Tribological properties of cotton yrns: surface friction factor

Abstract

The friction caused by the passage of yarn through various metal parts during manufacture of fabrics depends on a number of parameters that can be related to characteristics such as hairiness of yarn, twist level, shape of the cross section, specific structure of the yarn and yarn surface treatment. The paper examines the surface friction of lubricated cotton yarns spun from Turkish, Sudanese and Egyptian cotton. yarns were made in four counts (14, 17, 20 and 25 tex) and with four different percentages of noil (14, 16, 18 and 20 %). Surface friction factor of the lubricated samples decreased up to 63 % of the value of the same for the non-lubricated samples. In the yarn samples made from Sudanese cotton there is a certain regularity in reducing surface friction factor after the lubricating procedure, and it is then reduced by an average of 40 %. The greatest discrepancy in the differences of surface friction factor is present in yarns made from Turkish cotton.