Cotton Fabrics Produced with Twistless Wrap Spun Yarns

Properties of fabrics woven with wrap spun yarns and equivalent ring spun yarns of Upland cotton have been investigated. Experimental wrap spun yarns were made on a modern, special machine, which produces so-called twistless yarns from staple fibers that are held together by a fine multifilament wrap yarn. The filament wrap used for the experimental yarns was water soluble polyvinyl alcohol. Ring spun yarns were produced conventionally. Each kind of yarn was woven separately as both warp and filling into plain, twill, and sateen fabrics. The water soluble wrap of the wrap spun fabrics was removed during normal wet processing, yielding completely twistless cotton fabrics. The various fabrics were evaluated for their important mechanical properties. Results show that, compared to the ring spun equivalents, the tighter, plain-woven, twistless fabric (of typical average density) fared reasonably well in tensile breaking strength but was slightly weaker in tearing strength; the relatively looser twill and sateen twistless fabrics were significantly weaker in both tensile and tear strengths. Respective fabrics of the two yarn types, however, showed no significant difference in abrasion resistance, although the twill and sateen fabrics made with both yarns generally had lower flex abrasion resistance than the corresponding plain fabrics. Twistless fabrics, like their ring spun counterparts, maintained their tensile and tear properties after repeated laundering.