Introduction

Silk fibre is known for its strength, fineness, lustre, and elasticity. The technology of production of spun silk yarn from waste silk involves a long sequence of machines. The operations involved in the process are degumming, opening, filling, combing, carding, drawing, roving, and spinning. Some research workers have attempted to spin silk on the woollen and waste spinning systems. Spun silk yarns are used for manufacturing various dress materials and household items that have good aesthetic value. Cotton fabrics are also used for apparels and home textiles due to their comfort characteristics. Hence, blending of silk with cotton and manufacturing of blended yarns and fabrics will have both aesthetic value as well as comfort characteristics.

There has been a great demand for silk blended fabrics in recent years, due to increased price of raw silk.

Therefore, a study has been carried out at SITRA with the following objectives:

Spinning of silk/cotton blended yarns in short staple spinning systems
Evaluation of quality attributes of silk/cotton blended yarns
Assessment of handle and comfort properties of silk/cotton fabrics


This article was originally presented in ATNT 2007 held on 18-20, June 2007 at Kumaraguru College of Technology, Coimbatore, India. The authors are associated with The South India Textile Research Association, Coimbatore.