Objective
Noils are sound but short fibres eliminated during wool combing. By comparison with cotton, wool is a costly raw material. For this reason, it is worth processing the highest possible percentage of wool fibres, thus also the noils, to produce high quality end products. The starting point of this project consists mainly in the results obtained in a previous CRAFT project (1301 91) dealing with the realisation of wool blend fabrics from cotton and carbonised wool noils. In that project a soft carbonising process for wool noils and a process for realising a blend with cotton set up. Successful industrial trials demonstrated that existing woollen spinning machinery could be used to spin 50:50 blend of cotton and wool noils, with the addition of 10% longer wool fibres and different fabric samples have been produced satisfactorily. The dyeing and finishing processes however were not studied extensively. The innovation in the present project is to extend the process to the realisation of an intimate blend on the cotton spinning system, allowing thus a wider outcome on the market by including the hosiery sector and to develop finishing processes applicable directly on the yarn blend (cotton and wool having different requirements concerning the pH of treatment), necessary to achieve competitive prices and quick response. As some of the properties can only be evaluated on the knitted or woven fabric itself, like softness, hand shrinkage, local defects, abrasion and pilling strength,...the industrial trials will go from the raw material up to the finished product. The proposed study allows to join two natural fibers, wool and cotton, whose complementary properties will be used to profit for the creation of new articles for sportswear and for the hosiery industry, attractive by their comfort and a good quality / price. The valorisation of wool noils through their use in blends with cotton will give them added value. This will contribute to a better use of natural resources and to the protection of the environment, the blends being constituted exclusively natural fibers, the resulting yarns will give entirely biodegradable products that could be eco labelled according to the selected dyeing process.
Fields of science
Not validated
Not validated
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CRS - Cooperative research contractsCoordinator
47803 Krefeld
Germany