ABSTRACT

About three years ago, a totally new ARS research project (CRIS) on size-free weaving of cotton yarns was approved and initiated at SRRC. The initial program, based on experimentation with a conventional fly-shuttle loom, has been surprisingly successful in the sense that 50 meters of a 100% cotton fabric of a relatively less-dense construction was efficiently woven without the warp sizing and without a single warp yarn failure during weaving, for the first time ever. Since the American textile industry now does almost all of its weaving on modern high speed weaving machines, which are significantly different from the conventional weaving machines and, hence, can affect size-free weaving performance considerably, the size-free weaving research at SRRC is now being expanded to include a modern Pignone (Sulzer-Ruti) high speed flexible-rapier weaving machine that the Center has recently acquired. This report is a brief description of the past research and of the new research plan that involves size-free weaving investigations of different types of fibers, yarns and fabrics, using the new weaving machine.