Research on qualities of spun-silk fabrics by FLCS

Purpose As one natural fiber, spun silk is one of the top-grade textile materials and has attracted more and more attentions on textile processing. The purpose of this paper is to introduce one kind of pneumatic compact spinning, four-line compact spinning (FLCS), into the silk spinning, and study and comparatively analyze corresponding yarn and fabric qualities. Design/methodology/approach First, two kinds of spun silk and viscose blend yarns, 120 Nm (8.3 tex) and 205 Nm (4.9 tex), were spun on the common ring spinning frame FK501 and spinning frame modified by FLCS, respectively. Then, after the plying and singeing procedures, the ply yarns 120 and 205 Nm/2 were produced. The evenness, breaking strength, and hairiness of the spun bobbin yarns and ply yarns were tested and comparatively analyzed. Then, properties of corresponding woven fabric, including the weight, thickness, permeability, stiffness, softness, smoothness, draping, wrinkle recovery, hand-touching (RHV), were measured and comparatively analyzed. Findings For the spun yarns, it is shown that by using the compact spinning method, the comprehensive quality of spun-silk blend bobbin and ply yarns are improved. For the fabrics, it is shown that compared with the fabric made of ring yarn, the weight and thickness of fabric made of compact yarn decreased, and the air permeability of fabric increased, but the difference is tiny. Meanwhile, the stiffness, smoothness of fabric made of compact yarn increased slightly, but the softness decreased slightly, leading to a little worse fabric hand-touching. Originality/value In the paper, one kind of pneumatic compact spinning, FLCS, was introduced into the silk spinning, and corresponding yarn and fabric qualities were studied and comparatively analyzed.