ABSTRACT

The purpose of this research was to determine the effects of varying micronaire in raw cotton on yarn and fabric production. Micronaire is an indirect measure of the linear density of a cotton fiber. The micronaire value acquired during High Volume Instrument (HVI) testing roughly indicates the fineness of fibers in a given bale of cotton. For a given yarn count, the micronaire of the fibers will affect the number of fibers in the cross-section of the yarn. While holding all other fiber qualities constant, an increase in the micronaire value will result in a decrease in yarn strength. Especially for finer yarn counts or high yarn strength requirements, the higher micronaire values can create yarn count and strength limitations for a given bale quality. Two sets of bales were used to make up the groundwork, 4.0 and 5.2 Mic. In addition, three laydown blends were made up from these high and low micronaire bales, resulting in 4.3, 4.6 and 4.9 micronaire conditions. All five micronaire conditions were run through three major spinning systems, ring, rotor, and vortex spinning.