A successful weaving trial with a size-free cotton warp

Abstract

A combed cotton rotor-spun yarn of high quality was produced using customary industrial equipment. The yarn was warped, ensuring a consistent individual yarn tension. The warp set was uninterruptedly washed and cleaned in boiling water containing a mild detergent and a wetting agent, dried on a dummy slasher (i.e. without using any conventional sizing agent) to set the yarn twist torque, and wound onto a loom beam. A 2/1 twill fabric of a slightly open construct ion was successfully woven on a modified fly- shuttle loom, operating under normal speed and mill-like conditions. Although the yarn hairiness increased visibly as the warp raced forward towards the cloth fell, absolutely no fiber clinging or yarn snagging

occurred and, for the first time ever, about 50 m of fabric was woven without a single warp yarn failure, which is very encouraging. This preliminary weaving trial indicates that weaving a singles cotton yarn without the traditional warp sizing may now indeed be feasible at least for certain types of yarns, fabrics and weaving machinery. Planned size- free weaving trials involving different types of fibers, yarns and modern weaving machinery are expected to determine the prospect and commercial scope of size-free weaving.