BGMEA UNIVERSITY OF FASHION & TECHNOLOGY
Fiber Length
Mahmuda Chowdhury
Lecturer, Dept of TE
BUFT
Fiber Length
Fiber Length
Fiber length is one of the most important properties both for marketing
and processing.
Length is related to fiber characteristics such as strength, fineness,
maturity and evenness.
Longer fibers are generally stronger, finer and more uniform than shorter
fibers.
A few parameters affected by staple length during spinning are
production efficiency, amount of waste, fly generation and cleaning.
Yarn quality parameters such as strength, elongation, hairiness and
evenness are strongly correlated to length of fibers.
Fiber length parameters:
Followings are the most common length its distribution parameters:
Staple length
Effective length
2.5% span length
50% span length
UHL-Upper half length
UHML-Upper half mean length
Staple Length:
According to the Official Cotton Standards of the United States for length of
staple - “Staple length means the length of fibers in a particular quantity
expressed by mm or fraction of representative portion of the quantity.”
Shortly, the average length of spinablefiber is called staple length i.e. the length
of a typical portion of a sample of fibers.
Staple length=0.91×Effective length (American upland cotton)
Mahmuda Chowdhury
Lecturer, Dept of TE
BUFT
Staple length=Effective length(Egyptian cotton)
Relation between Staple length & yarn Count or Spin ability
100% Cotton/ recycled cotton waste/comber noil
Cotton class Staple Length Yarn Count
inches mm Ne
Short 29/32”-15/16” 23.0-23.8 <10
31/32” 24.6 <12
1” 25.40 <16 or 16
Medium 1 1/32”-1 3/32” 26.2-27.9 <40 or 40
1 1/8”- 1 5/32” 28.3-29.4 <60
Long > 1 5/32” >30 Higher count can
be spun
Effective Length:
It is the length of the main bulk of the longer fibers. It is obtained by
geometrical construction on the comb sorter diagram.
Modal Length:
It is the length of the group of fibers where the most number of fibers have
equal length.
Relationship between Staple Length & effective length:
Staple length = 0.91 × Effective length (for American upland cotton)
Staple length = Effective length (for Egyptian cotton)
Mahmuda Chowdhury
Lecturer, Dept of TE
BUFT
Spun length:
In spinning process, the minimum length of fibers from which we can produce
yarn by giving twist on them, that length of fiber is called spun length.
a) 2.5 % spun length:
From strand of fibers, if some fibers are clamped and after removing the loose
fibers; they are counted (say 12000fibers are clamped). After that the clamp
Mahmuda Chowdhury
Lecturer, Dept of TE
BUFT
line is moving to right until 2.5 % of the first clamped fibers are counted (say
300 fibers); then the clamped length of fibers is called 2.5 % spun length in
relation with the original length.
b) 50 % spun length:
From strand of fibers, if some fibers are clamped and after removing the loose
fibers; they are counted (say 12000 fibers are clamped). After that the clamp
line is moving to right until 50 % of the first clamped fibers are counted (say
6000 fibers); then the clamped length of fibers is called 50 % spun length in
relation with the original length.
Uniformity Ratio:
Uniformity Ratio is defined as the ratio of50% span length to the 2.5% span
length expressed as percentage.
Uniformity Ratio,UR=50% span length/2.5% span length×100%
Why is fiber length measurement necessary?
Quality assessment, Fiber breakage study, machine settings, combing
efficiency, etc.
Length of staple fiber is one of the most important characteristics. In
general a longer average fiber length is to be preferred because it confers
a number of advantages. Firstly, longer fibers are easier to process.
Secondly, more even yarns can be produced from them because there are
less fiber ends in a given length of yarn. Thirdly, a higher strength yarn
can be produced from them for the same level of twist.
The length and fineness are sometimes related in natural fibers whereas
for man-made fibers, length and fineness can be controlled separately.
The cut length of man-made fibers is often influenced by the fiber length
of natural fibers.
The measurement of natural fibers is a task as there is a greater variation
in the length of different types of same material and even within the same
type.
Influences of fiber length on yarn and fabric properties:
Mahmuda Chowdhury
Lecturer, Dept of TE
BUFT
Fiber length is one of the three most important fiber characteristics. It
influences:
1) Spinning limit,
2) Yarn strength,
3) Yarn evenness,
4) Handle of the product,
5) Lustre of product,
6) Yarn hairiness and
7) Productivity
Various types of fiber sorter methods:
1) Hand stapling method (By trained classers)
2) Comb Sorter Method
3) Clamped tuft method (Weighing method)
4) Thickness gauging method (Usterstapler)
5) Shirley photoelectric stapler
6) Photoelectric method (Fibro graph)
Among them “Comb Sorter Method” is commonly used.
The Shirley comb sorter:
First a tuft of fibers sample is taken. Then the sample is carefully drawn and
doubled several times until the fibers are straighten and parallelized. The comb
sorter m/c has 8 top comb & 9bottom comb. The sorter is placed back towards
the operator. Left side of the bottom comb is pivoted and right side is movable.
Then place the parallelized sample at the right side of the bottom comb. By
means of gripper all the loose fibers are removed from the protruding end.
Mahmuda Chowdhury
Lecturer, Dept of TE
BUFT
Figure:Comb sorter technique for cotton fiber length
For doing this, first a tuft was pulled from the sample & combed several times
& transferred to the left hand side of the bottom combs. This tuft was pressed
into the combs by means of depressor. This process is done until all the samples
are transferred to the left hand side of the bottom comb. Then sorter is turned
round so that the front faces the operator and the longest hairs projects towards
the operator. Then the top combs are placed so as to grip the tuft and prevents
uncontrolled slipping of the fibers. The lower combs shall be dropped
successively until the tips of the longest fibers are seen. Then all the fibers are
placed parallel in base line of velvet pad starting from long fibers to the short
(Left to Right). Then the effective length, staple length and short fiber
percentage is calculated from the diagram.
Analysis of Comb Sorter:
Mahmuda Chowdhury
Lecturer, Dept of TE
BUFT
Fig: Comb Sorter Diagram
i. Q is the midpoint of OA i.e. OQ=1/2 OA
ii. From Q draw QPˊ parallel to OB to cut at Pˊ
iii. Drop the perpendicular PˊP
iv. Mark off OK equal to ¼ OP and erect perpendicular KˊK
v. S is the midpoint of KKˊ
vi. From S draw SRˊ parallel to OB to cut the curvature Rˊ
vii. Drop the perpendicular RˊR
viii. Mark off OL equal to ¼ OR
ix. Erect the perpendicular LˊL
Result:
i. Effective Length: Effective length is the length of the main bulk of longer
fiber.
Effective Length=KKˊ
ii. Average length/Mean length: Area OAB/OB
iii. Maximum length=OA
iv. Modal length=LLˊ
v. Percentage of short fiber: This percentage of fiber less than half the
effective length.
% short fiber=RB/OB×100%
vi. Dispersion: In fig. LˊL is upper quartile and MˊM is the lower quartile
where ,
OM=3/4OR
The difference between LˊL and MˊM,NLˊ is the inter quartile range.
Dispersion=NLˊ/LˊL ×100%
vii. Staple length=0.91×LLˊ(American upland cotton)
=LLˊ (Egyptian cotton)
Mahmuda Chowdhury
Lecturer, Dept of TE
BUFT
Fibrograph
Fibrogram is an arrangement of fibers from shortest to longest in terms of span
lengths. Fibrogram test are required for determining the length uniformity of
fibers in the sample of cotton.
At any instant in time, fibers caught by the roller nips will depend on the
randomness of their overlapping lengths; therefore, not all the length of a given
fiber projects into draft zone. The lengths that project into the draft zone are
called the span lengths, and the cumulative frequency distribution of the span
length gives the Fibrogram.
Mahmuda Chowdhury
Lecturer, Dept of TE
BUFT
The digital fibrograph gives the tests results in digits or numerical form. Suppose In the 2.5%
span the length is 1.14 inch while in the 50 percent span the length is 0.52 inch. The
uniformity ratio is 46%.
Fibro sampler is used in later models to clamp the fibers on the comb. Fiber
sample is put inside the cylinder of sampler. Fiber comb, with 13 needles/inch,
is rotated around the fibro sampler, with pressure applied on the cotton, during
which it picks up fibers projecting from the holes of sampler. The instrument is
consequently insensitive to the presence of very shortfibres, and in practice the
Fibrogram has its origin at a point representing a length of 0.15 inch (3.8 mm).
Digital Fibrogram may be analyzed graphically to yield various length
parameters of interest to the producers and users of cotton. The tangent to the
curve at its starting point A cuts OY at P and OX at M. Then OM is the mean
length of the fibers in the original population longer than 0.15 inch (3.8 mm). If
OP is bisected at Q and the tangent to the curve from Q cuts OX at R, then OR
is the upper-half mean length, UHML, and the ratio of OM to OR is a valid
index of uniformity.
Mahmuda Chowdhury
Lecturer, Dept of TE
BUFT
Floating Fiber Index (FFI):
Fibers in the drafting zone that are not clamped by either of the pairs of rollers
of drafting zone are referred to as floating fiber index. It is expressed as a
percentage and calculated by the following equation.
FFI%=¿) X 100
FFI (%) can be calculated from the output of fibrogram
FFI%=¿) X 100
Mahmuda Chowdhury
Lecturer, Dept of TE
BUFT
