STICKNESS OF COTTON AND ITS EFFECTS ON RING SPINNING PROCESS AND QUALITY OF YARN

B.SUJAI MANAGER APPLICATION TECHNOLOGY INARCO LTD

INTRODUCTION
Stickiness of Cotton is a universal problem .Ever since man devised mechanical means to spun cotton yarn; the problem of stickiness was always associated with it. Stickiness affects the overall performance of the spinning shed in many ways. Recent studies show that the root cause of cotton stickiness on a world wide basis is contamination of the fibre caused by excretions of aphids and whiteflies. These excretions are commonly known to spinning technicians as honeydew. These substances contain high content of sugars and scientifically referred as entomological sugars and they are measured by more complex analysis.

In a typical spinning process during carding crush rolls, drawing and comber rolls and also on top and bottom drafting rollers of speed frame and ring frames,

deposits are formed. These deposits in due course of time build up sufficiently to cause roller lapping and cause disorder to yarn production process.

Key words
Cotton , stickiness , sugar , sucrose , honeydew , aphids , whiteflies, spinning , card rolls , drawing , comber rolls , drafting roller , roller lapping

Cotton stickiness
Cotton being the king of fibres is an important fibre crop for many developing countries, several attempts were already made to overcome this problem. With the advent of 4th generation spinning machinery with increased speed & productivity, the problem of stickiness has assumed still greater significance. The tendency of cotton stickiness is basically due to non-cellulosic matter present in cotton.

TABLE 1: The chemical constitutions of a typical cotton fibre Constituent Cellulose Proteins Pectic Substances Ash Wax Organic acids Sugars Others Total % of dry weight 94.0 1.3 0.9 1.2 0.6 0.8 0.3 0.9 100%

At preparatory stages of cotton yarn production particularly at carding stages , the most acute problem while processing sticky cotton is the lapping on crush rolls and some times loading of fibre on carding main cylinder. Yarn produced from stick cotton will generally have poor appearance, uneven and sometimes neppy.

Graph 2: Ring spinning performance of sticky and non-stick cottons

Roller Lapping
The term roller lapping may be defined as the visible effect of the sticky nature of cotton is reproduced as the number of roller lapping at various stages of yarn production in a spinning mill. In order words cotton stickiness and roller lapping are respectively the cause and effect of a particular problem. Cotton stickiness roller lapping

Roller Lapping Fibre factors Fibre factors affecting the roller lapping
The intrinsic cotton fibre character like fibre maturity, micronaire value, wax content and other non cellulosic constituents plays a larger role making the cotton fibres sticky. Apart form these contaminants like crushed & immature seeds, oily substances etc also influence sticking tendency of cotton during processing.

Machinery factors

Fibre Fineness Fibre fineness is a fundamental property of the type of cotton and varies drastically according to the morphological and breed of cotton. Commercially, cotton is available from very low micronaire as low as 2.0 gs/inch to as high as 8.0 gs/inch. As a fibre micronaire decreases its fineness increases or vice versa. The bending rigidity of a fibre decreases proportional to the square of the micronaire and

consequently, the fibre exhibits greater tendency to follow the curvature of the rollers. Lapping tendency also increases as the number of fibres coming in contact with drafting rollers increases. This implies that finer fibres will have higher lapping tendency and vice versa. Cotton fibres with low micronaire < than 2.8 gs / inch are generally found to be lap-prone

Fibre Maturity Generally maturity of cotton represents the degree of development of cotton fibre. Like fibre fineness, maturity of cotton also varies depending up on the type of cotton, morphological conditions, growing and harvesting conditions. Low maturity cotton generally record low micronaire values and vice versa. Hence, the mechanism of lapping for finer fibres also holds good for cotton with low maturity values. Studies have shown than cotton fibres with maturity less than 60% normally exhibit higher level of lapping.

Cotton maturity Immature cotton fibres, in addition to low bending rigidity, have higher concentration of monosaccharide (mainly fructose and glucose), which are directly related to sticking nature of cotton. Presence of large absolute amounts of B-D fructose, X-D glucose and B-D glucose makes the cotton fibre lap-prone.

Monosaccharide group

Fibre Length In rotor or open end spinning system, there is a definite mathematical relationship between diameter of rotor and fibre length. In ring spinning system the effect of fibre length on the roller lapping doesnt follow a simple relationship. This is due to the fact that two opposing factors come in action as the fibre length decreases.
1. As the fibre length increases, bending rigidity of the fibre decreases and thus

strands of fibres tries to follow the contour of the drafting rollers. On the other hand short staple fibres or lower fibre length fibres will have greater bending rigidity and thus roller lapping decreases. This implies that lapping tendency will decrease at lower fibre length. 2. The other factor is that at low staple length, the end breakage rate in spinning process increases for a given count and thereby the possibility of lapping could be expected to be more. Nevertheless under normal working conditions the lapping tendency decreases with decrease in fibre length. Other Contaminations Contamination of raw cotton can take place at every step i.e. from the farm picking To the ginning stage. In addition polypropylene bags used by pickers, brackish and decayed seed cotton, leaves, flowers, sticks and weeds, immature balls, trash and dust, plastic bags are the other main sources of contamination. Moreover, addition of water by pickers, early morning picking of cotton before dew dry-up and storage of cotton on wet soil in order to increase its weight spoils its quality. Measures to reduce contamination Introduction of standardized picking storage and marketing of raw cotton. Dissemination of awareness through mass media to the targeted segment. Cloth bags instead of jute and fabric must be provided by farmers and ginning factory owners to pickers. Picking should be carried out at the proper time when sunshine and air have dried up the dew, rain or humidity completely. Picking should be done variety wise. Cotton should be stored on pucca floors. Metal body open trolleys should be used for quick transportation of cotton from field to factories. Pickers should be paid in cash instead of cotton to avoid contamination, which takes place at pickers home.

 Sheds and platforms should be built properly in the market. Bags should be opened by un sewing instead of cutting twine in to small Pieces. Bags should not be beaten on heap. Instead it should be done separately And obtained cotton should be cleaned properly to be added in heap. Conveyers can greatly facilitate. The moisture of cotton has to be maintained at 8 percent, carefully observed by moisture meter as against twelve to thirteen percent prevailing commonly. Methods to assess stickiness of cotton A chemical method for cotton lint stickiness grading based on total soluble sugars concentration was developed which was later modified to suit commercial application. A detailed account of this modified chemical method is as follows. (1) Preparation of reagent Oxalic acid (2%): This is prepared by dissolving 20g oxalic acid in 1L distilled water. Sodium hydroxide (0-11 N: This is prepared by dissolving 4.4g Na 0H in 1L distilled water. Copper reagent: Prepared by dissolving 6.0g hydrated cupric sulphate (Cu S04. 5H2O) in distilled water Hardings reagent: Prepared by dissolving 12g potassium sodium Titrate, 20g sodium carbonate (Na2 CO3) 25g sodium bicarbonate (NaH CO3) in 1L distilled water. Nelson reagent: Prepared by dissolving 50g ammonium molybdate in 900 ml distilled water, to this 42 ml conc. H2 SO4 were added slowly, then 6g hydrated sodium arsenate were dissolved in 50ml distilled water and this solution was then added to the first solution. This mixture should be aged for 3 days and kept in brown bottle. Glucose standard: Stock solution prepared by dissolving 1g glucose in 1L distilled water. Aliquot containing 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100g glucose were taken in a final volume of 1ml and these are used for constructing the standard curve. (2) Extraction and hydrolysis of sugars Weight 2g x 10 for each of the cotton lint samples and put each weight in a separate clean dry test tube. Add to each test tube 10 ml of 2% oxalic acid. Cover the tubes with aluminum foil or glass ball to reduce evaporation and heat the tubes in boiling water bath or

heating block for 25 minutes which is sufficient for the extraction of sugars and hydrolysis of oligosaccharides to monosaccharide. After cooling, take from each test tube 0.2 ml oxalic acid extract and pool in one test tube to make a final volume of 2.0 ml (10 sub samples) and to this add 3 ml of 0.11 N Na OH for neutralization. Aliquots from this can be taken for total soluble sugars determination spectrophotometrical analysis (An instrument used to determine the intensity of various wavelengths in a spectrum of light) (3) Determination of reducing sugars In clean dry test tubes pipette aliquots from the glucose standard or the oxalic acid extract of the Sample under test containing 20-100 g reducing sugars in a final volume of 1.0 ml Then add ml copper reagent. Then add 1ml Hardings reagent and mix well. (4) Calculations Let the aliquot taken for reducing sugars determination is X ml containing Y g reducing sugars as taken from the glucose standard curve. Then the amount of reducing sugars (RS) in mg per 100g cotton lint can be calculated as follows: Mg RS/100g lint= (Y 5 10 100) / (X 2 2 1000) = (1.25 Y) / X From the above value the degree of stickiness can be determined according to the following ranges:

HIGH PERFORMANCE LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY: High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) identifies and measures both reducing and no reducing sugars. The main sugars of insect honeydew, trehalulose (from whiteflies) and melezitose (from aphids), and of plant sugars (glucose, fructose & sucrose) can be identified by HPCL. The benefit of HPLC analysis is the identification of the source of contamination (whitefly, aphid, or plant)

HPCL MINICARD METHOD: The physical interaction of all sugars on lint with equipment can be measured by several types of machines. The primary difficulty with these physical tests is in standardizing the stickiness measurement. Mini card is a physical test that measures actual cotton stickiness of the card web passing between stainless steel deliveries rollers of a miniature carding machine that runs under strict tolerances. A 0 mini card rating indicates that no sticking was observed, while progressively higher numbers (on a 03 scale) indicate progressively greater amounts of sticking during the process. The mini card test is slow and has been replaced as the international standard by the manual thermo detector. STICKY COTTON THERMODETECTOR: The Sticky Cotton Thermo detector (SCT) measures the physical sticking points of lint cotton transferred to aluminum sheets by a conditioned lint sample that is squeezed and heated to 82.5C for 12 sec. Levels of stickiness are categorized according to the number of specks left on the two sheets of foild. Lower numbers of specks are preferable to higher numbers; however, a specific threshold over which all cotton will result in processing problems has not been defined. The SCT takes about 5 minutes to process each sample, requires smaller initial investment costs than the mini card, is more mobile, and its results correlate well with predicted stickiness from the mini card.

Stick Cotton Thermo detector HIGH SPEED STICKINESS DETECTOR: The High Speed Stickiness Detector (H2SD) is a quicker, automatic version of the thermo-detector. The cotton sample is pressed between a heated (54C for 30 sec.) and an unheated pressure plate. Sticky points are counted and point size distribution determined by image-processing computer software. Plates are automatically cleaned between samples. The H2SD is able to analyze a sample in 30 seconds. FIBER CONTAMINATION TESTER: Like the thermo-detector and H2SD, the Fiber Contamination Tester (FCT) measures physical sticking points (at 65% RH). The instrument feeds a thin web between two rollers. Contamination of the rollers interrupts a laser beam, resulting in a recording. Because the cleaning and recording is automated, samples may be processed as quickly as one per 45 seconds. While there is no reliable infield method for detection of stickiness predisposition, the insects responsible for honeydew deposits can be sampled and populations measured. Not all population levels of insects lead to sticky lint; however, chronic numbers of insects, especially during boll opening or an extended season, can lead to excessive insect sugars that result in stickiness. In addition, field factors associated with risk of excessive plant sugars are lateness of the crop, fiber immaturity, and freezing temperatures before harvest. STICKINESS CONTROL: The most efficient way now to prevent stickiness is by managing sugar sources in the field. Detailed integrated pest management plans (see references) for both aphid and whitefly. These honeydew-producing insects may be managed by

avoiding conditions leading to outbreaks, carefully sampling pest populations, and using effective insecticides when populations reach predetermined thresholds. The risk of having excessive plant sugars can be minimized by harvesting mature seed cotton. This may be accomplished through plant management tactics that include: early and uniform planting, nitrogen management according to plant growth and yield goals, high first-position boll retention, and timely chemical termination and harvest. If a freeze is imminent and immature bolls are present, the use of boll-opening chemicals can greatly diminish the problem of plant sugar contamination. All these measures work towards early harvest, before freezing conditions that contribute to excess plant sugars. Reference: Chemical measurement of total soluble sugars as a parameter for cotton lint stickiness grading - NAIEM A. ALI (1) AND A.H. ABDELATIF (2) Bailey, N., C. Bailey, and S. Richard. 1982. Enzymatic evaluation of sugar content of cotton. Textile Res. J. 52:321327. Brushwood, D., and H. Perkins. 1993. Cotton sugar and stickiness test methods. Can. Textile J. 110(6):5462. Hendrix, D. 1999. Sugar composition of cotton aphid and silver leaf whitefly honeydews. p. 4751. In Proc.Beltwide Cotton Conf., Orlando, FL. 37 Jan. 1999. Natl. Cotton Counc. Am., Memphis, TN. Hendrix, D., and Y. Wei. 1994. Bemisiose: an unusual trisaccharide in Bemisia honeydew. Carbohydrate. Res.253:329334. Perkins, H. 1971. Some observations on sticky cottons. Textile Ind. 135(3):4964. Perkins, H., and D. Brushwood. 1995. Inter laboratory evaluation of the thermo detector cotton stickiness test method. p. 11891191. In Proc. Belt wide Cotton Conf., San Diego, CA. 58 Jan. 1994. Natl. Cotton Counc. Am., Memphis, TN. Sisman, S., and A. Schenek. 1984. Bremen honeydew test new method for testing the sticking tendency of cotton. Melliand Textilberichte (English ed.) 13(10):593595.