OE Cotton Yarns with a High Content of Enzyme-Modified Flax Fibers

The technology of producing open-end (OE) flax-cotton blended yarns with a 50%-100% content of flax fibers has been described. Flax fibers (noils) were modified in a process of enzymatic cottonization. Much shorter, thinner, and less stiff fibers were obtained. Laboratory tests proved that the greatest thinning and shortening of the fibers occurred during 16 h of the action of enzymes on the flax fibers. The fiber linear mass was decreased from 1.70 tex in the initial raw material to 0.78 tex in the cottonized fibers, i.e., by 54%. The length decreased to 28 mm, i.e., by 66%. In production experiments for cotton blended yarns, a content of 50%-100% of flax fibers modified with enzymes was used. The yarn production experiments were done using a BD 200 RN OE machine. All the slivers input from the drawing machine had a mean linear mass of 4.5 ktex. Higher twists were used for flax-cotton yarns as compared with similar 100% cotton yarns. The spin ability tests done for cotton-flax blends containing more than 50% of cottonized flax fibers modified with enzymes showed that a 70% share of flax fibers in the blend is the limit, with a 80 tex yarn produced. It was also proved that when the content of flax fibers in the blend is reduced to 60%, a 50 tex yarn can be obtained. Further reduction of this content to 50% allowed to obtain yarns with a linear mass of 30 tex. All the blended yarns with the content of cottonized flax fibers modified with enzymes were assessed after laboratory tests. The assessment of processing ability of the blended yarns with a high content of flax fibers was done in weaving and knitting processes. Flax-cotton yarns with a 50% and higher content of modified flax fibers have a soft touch and can be processed both in weaving and knitting.