At Recover™, we produce high-quality recycled cotton fibers and blends for the fashion industry. As a tier 4 supplier in the fashion supply chain, our direct clients are spinners who transform our fibers into recycled cotton and blended yarns. Our team of passionate experts in materials science, textiles, fashion, and sustainability collaborate closely with our spinner partners to seamlessly integrate our recycled fibers into their processes. For those not familiar with the industry, here’s a quick and easy summary of the different spinning techniques and how we measure our cotton yarns.
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Spinning transforms raw textile fibers into yarn, a process which, for thousands of years, was done by hand. However, modern spinning uses advanced machinery and a range of different techniques tailored to the type of yarn being made. During the spinning process, fibers are drawn out, twisted together, and wound onto a bobbin. Once the yarn has been produced through spinning, weaving can take place in order to create fabric.
Cotton is one of the most widely used fibers for spinning, along with viscose, wool and synthetic polyester. For mechanically recycled fibers, there are two main types of spinning: open-end and ring spinning.
Open-end spinning, also known as rotor spinning, is a type of modern spinning which creates yarn without the need to use a spindle. At the heart of the open-end process is a rotor, wherein fibers can be collected and then drawn off as a yarn.
Open-end spinning machines start with a combing roll that prepares the fiber sliver. The combing roll rotates at high speed and introduces the fibers into the rotor, where they will be twisted into yarn. The fibers are transported to the rotor by air suction. Most rotors have a “groove” - a shallow, U- or V-shaped channel around the inside edge of the rotor - to align the fibers. The rotor twists the fibers together to form yarn, in a continuous and self-sustaining process. It is called “open-end” spinning because the fibers are kept loosely separated before being twisted together at the open end of the rotor to form the yarn. This separation allows for better control over the twisting process and means that the technique is faster and more efficient.
Unlike traditional ring spinning, which requires multiple steps, open-end spinning offers a more streamlined process as you only need to do the drawing process (stretching and thinning out the fiber sliver) once. This makes it an ideal method for producing heavier yarns like those used in denim. Open-end spinning offers a highly versatile option, working to process different types of fibers - including cotton, wool and viscose - into yarn. It also allows for careful control of the yarn down to the thickness, texture and appearance.
Ring spinning is a traditional method widely used in the production of high-quality yarn. During this process, slivers must be drawn out to make them thinner and more uniform. The first step is carding, which is crucial as it separates, cleans, and straightens the fibers, blending different fibers together to create a uniform material. This ensures that the fibers are properly aligned and ready for spinning into thread or yarn. The card sliver is then stretched and given a slight twist to hold the fibers together during the draw frame and roving steps. An additional step, combing, can be added after the first draw frame. Combing is used for high-quality yarns to remove short fibers, neps, and impurities, resulting in a smoother, finer, and more uniform yarn.
Ring spinning begins with drafting, where the roving is passed through rollers at different speeds to stretch and align the fibers, reducing irregularities. The stretched fibers are then twisted together by a rotating spindle and guided through a ring that holds a traveler—a moving metal component that controls the tension and ensures a strong and continuous yarn. Once finished, the yarn is wound onto a bobbin in layers, ready for the next step of textile production.
Ring spinning is known as the most difficult method of spinning. Although there is a myth that recycled cotton cannot be ring spun, at Recover™, we have refined our process to keep fibers as long as possible, making them suitable for ring spinning.
Spinning is a manufacturing process for creating polymer fibers. It is a specialized form of extrusion that uses a spinneret to form multiple continuous filaments.[1]
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If the polymer is a thermoplastic then it can undergo melt spinning. The molten polymer is extruded through a spinneret composed of capillaries where the resulting filament is solidified by cooling. Nylon, olefin, polyester, saran, and sulfar are produced via this process.[1]
Pellets or granules of the solid polymer are fed into an extruder. The pellets are compressed, heated and melted by an extrusion screw, then fed to a spinning pump and into the spinneret.
The direct spinning process avoids the stage of solid polymer pellets. The polymer melt is produced from the raw materials, and then from the polymer finisher directly pumped to the spinning mill. Direct spinning is mainly applied during production of polyester fibers and filaments and is dedicated to high production capacity (>100 ton/day).
If the melting point of the polymer is higher than its degradation temperature, the polymer must undergo solution spinning techniques for fiber formation. The polymer is first dissolved in a solvent, forming a spinning solution (sometimes called a "dope"). The spinning solution then undergoes dry, wet, dry-jet wet, gel, or electrospinning techniques.
A spinning solution consisting of polymer and a volatile solvent is extruded through a spinneret into an evaporating chamber. A stream of hot air impinges on the jets of spinning solution emerging from the spinneret, evaporating the solvent, and solidifying the filaments. Solution blow spinning is a similar technique where polymer solution is sprayed directly onto a target to produce a nonwoven fiber mat.[2]
Wet spinning is the oldest of the five processes. The polymer is dissolved in a spinning solvent where it is extruded out through a spinneret submerged in a coagulation bath composed of nonsolvents. The coagulation bath causes the polymer to precipitate in fiber form. Acrylic, rayon, aramid, modacrylic, and spandex are produced via this process.[1]
A variant of wet spinning is dry-jet wet spinning, where the spinning solution passes through an air-gap prior to being submerged into the coagulation bath. This method is used in Lyocell spinning of dissolved cellulose, and can lead to higher polymer orientation due to the higher stretchability of the spinning solution versus the precipitated fiber.
Gel spinning, also known as semi-melt spinning, is used to obtain high strength or other special properties in the fibers. Instead of wet spinning, which relies on precipitation as the main mechanism for solidification, gel spinning relies on temperature-induced physical gelation as the primary method for solidification. The resulting gelled fiber is then swollen with the spinning solvent (similar to gelatin desserts) which keeps the polymer chains somewhat bound together, resisting relaxation which is prevalent in wet spinning. The high solvent retention allows for ultra-high drawing as with ultra high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) (e.g., Spectra®) to produce fibers with a high degree of orientation, which increases fiber strength. The fibers are first cooled either with air or in a liquid bath to induce gelation, then the solvent is removed through ageing in a nonsolvent, or during the drawing stage. Some high strength polyethylene and polyacrylonitrile fibers are produced via this process.[1]
Electrospinning uses an electrical charge to draw very fine (typically on the micro or nano scale) fibres from a liquid - either a polymer solution or a polymer melt. Electrospinning shares characteristics of both electrospraying and conventional solution dry spinning[3] of fibers. The process does not require the use of coagulation chemistry or high temperatures to produce solid threads from solution. This makes the process particularly suited to the production of fibers using large and complex molecules. Melt electrospinning is also practiced; this method ensures that no solvent can be carried over into the final product.[4][5]
Finally, the fibers are drawn to increase strength and orientation. This may be done while the polymer is still solidifying or after it has completely cooled.[1]
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