How Solospun™ works

Solospun™ is a simple device you attach to a conventional spinning frame. Developed by AgResearch, Solospun™ changes the way the fibres are twisted, creating a stronger fine yarn that allows production of very lightweight wool fabric.

Questions to consider:

• How does changing the twisting of the fibres improve the abrasion resistance and strength of the fabric?

• Why does this make fabrics easier to look after?

Transcript

Dr Errol Wood (AgResearch)

Solospun™ was a very simple technology. In essence, it’s a very simple device. It’s just an add-on to a normal ring-spinning frame that is used in the worsted system. A pair of rollers really is all that's required.

So this is mounted on the ring-spinning frame. There are ordinary rollers fitted next to this Solospun™ roller. The strand passes through, and the fibres are spread by the pressure of this roller, and so when the fibres move into the twisting zone, at this point, they twist together in a rather different way to the normal conventional way in which yarns are formed.

It certainly changes the yarn’s properties by rearranging the fibres in the yarn somewhat differently to a conventional worsted yarn that gives greater strength, and evenness and smoothness, with superior abrasion resistance and superior strength.

So we can use a lighter yarn in very very lightweight fabrics, so that, not only do people have fabrics that are light and comfortable to wear, they are also easy to look after. And that has been another spin-off of the Solospun™ technology.