Abstract:

In this study, five parameters of a mercerising machine, four parameters of untreated yarn and three parameters of the caustic soda bath affecting the tensile strength of mercerised yarn were investigated. Experiments were designed with the aid of the Response Surface Method. Accordingly different types of yarns were mercerised on different machines and with production settings, then relevant trends were studied. Results show that the strength of the mercerised yarn is highly affected by the cylinder normal pressure, warm rinsing temperature and caustic soda bath concentration, while the effect of the cold rinsing temperature is observed only for higher qualities of cotton fibers and yarns. Increasing the cylinder rotation duration results in a reduction in the strength of carded yarns, but has little effect on combed yarns. Results also show that optimum settings are highly affected by the type of cotton fiber, yarn structure and number of plies, but the linear density of single yarn and the mercerising machine type have no significant effect.