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The aim of this study was to determine feasibility of utilizing greige (non-bleached) cotton comber noils in the development of hydroentangled cotton fabrics for certain end-use products and thereby to promote an economically and environmentally efficient utilization of cotton in sustainable textile products. The data from the feasibility study show that greige comber noils can be efficiently processed into nonwoven fabrics using an air-laid system for preparing a fibrous batt to feed a down-stream hydroentangling system. Furthermore, the study has shown that, for certain specific end-use applications where bleaching is required, the hydroentangled greige cotton fabric can be efficiently bleached without the customary costly and time consuming cotton scouring process. The elimination of the scouring process was made possible by the removal of cotton's natural hydrophobic contaminants (waxes) by optimizing the hydraulic pressure/energy metrics of the hydroentanglement process of producing nonwoven fabrics.

The aim of this research is to develop greige (raw/non-bleached) cotton-containing nonwoven fabrics that likely would be competitive in quality, cost and performance to existing products that presently and predominantly use man-made fibers and some bleached cotton for wipes and other similar end-use nonwoven products. Since the whiteness and absorbency of these end-use products generally are the most desired and perhaps even critical attributes, the research was mainly focused on attaining these attributes by exploring various choices and optimum use of a variety of cost-effective cotton fibers and the blends thereof with other fibers. Nonwoven fabrics were produced, via a modern hydroentanglement system, with possible choices of using several types of cotton fibers, including the greige cotton lint and certain of its co-products such as gin motes and comber noils, and their various blends with polyester and nylon staple fibers. Bleached cotton was also used to produce an equivalent fabric for comparison. The research has shown that although the desired and perhaps critical properties of whiteness and absorbency of the selected fibers vary considerably among the various fabrics produced, the blends of greige cotton lint with man-made fibers can provide the fabric whiteness and absorbency comparable to those of say, a, bleached cotton fabric. The research results suggest that the greige cotton lint and/or its co-products in blend with polyester fiber may be sensible approaches to the development of functionally acceptable nonwoven wiping products that are also environment friendly.

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of two popular web-forming technologies, viz., the Rando air-laid technology and the traditional carding and cross-laying technology, on properties of the hydroentangled nonwoven fabrics made therewith. A mill-like fiber processing study was conducted in a commercial-grade pilot plant using a variety of short staple fibers and their blends. The fibers used in the study were greige cotton, bleached cotton, cotton derivatives, and cut-staple polyester. The hydroentangled fabrics produced with the two systems were mainly evaluated for their physical and mechanical properties, absorbency, absorbency capacity, and whiteness. The study has shown that, with the exception of greige cotton linters, the greige cotton lint, greige cotton gin motes, and even greige cotton comber noils, either alone or in blend with the other fibers mentioned, can be mechanically processed into hydroentangled nonwoven fabric structures without any insurmountable difficulties. The drop test and sink time followed each other pretty closely, as the drop test time increased so did the sink times. The "whiteness" of fabric, which is significantly more dependent on the fabric's constituent fiber content than on the fabric's surface-based light reflection, obviously varied considerably. However, the whiteness index within the same fiber types and their blends shows no trend of significant difference between the fabric produced with carded fiber web and the fabric produced with random Rando fiber web. Incidentally, the Rando sample of bleached cotton was not available. Since the nonwoven fabrics of this discussion generally are disposable, the optional use of ‘brighteners’ to improve whiteness of certain whiteness-deficient fabrics may be considered as long as the brighteners do not easily bleed from the fabrics.

Spunlacing is a promising nonwoven technology for the production of fabric with good handle and better structural integrity. Structural parameters such as pore size, thickness and number of binding point/entanglement between fibres are decisive for good mechanical and comfort properties of nonwoven fabrics. This study aims to focus on the effect of different process parameters on the structural change in spunlace fabrics.

Spunlacing is purely a mechanical bonding technology where high-speed jets of water strike a web to entangle the fibres. Different spunlace nonwoven structures were produced by varying processing parameters such as waterjet pressure, delivery speed, web mass and web composition as per four-factor, three-level Box–Behnken design. The effect of these parameters on the structural arrangement was studied using scanning electron microscopy. An attempt has also been made to study the changes in pore geometry and thickness of the fabrics by using response surface methodology with backward elimination.

Significant structural changes were observed with variation in water pressure, web mass and web composition. The test results showed that fabric produced at higher waterjet pressure has lower mean pore diameter and lower thickness. The variation in mean pore diameter and mean thickness due to waterjet pressure is around 26 and 34 per cent, respectively, at 95 per cent significance level. The web composition and web mass also significantly influence the mean pore diameter and thickness at 95 per cent significance level. There is a strong positive correlation (r = 0.523) between mean air permeability and mean pore diameter of fabric, and this correlation is significantly linear. A strong negative correlation (r = −0.627) is found between weight and air permeability of fabric.

The delivery speed failed to show any significant effect; this is in contrary to the general expectation.

The effect of concurrent variation in waterjet pressure, web mass, delivery speed and web composition on the structure of spunlace nonwoven is studied, which was not reported in the literature. The effect of web composition on pore diameter of spunlace nonwoven is interesting finding. This study is expected to help in designing the spunlace nonwoven as per end uses and specifically for apparel application.

After a period of contraction, modernisation has created a new impetus and the industry is experiencing an acute shortage of labour.

LONG suffering, patient and regular readers will have realised that Albert has been peddling the Oilier Oil Co.'s lubes in Manlidale and district for quite a few years now, and apart from some unfortunate episodes, with reasonable success. Although basically gormless and as innocent as a new‐born babe, he is bonhomous, good hearted, popular and as honest as the day is long and now well established in the opinion of both his customers and his employers.