Whats in a Cone?!

This is the top close up view of a Yarn cone. I have been around them for enough time to know that they come in various sizes, shapes, materials, and colours. The colour of the tip is used for identification mainly. They are made from cardboard usually (sometimes plastic too) and cotton yarn is wound around them in a regular pattern. You will notice this pattern on your regular sewing thread rolls too. Yarn is usually wound around them on automatic winders. They can vary from the very basic to the very high tech precision winders such as the ones by SSM from Germany. I have had the opportunity to see them in action and they really are high tech wonders. The idea is to keep the weight of the cone constant, while being careful that the length of the yarn also remains almost the same for each cone. Tricky business indeed! But the latest machinery makes it look easy. most new winders also have a device installed on them known as the Yarn Clearer (the small red labeled device with the LED on the bottom half of the assembly. This one is by Uster,.. also made by Loepfe, Premier and others).

This is supposed to catch foreign material and trash right on its tracks to be wound on the cone. The device removes the affected yarn and rejoins the yarn back (more on that later :-) ) and the winding resumes. Again this is amazing to watch in action.
Some cones are different from these paper ones. They have holes in them and they are used when you want to dye or process yarn. They allow the dyes or other chemicals to seep through the yarn properly and evenly. I'm sure many others exist that I have not come across as yet.
Yarn cones are fascinating things. Hope you enjoyed my review on them. Catch you later.

Cotton is Life. Contamination Free!

You are what you eat, what you wear. I can take care of both for you :-)
I'm Waqar. I have an MBBS / MD degree, but I am currently working as a trader dealing in Textile Goods from Pakistan. I have been associated with this field since childhood, as my father managed a Textile mill then. I am used to the roar of the spinning machinery and the shape and size of the yarn cones.
The purpose of this journal is to discuss what I am learning with people all over the world, who are and are not associated with this field, but are interested. This is not just about textile, this is about my experience, so keep coming back. You might even learn a thing or two.
The image I am starting with today, is of a machine called a contamination detector. It is installed in the Blow Room section of a cotton yarn spinning unit. It looks for contamination in the raw material (cotton). Both coloured and white contamination can be detected, and the technology used is mindblowing. High definition CCD cameras, Ultrasonic detectors, you name it, they have it glued to the cotton being blown through the tubes. Everytime, they catch something, they have high powered jet nozzles to push it out of the stream very accurately, not too much, and not too little, so that the trash comes out and the useful raw material stays in.
We'll talk about these later in greater detail.
See you all soon. Thanks for visiting.