ABSTRACT

After raw silk reeling in the silk industry, there remains 20-25% waste. This short silk fiber waste could be blended with other fibers, such as cotton fibers, to develop a new yarn with some new functional properties. Generally, there are three types of silk waste – inferior knobs, filature gum waste, and pierced cocoon – which correspond respectively with the outer, middle, and mixed layer of the cocoon. In this work, a complete study of blending is carried out in order to understand the influence of blending factors, which are the important parameters cited by Hamilton et al. (1958) for the blended yarn. The blending type in the spinning process, the silk waste types, and the silk content has affected on the silk/cotton blended yarn characterization. The distinctive properties of silk give to the blended yarn a higher tenacity and better evenness.