– The purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of steam in order to replace air in the production of spun-like textured yarns. Further, this paper analyse the effect of production speed on process and textured yarn properties.
– An existing air-jet texturing machine was modified to supply either air or steam to the texturing nozzle. Using standard commercial nozzles, both air-jet and steam-jet textured yarns were manufactured by varying production speed.
– It can be concluded that steam can be used as an alternative fluid for air in making spun-like textured yarns. Results show that yarn parameters for steam-jet texturing show a similar trend to those of air-jet texturing relative to the production speed. Further, sewing threads made from steam-jet textured yarns showed good sewability up to the speeds of 350 m/min.
– Only the effect of production speed on process and yarn parameters is discussed in this paper. Production speed was limited to 350 m/min due to machine constraints.
– Steam is more economical than air to manufacture spun-like textured yarn at commercial pressures such as 8 bar. Steam-jet textured yarns could be used for commercial applications such as sewing threads at competitive speeds. Further, steam could be generated using sustainable and renewable fuel sources such as biomass.
– This research introduced steam as an alternative fluid for air in manufacturing spun-like textured yarns.
