Cotton requires about 2 hundred days of continuous warm weather with adequate moisture and sunlight: frost is harmful to the plant. The flowers in cotton plants appear in June or July and therefore the cotton is typically ripe for gathering between August and October. The seasons may differ within the different places of the planet . because the flower withers it’s succeeded by a closed pod. This contains seeds, which are bound up in young actively growing hairs. Each cottonseed may produce as many as 20.000 fibres. When the seeds are nearly ripe the pod burst Open and therefore the cotton hairs project, forming a white fluffy mass called a boll. During this era , the plant is subject to attack by many insects (e.g. Anthonomus grandis . Boll worm. Caterpillar). Insecticides are sprayed to guard the plants at this stage. The fibers are now exposed to the sun once they complete their ripening, and therefore the cell gradually dries up. leaving the cotton in tit state for harvesting.
Harvesting:
The ripe bolls having matured fibers are picked by machines in developed countries and by hand in deveIOping countries. has some disadvantages as machine picks the immature bolls, also as leaves, stem fragments with the matured bolls. On the opposite hand higher grade of cotton is obtained by a selective and good hand picking. An expert picker can easily trace out the matured bolls and doesn’t pick leaves or stem fragments with it. This method is slower and therefore the costliest in deveioped countries but better for developing countries
Properties of Cotton Fibers:
Length of cotton fiber: lndian cotton16-25 mm American cotton20-30 mm Sea Island38-52 mm Egyptian cotton30-38 mm Fineness of_cotton fiber: lndian= 2.2-2.3dtex American= 2.1-2.2 dtex Egyptian= 1.2-1.8 dtex Sea Island= 1.0-1.1 dtex ,
Fineness could also be more just in case of immature fibre. So it’s necessary to precise maturity with fineness.
Strength and extension of cotton fiber:
tenacity is 3-3.5g/dtex.
Elastic properties of cotton:
Recovery from deformation of cotton fibre, yarn or fabric from applied load is extremely low.
Appearance:
Color of the fibre depends on soil ofgrowth. By adding chemicals within the soil. color of the cotton fibre could also be varied.
Crimp:
from out side is named convolution. The twist within the fibre doesn’t to be continuous in one direction i.e. if initially right direction, then left direction. This property of cotton fibers helps in spinning.
Cotton Staple Length:
If the length of fiber 15 longer it are often spun into finer counts of yarn which may fetch higher prices. it also gives stronher yarn.
Cotton Strength
Stronger fibers give stronger Yarns. Further, processing speeds are often higher in order that higher productivity are often achieved with less end-breakages.
Fiber Fineness
Finer Fibers produce fmer count of yarn and it also helps to supply stronger yams.
Cotton Fiber Maturity
Mature fibers give better evenness 0f yam. there’ll be less end-breakages. Better dye absorbency is additional benefit.
Uniformity Ratio
If the ratio is higher. Yam is more even and there’s reduced end-breakages.
Cotton Fiber Elongation
A. better value of elongation will help to scale back end-breakages in Spinning and hence higher productivity with low wastage of staple .
Non-Lint Content
Low percentage of Trash will reduce the method waste in Blow Room and cards. there’ll be less chances of yam defects.
Sugar Content
Higher Sugar Content will .create stickiness of fiber and make processing problem of licking within the machines.
Cotton Moisture Content
If Moisture Content is quite standard value of 8.5%, there’ll be more invisable loss. lf moisture is a smaller amount than 8.5% then there’ll be tendency for brittleness of fiber leading to frequent yarn breakages.
Cotton Feel
If the texture of the Cotton is smooth, it’ll be produce more smooth yam which has potential for weaving better fabric.
Cotton Grade
Cotton having better grade in classing will produce less process waste and yam will have better appearance.
Uses
Cotton fiber may be a versatile fibre which has big variety of uses. But the Cotton fibre is usually used on the garment industry to form the wearing cloth like Sweaters, Skirts, Shirts, Swimwear, Kids wear. Blouses, Pants, Hosiery and to form other sort of dresses.
