Peter William Foster

Investigation of the use of steam for spun-like textured yarn manufacturing

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of steam in order to replace air in the production of spun-like textured yarns. Further, this paper analyse the effect of production speed on process and textured yarn properties. Design/methodology/approach – An existing air-jet texturing machine was modified to supply either air or steam to the texturing nozzle. Using standard commercial nozzles, both air-jet and steam-jet textured yarns were manufactured by varying production speed. Findings – It can be concluded that steam can be used as an alternative fluid for air in making spun-like textured yarns. Results show that yarn parameters for steam-jet texturing show a similar trend to those of air-jet texturing relative to the production speed. Further, sewing threads made from steam-jet textured yarns showed good sewability up to the speeds of 350 m/min. Research limitations/implications – Only the effect of production speed on process and yarn parameters is discussed in this paper. Productio...

Investigation of the influence of effect-yarn draw and effect-yarn overfeed on texturing performance: comparison between air-jet and steam-jet textured yarn

The objective of this research work was to investigate the use of steam as a substitute fluid for air in spun-like textured yarn manufacturing. The new substitute product holds the potential for competitive advantage, lower manufacturing costs and streamlined manufacturing capabilities. Generally high-pressure steam is known to be cheaper to produce than compressed air. An existing air-jet texturing machine was modified to supply either air or steam to the texturing nozzle. Using an identical nozzle, both air-jet and steam-jet textured yarns were manufactured. The influence of effect-yarn parameters on the steam-jet texturing performance has been studied. Furthermore, steam-jet texturing was compared with air-jet texturing in terms of the processing parameters and the textured yarn properties. The results show that spun-like textured yarn manufactured using steam has lower loop instability, lower loop density and higher tensile properties than air at comparable fluid pressures. SEM image analysis shows that the entangled structure of the steam-jet textured yarns is comparable to the air-jet textured yarns. To verify the commercial feasibility of the new product, sewing threads were manufactured using both steam-jet and air-jet textured yarns and tested for sewability under commercial specifications. Sewability results indicated that the steam-jet textured sewing threads can withstand sewing at high-speeds like air-jet textured threads and are therefore suitable for manufacture of sewing threads. Therefore, it can be concluded that steam can be used as an alternative fluid for air in making spun-like textured yarns.