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Abstract:
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The combined cost of raw material and land filling has forced the consideration of new
ideas for dealing with waste generated in the mill. The trouble is dealing with the various
types of waste that are generated. Typical textile wastes used for in-house recycling are
considered soft-wastes, such as sliver, roving, card waste, and opening or cleaning line
waste. Other wastes, such as yarn, knits, and wovens, are typically sold to waste dealers for
use in shoddy, carpet underlay, or nonwoven materials. The machines used to produce the
batting and wadding sold by waste converters are also capable of generating fiber for
respinning into yarn for use in first quality applications, but little work has been documented
on the parameters that affect the reclaimed fiber's qUality.
The objective of this research was to process polyester wastes, such as knit, woven,
and yarn, to determine what parameters of recycling affect their properties relative to
spinning. The materials were subjected to two preparatory cutting methods where the
materials were reduced into smaller pieces for the reclamation machine. The materials were
then processed through a Laroche reclamation machine at varying through-put rates and from
three to five cylinder passes. Samples were tested for cohesion, length change, short fiber
content, strength, and elongation.
Fiber from all three reclamations was chosen to represent the polyester fiber that
would typically be available from a textile converter. These fibers were then blended at 5 % ,
15%, and 25% with virgin polyester and processed into an 18 Ne open-end yarn. Properties
of strength, elongation, Uster eveness, IPI defects, and hairiness were measured to determine
the effect of reclaimed fibers affect on the yarn.
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