Indian 10urnal of Fibre & Textile Research

Vol. 27, March 2002, pp. 48-5 1

Tensile properties of polyester/cotton blended yams

V K Kothari", S M Ishtiaque & V G Ogale

Department of Textile Technology, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi 1 10 0 1 6, India
Received 4 January 2oo};accepted 2 February 2oo}

Effect of blend ratio, strain rate and cone winding from ring bobbins on the tensile properties of polyester/cotton
blended yarns under static and dynamic conditions has been studied using USTER Tensorapid and Constant Tension
Transport testers. It is observed that the static tensile test overestimates tensile strength and breaking elongation. The static
tensile strength and breaking elongation decrease after winding but the dynamic elongation of cotton, polyester and 67:33
polyester/cotton yarn increases after winding.

Keywords: Blended yarns, Constant tension transport tester, Cone winding, Dynamic tensile test, Static tensile test

1 Introduction yarn 2 • Continuous tensile testing of yarn involves

An important aspect of testing the yarns is the transporting the yarn under constant tension at
possibility of predicting the performance of yarn in constant output speed. Thus, in continuous testing
subsequent processing. Among the various yarn every inch or millimeter of yarn is tested to generate
properties, the tensile properties of yams significantly true elongation of yarn at specific dynamic tensionl;
affect the behaviour of yarns during their conversion speed condition and tensile characteristics are
4
into fabrics and the properties of the final textile continuously assessed3 . . The continuous testing
structure. A number of methods have been developed simulates actual manufacturing conditions more
over the years for evaluating tensile properties of closely than static tensile testing. These tests can be
yarns and these are used for a variety of reasons. selected to hunt the weak spots in the yarns at
Lea strength, although useful for routine process different tension levels and to accurately measure
control, has poor correlation with yarn performance in elongation at these tension levels to provide tension­
subsequent processes and the test is not sensitive to elongation or the stress-strain behaviour of yarns. The
small changes in yarn properites l . Single thread tensile effect of extension rate on tensile behaviour has also
testing of yarns is based on the small sample size and been reported5 • In the present paper, the study on
only statistical inferences about the yarn tensile dynamic and static tensile properties of
properties can be drawn based on the limited number of polyester/cotton blended yams before and after
samples normally tested. The single thread tensile test winding has been reported.
method gives the value of tensile strength which is
sometimes referred to as static yarn strength. The static 2 Materials and Methods
yarn strength cannot accurately predict the running 30s Ne ( 1 9.68 tex) ring-spun yam samples were
behaviour of yarn on the subsequent machines. prepared from polyester, Shankar 4 cotton and their
One of the important purposes of single thread blends. The blending was carried out at draw frame
testing is to assess how the yarn will perform in stage to get different blends composition. The
subsequent processes and the interest is in the weakest samples were made at a mill which has the regular
sections of yarn. A weak place in one process may not production of blended yarns. Yam samples on 1 5 ring
be a weak place in another process as the type and the bobbins and 5 baby cones prepared frortl. another 1 5
speed of operation of the fabric-forming machine as ring bobbins were evaluated for related yarn
well as fabric structure affect the stress applied on the properties.

2.1 Fibre Properties

" To whom all the correspondence should be addressed.
Phone: 659 1 407; Fax: 009 1 -0 1 1 -6862037; Polyester and cotton fibres were tested for fibre
E-mail: Kothari @textile.iitd.ernet.in denier, tensile strength and breaking elongation using
 KOTHARI et al. : TENSILE PROPERTIES OF POLYESTER/COTTON BLENDED YARNS 49

Lenzing Vibroscope and Tensile Tester. Twenty-five Table I - Fibre properties

tests on each fibre were carried out. The tensile Property Cotton Pol)4ester
properties were measured at the following conditions:
2.5% span length, mm 27.79
gauge length, 10 mm; test speed, 10 mm1min; and 50% span length, mm 1 4.22
pretension, 1 00 mgf. Cotton fibre length, uniformity Cut length, mm 38
ratio and micronaire value were determined on High Unifortnity ratio, % 48.00
Volume Instrument (HVI). Polyester fibre length was Micronaire value 4.06
Fineness, denier 1 .36
measured using 25 fibres on a scale. The properties of 1 .42
Breaking load of single fibre, gf 2. 1 5 6.50
cotton and polyester fibres used for the study are C. V of breaking load, % 1 2.5 9.5
shown in Table 1 . Breaking strain, % 8.1 24.3

2.2 Yarn Tensile ,Properties Table 2 - Tensile testing parameters

Static tensile properties of blended yams were
Parameter Measuring principle
evaluated using USTER Tensorapid which works on ,
Constant Rate of Extension (CRE) principle and gives Static Static Dynamic
force-elongation characteristics, their variation and Test speed, mlmin 5 Variable 1 00
time required to break the specimen. For dynamic Time-to-break, s 20±3
test, Constant Transport Tension (CTT) tester was Gauge length, mm 500 500
Pretension, cN/tex 0.5 0.5 0.5
used which transports yam under constant tension
through the test zone at a constant output speed. A 3 S,�------'
controller is used to keep the tension constant by
changing the input speed of the yam and it has an
ability to maintain constant tension between 0.5 gf
and 700 gf at any selected speed between 20 m1min
and 360 m1min by means of a servo system. The
maximum tension which allows transport of a certain
length of the yam without a break gives the dynamic
tensile strength and the difference between input and
output yam speeds at this stage gives the breaking
5
elongation under dynamic test conditions. Tensile test
parameters used during both static and dynamic
o 10 '2 0 30 40 SO 60 70 80 9 0 1 00
testings are given in Table 2. POLYESTER (".)

Fig. I - Effect of blend ratio on tensile strength ( I -dynamic test,

3 Results and Discussion 2-static test at 5000 mmlmin strain rate and 3-static test at
Fig. 1 shows the effect of blend proportion on the 20±3 s time-to-break)
tenacity of polyester/cotton blended yams using
14 r-
dynamic tensile tester, static tensile tester at a fixed ---,

strain rate of 5000 mm1min and static tensile tester 12

with constant time-to-break of 20±3s. It is observed � 10

that the dynamic strength of all the yams is lower than Z
o 8
the static strength by almost 34-60%. The difference
in yarn strength under static condition with fixed �(!) 6
Z
strain rate and constant time-to-break is not o
significant. It is also observed that the percentage
irl 4 "'-==�'"
difference between static and dynamic strength 2
increases as the polyester fibre percentage i ncreases. o ����--�--��-
The blending of higher strength and higher elongation o 20 40 60 80 1 00
polyester component with cotton initially leads to POLYESTER (%)
slight decrease in yam strength but the addition of Fig. 2 - Effect of blend ratio on breaking elongation
polyester beyond 33% in blended yams leads to ( I -<iynamic test, 2-static test at 5000 mmlmin strain rate and
significant increase in yam strength. Fig. 2 shows that 3-static test at 20±3 s time-to-break)
50 INDIAN J. FIBRE TEXT. RES., MARCH 2002

16 12 p o l y es t u : Col t o n
Cotlon
14 ( 33 : 6 7 )

10 0
12

4
10 .6
,.
8
6
6
4
4

2
2

2 3 4 5 6 7 2 3 4 5 6

18 25
Pol yester : C o l l on P o lyes ter: Collon
16
( SO : 50) ( & 7 : 33)
lU
14
x

� 12
�
15
10
V)
V) 8
w 10
ex:
l- 6
V)
4 5
2
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
35 STRAIN ( " , )
Pol yes l e r
30

25 Fig. 3 - Static and dynamic stress-

strain diagrams of cotton, polyester and
20 .. their blends ( I-static test before wind-
ing, 2--dynamic test before winding,
15 3-static test after winding and 4-
dynamic test after winding)
10

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
S T RA I N (" , )

the elongation of yarn at break is also lower under yarn decreases after winding for all the yarns as
dynamic test conditions as compared to those under shown by comparing the curves 1 and 3 in Fig. 3 .
both the static test conditions and ,the elongation-at­ B ut the dynamic strength i ncreases after winding
break increases as the polyester content in the blended for cotton and 3 3 : 67 & 67 : 3 3 polyester/cotton
yarn increases. blends as shown by comparing the curves 2 and 4 in
Fig. 3 , possibly due to the reduction in weak places
The average stress-strain curves of yarns with after winding. It is also observed that the elongation
different blend proportions were obtained before and of yarn after winding increases in case of dynamic
after winding operations using Tensorapid at a fixed test whereas it decreases generally in case of static
strain rate of 5000 mmlmin and CTT dynamic tensile test.
tester. Fig. 3 shows comparison of stress-strain curves
of yarns before and after winding in both static and 4 Conclusions
dynamic conditions for 0 : 1 00, 33 : 67 , 50 : 50 , 67 : 33 Static tensile testing overestimates tensile strength
and 1 00 : 0 polyester/cotton blended yarns. It is and breaking elongation of cotton, polyester and
observed that the static tensile strength of ring-spun cotton/polyester blended yarns. However, the
 KOTHARI et al. : TENSILE PROPERTIES OF POLYESTER/COTION BLENDED YARNS 51

dynamic testing of these yarns indicates 34-60% 2 Furter R, Strength and elongation testing of single and ply
decrease in tensile strength than that obtained on yams, Manual of Textile Technology (The Textile Institute,
UK), 1 985.
static tensile tester. Static tensile strength and 3 Nevel A, New concept in dynamic testing of cotton yams, paper
breaking elongation decrease after winding but presented at the Yam Group Conference, Bradford, 22-24 Feb­
reverse trend is observed in case of dynamic testing, ruary 1 994.
possibly due to the reduction in weak places after 4 Lee E K & Oxenham W, Techniques to assess yam tensile
properties, paper presented at the 1 998 Beltwide Cotton Con­
winding. ference, San Diego CA, USA, 5-9 January 1 998.
5 Punj S K; Mukhopadhyay A & Chakraborty A, Effect of exten­
References sion rate and gauge length on the tensile behaviour of ring and
1 Parker A, Text Month, March ( 1 993) 25. air-jet spun yams, Indian J Fibre Tex Res, 23( 1 ) ( 1 998) 1 9-24.