Investigation of the cotton processability and quality of fibre and yarn

Abstract

The impetus for this research was the observation of the researcher during the industrial internship mentoring program that his students were pursuing. The researcher observed the challenge of textile factories in Ethiopia to process indigenous cotton. They were practically faced with many end breaks that were relatively higher than expected by a spinner.

On this basis, the present study wanted to estimate the contribution of genotypes, which are cultivated in different cultivation areas of the country, if they seem to have effects on the processability of cotton and on the quality of fibers and yarns.

A review of the performance of genotypes against the effects of ginning studies over the past decade showed that there were a number of valuable studies that primarily attempted to examine the performance of genotypes against the effects of ginning. However, due to the influence of mixing of genotypes during ginning, none of these studies can truly and fully demonstrate the performance of pure genotypes against the effects of ginning. These previous studies were also unable to clearly demonstrate the performance of pure genotypes against the effects of modern, rapidly rotating spinning machines.

This study was aimed to fill the gap in the existing research by examining the performance of pure cotton genotypes against the effects of ginning, and the performance of pure cotton genotypes against the modern, rapidly rotating spinning machines. Investigating the effects of these pure genotypes on the quality of intermediate and final products was also one of the aims of the study.

The commercial varieties used in the study were harvested in all plantation zones of Ethiopia in 2017 and ginned using the same process parameters at the same ginnery. Samples large enough to reflect the cotton genotype were used.

This study revealed that, there are a few varieties which have distinct characteristics (for example, Sille 1 (Stoneville), Bulk 202, BPA). The factories do not use these varieties, because they are not commercially available in sufficient amount. However, spinners need much wider range of fibres to prepare a suitable mix/blend required to spin the desired count of yarn by minimizing the end breakage rates and maximizing efficiency.