

4.2

4.3

3.8

4.1

4.3

4.3

4.1

4.3

3.4

4.4

4.2

Fibre strength,

35.8

30.8

30.8

30.4

29.3

35.6

47.0

29.2

33.5

33.9

31.7

31.6

30.1

31.9

31.8

2.5% span length, mm

29.0

29.9

29.2

29.9

29.9

28.9

34.0

29.9

30.9

29.3

28.0

29.9

29.9

31.2

31.5

Uniformity, %

87.4

86.4

83.9

86.6

85.4

83.7

86.8

86.1

88.2

85.9

84.9

85.9

82.9

87.3

87.2

Short fibre percentage, %

3.5

3.5

5.4

3.5

3.6

5.8

3.5

3.5

3.5

4.3

4.9

3.5

6.3

3.5

3.5

Elongation at break, %

7.8

8.4

8.7

8.6

7.6

8.1

8.0

8.9

7.4

8.0

8.8

8.7

8.4

8.1

7.7

Trash quantity

P1

P2

P14

P15

Fibre fineness, micronaire

P15

Table 3. Hairiness results.

Hairiness for
hair length
1 mm
2 mm
3 mm
S3

Linear
density, tex

Hairiness of yarn composed of raw material with the following denotations (code)
P3

P4

P5

P6

P7

P8

P9

P10

P11

P12

P13

37

12595 11844 14474 13569 14160 14104

16

9941 11058 11455 11020 13156 10862

8654 10980 12940 11551 13685

9791

9937

37

1070

1079

1544

1383

1601

1250

800

1266

1005

1310

1540

1023

1316

1562

1162

16

1050

1115

1197

1212

1538

1181

778

1281

822

1179

1504

1254

1264

1150

944

37

519

481

643

545

599

563

230

513

490

632

740

388

540

610

464

16

382

340

325

368

483

361

202

395

267

371

445

384

366

390

293

37

1421

1067

1209

1101

1184

1423

420

1139

1317

1621

1668

826

1147

1081

944

16

632

585

535

621

760

652

293

788

486

713

794

641

659

736

515

FIBRES & TEXTILES in Eastern Europe July / September 2006, Vol. 14, No. 3 (57)

9880 12399 11977 14297 14794 12052 14252 13070 11875

8884 11934

49

Figure 1. The number of 1-mm hair lengths.

Figure 2. The number of 2-mm hair lengths.

Figure 3. The number of 3-mm hair lengths.

Figure 4. The number of S3 codes.

- fibre fineness, fibre strength, 2.5% span

length, uniformity, short fibre percentage, breaking elongation and trash count
- are given in Table 2.
Generally, the correlation between yarn
parameters and hairiness factors are not
calculated for every single millimetre
of the fibre length (from 1 mm up to
10 mm), as these cause very divergent
results. According to the previous researches on yarn hairiness, there are
two different approaches for the length
of hairs which cause problems in yarn
and fabric production. The first approach
claims that hair lengths of 3 mm and
shorter are important [4, 5, 7]; while
the other states that the total number of
3 mm and longer lengths (S3 code) of
fibres caused hairiness [9, 10, 11]. In this
study, we evaluated the hairiness results
according to 1, 2, 3 mm hair lengths and
S3 codes together. The number of 1, 2
and 3 mm hair lengths and the value of
S3 codes are given in Table 3.

50

Each parameter experimented in this

study is explained below;
Linear density effect: Yarn linear
density is statistically significant when
evaluating both yarn counts together with
SPSS. We found a direct relationship between yarn linear density and hairiness;
the hairiness increases when the yarn
linear density increases. In other words,
coarse yarns have more hairs than fine
yarns for all the observed hair lengths.
This can be explained by the increase of
fibres in the cross-section of yarn. The
numbers of 1, 2 and 3 mm hairs and the
values of S3 codes for all yarn samples
are given in Figures 1 - 4.
Length effect: When 37 tex and 16 tex
yarns were evaluated together, except for
2 mm hair length, fibre length was found
to be statistically significant. When we
examine the effect of fibre length on
hairiness for two yarn counts separately,
the results are different. While in 37 tex

yarns fibre length is found to be statistically significant for S3 codes only, in

16 tex yarns it is found to be statistically
significant for 1, 2, 3 hair lengths and S3
codes. According to these results, we can
say that fibre length property is more
important in fine yarns than in coarser
yarns. Yarn hairiness decreases as the
fibre length increases.
Fineness effect: Fibre fineness property
is found statistically significant for 2 and
3 mm hair lengths when evaluating two
yarn counts together. Evaluating the effect of fineness for 37 tex and 16 tex separately, as for fibre length, we found that
the results differed. While in 37 tex yarns
fineness is statistically significant for
1 mm hair length only, in 16 tex yarns,
it is found to be statistically significant
for 2, 3 mm hair lengths and S3 codes.
According to these results, we can say
that fibre fineness is a much more important parameter in fine yarns than in
coarse yarns. Yarn hairiness increases as

FIBRES & TEXTILES in Eastern Europe July / September 2006, Vol. 14, No. 3 (57)

1 mm hair length
37 tex

16 tex

X
X
X
X

2 mm hair length
X

1 mm hair length

2 mm hair length

3 mm hair length

S3 code

Strength effect: Fibre strength is statistically significant for 2 mm hair length

only when evaluating two yarn counts
together. Evaluating the effect of fineness
for 37 tex and 16 tex separately, the results are nearly the same. In 37 tex, fibre
strength is found statistically significant
for 2 and 3 mm hair lengths. In 16 tex,
fibre strength is statistically significant
for 1 and 3 mm hair lengths. The increase
in fibre strength decreases yarn hairiness.
In addition to this, we found that fibre
strength is more important on shorter
hairs below 3 mm in length.
Uniformity effect: Uniformity is found
to be statistically significant for S3 codes
only when evaluating two yarn counts together. In 37 tex yarns, uniformity is also
statistically significant for S3 codes only.
However in 16 tex yarns, the uniformity
is statistically significant for 1 mm hair
length only. According to these results,
we can say that uniformity is mostly effective for hairs above 3 mm in length.
The increase in uniformity index value
increases hairiness. This relationship is
unexpected, according to the uniformity
measuring principle.
Short-fibre percentage: Short-fibre
percentage is statistically significant for
1 mm hair length and S3 code when
evaluating both 37 tex and 16 tex yarns
together. Evaluating the effect of shortfibre percentages in 37 tex and 16 tex

X
X

S3 code

X
X

3 mm hair length

the fibre fineness value (micronaire) increases due to high flexural and torsional
rigidities.

Trash count

S3 code

Breaking elongation

3 mm hair length

Short fibre percentage

Uniformity

2 mm hair length

Fibre strength

1 mm hair length

Measured
hair lengths

Fibre fineness

37 tex & 16 tex

2.5% Span length

Linear density
of the analysed
yarns

Yarn linear density

Table 4. The important experiment parameters which affect hairiness, marked with X.

X
X

separately, the results are very different.

While in 37 tex yarns the short-fibre percentage is statistically significant for 1, 2,
3 mm hair lengths and S3 codes, in 16
tex yarn it is statistically significant only
for 2 mm hair length. The increase in the
short-fibre percentage increase hairiness. Examining these results it can be
concluded that the short-fibre percentage
plays a more vital role in coarse yarns
than fine yarns.
Breaking elongation: Breaking elongation is statistically significant only in
37 tex when evaluating these yarns separately. The increase in breaking elongation decreases hairiness. According to
these results, breaking elongation is more
important for hairs above 3 mm in length,
especially in coarse yarns.
Trash quantity: Trash quantity is statistically significant for 1 mm hair length
in 37 tex yarns and 2 mm hair length in
16 tex yarns when evaluating yarns separately. Analysing these results, we can
say that trash quantity has no important
effect on yarn hairiness.

n Summary and conclusions

The aim of this study was to examine
the effect of cotton fibre properties and
linear density on yarn hairiness. For
this purpose, two different yarn counts
were produced from 15 different characterised cottons with the same process
and machine parameters. Yarn hairiness
was tested with a Zweigle yarn hairiness
meter. The fibre parameters and yarn

FIBRES & TEXTILES in Eastern Europe July / September 2006, Vol. 14, No. 3 (57)

hairiness results were analysed with the

help of the SPSS and MINITAB statistical pocket programs. We basically used a
multiple regression analysis method for
our test results with a significance level
of =0.05. Considering our experimental
measurements and statistical analysis, we
can summarise the results of this study as
follows (Table 4);
n Among all the parameters considered
in this study, yarn linear density is the
most important parameter that affects
the hairiness. Hairiness increases
when the yarn linear density increases.
n Among all raw material parameters,
fibre length is the most important fibre property that affects the hairiness.
The increase in fibre length decreases
hairiness.
n Fibre fineness property is more important for 16 tex yarns; on the other
hand, the short-fibre percentage plays
a vital role for 37 tex yarns hairiness.
n In addition to these results, we did
not observe any direct relationship
between trash count parameters and
yarn hairiness.

Acknowledgments
This work was supported and sponsored
by TUBITAK Textile Research Centre. The
production of yarns and their hairiness tests
were carried out at Ege Universitys Textile
& Apparel Research and Application Centre. The cotton fibre samples were tested
at Gbirlii Textile Yarn Mill. The authors
are grateful to these organisations for their
valuable assistance.

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Received 16.07.2005

Reviewed 19.02.2006

51