Relationship between the properties of cotton rotor spun yarns and the yarn speed in an air-jet loom

The dependence of the yarn speed on air velocity and yarn properties makes the weft insertion process in air-jet weaving complicated. The influence of the yarn properties as well as those of the production (spinning) parameters and fibre properties on the yam insertion speed has been investigated in this paper. A large number of cotton yarns were rotor spun from 20 different cotton fibre qualities, under different spinning parameters. The resulting yarns were systematically tested for various yarn properties and for yarn speed using an air-jet test instrument. In determining the statistical relationships, traditional statistical models and a backpropagation neural network model have been developed. Fibre quality and yarn production parameters were found to have significant influence on the weft yarn insertion speed. With respect to the yarn properties, high correlation coefficients were obtained between the experimental and the predicted values of the yarn speed.