TO ASCERTAIN THE SUITABILITY OF OPEN-END TECHNIQUES IN WOOLLEN SPINNING, WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO REUSED RAW MATERIALS.

THE CURRENT METHODS OF PREPARING AND CARDING RE-USED RAW MATERIALS REQUIRE VERY EXPENSIVE MACHINERY, WHICH IS NOT SUITABLE FOR NON-CONVENTIONAL SPINNING SUCH AS OPEN-END. THE PURPOSE OF THIS RESEARCH IS THEREFORE TO DESIGN AND CONSTRUCT A PRELIMINARY PROTOTYPE OF A NEW MACHINE, DERIVED FROM THE CONCEPT OF BOTH WOOL (CYLINDER) AND COTTON (FLAT) CARDS.

ITS PERFORMANCE WILL BE TESTED BY MEANS OF LARGE SCALE PILOT-PLANT TRIALS, WITH THE AIM OF ASCERTAINING ALSO THE ECONOMICS OF THE NEW SPINNING PROCEDURE. THE CHOICE OF RAW MATERIALS FOR THESE TRIALS (TO BE CONTINUED UP TO THE WEAVING AND FINISHING STAGE) WILL BE GUIDED BY THE RESULTS OF PRIOR RESEARCH, INCLUDING SMALL SCALE SPINNING EXPERIMENTS ON A LARGE REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE OF PRATO BLENDS.