Producing Medium Count Yarns from Recycled Fibers with Friction Spinning

Yams production from recycled fibers (RF) is limited, and spinners often prefer to produce coarse yams from these fibers. In this research, we attempt to produce middle- count twp-component and three-component yams from RF in such a way that the RF in the yarn core are completely covered by virgin cotton fibers. To improve the tensile properties of such yams, we produce a three-component yarn with a continuous filament in its core, RF in the middle layer, and virgin cotton fibers in the sheath, using a friction spinning machine modified for this purpose. The results show that the appearance of the 51/49 cotton/RF two-component yams is like that of a 100% cotton yarn, and the imperfections of the RF sliver have no significant effect on yarn appearance. The results also show that the strength of a two-component yarn is greater than that of a 100% RF yarn. Spinning a 30 tex yarn from 100% RF is very difficult, and the end breaks are extremely high. In practice, it is impossible to produce yarn from RF. However, producing a 30-tex two- component yarn using RF with new fibers in the sheath is easy and trouble-free, but the yarn is weak. The tensile properties of the yarn show that the strength and elongation of a 30-tex three-component core yarn are greater than those of an equivalent 100% cotton yarn, a cotton/RF yarn, and a 100% RF yarn. Also, the irregularity of the three-component core yarn is less than those of cotton/RF and RF yams. Thus, we show that medium count yams of acceptable appearance and tensile properties can be produced from RF.