Soma Parven
Can jute be blended with cotton? Does denim made from jute-cotton blended yarn reduce denim cost? Is jute-cotton blended denim sustainable?- Yes Yarn is made from a blend of jute cotton, unveiling new possibilities for denim industry. Denim of Bangladesh is ruling in the world market. The country has a large share of the denim market in Europe, the United States and the United Kingdom. The amount of cotton required for denim production is not in our country. Since jute production is good in our country, researchers in Bangladesh have found a way to make different types of textiles and denim by mixing cotton with jute fibers. As a result, the production cost is reduced and good quality denim is produced.
Jute Fiber
Jute is known as the Golden Fiber. Bangladesh produces 5.5-6 million bales of raw jute every year. In terms of usage, production and global use, jute is second only to cotton. Jute is environmentally friendly as well as being one of the most affordable fibers. jute plants are easy to grow. It is a bast fiber. Jute grows mainly in the 80% fertile Ganges Delta of Bangladesh. Jute fibers are very long (1 to 4 m), silky, lustrous and golden brown in color. It consists of chemical compounds namely cellulose (58~63%), hemicellulose (20~24%) and lignin (12~15%), and some other small quantities of constituents like fats, pectin, aqueous extract. Jute fiber has strength, low cost, durability and versatility.
What is blending?
Blending is a technique of mixing two or more different fiber in the desired percentage. The main purpose of blending is to combine two fibers to provide certain properties that cannot be obtained from a single fiber component. It is the technique of combining fibers that emphasizes the good qualities and minimizes the poor qualities of the fibers. For example it increases fiber strength, and crease resistance and reduces cost. It also makes the fabric manufacturing process economical.
Cotton-Jute Blending
Blending of jute with cotton fiber can be an acceptable way to diversify jute through which value-added products can be produced. Jute fibers have several advantages such as a lustrous golden appearance, high durability and good properties. We have to rely on cotton to make denim. Jute-cotton blending is an effective method to reduce cotton dependence. Jute and cotton fibers were blended at the opening and drawing stages and spun using the ring and rotor spinning technology.
The Process of Jute-cotton Blended Yarn ProductionJute Fiber opening: Jute fiber is opened through a double carding process. Breaker card and finisher card machines are used in the double carding process. Before jute carding, 2% castor oil with 1.5% emulsifier is used in the spreader machine. After emulsification, the jute fiber is delivered to the carding section for opening.
Chemical Processing: Two machines are used for softening: a softener machine and a spreader machine. The softener machine uses an emulsion plant to soften and lubricate the raw jute. The bleaching operation is also done here. Sodium hydroxide, sodium silicate, soda ash, softener, and hydrogen peroxide are used to bleach jute fibers, which chemically soften and whiten the jute fibers.
Fiber Dyeing: After pretreatment, the jute fibers are dyed with reactive dyes. Where shade% 1.5, gluber salt 40 g / l, NaOH 0.5 g / l, weighting agent 1 g / l are used. The dyeing process is completed in 1 hour, 60˚CT.
Mixing: The blending of fiber components is an essential element in the production of yarn. Jute and cotton fibers are blended in Blow Room. The main objects of the blow room are opening, cleaning, dust removal, and blending. In blow room trash and impurities are removed from the fiber. The blending ratio of jute and cotton is 30:70. The is fed from the pre-cleaner. The material is evenly distributed across eight mixing chambers.
Carding: Carding is an important operation in spinning. Carding operations are carried out by card. The main function of carding is to remove napes, short fibers and parallelizing the fibers. The delivery sliver count is 0.11 Ne.
Drawing Frame: Drawing is the operation by which the sliver is blended, doubled and leveled. Here doubling, drafting, and drawing actions occur. Those actions are done in the breaker draw-frame and finisher draw-frame machine. It produced 0.11Ne count finished drawn sliver by maintaining draft.
Rotor spinning: Finally, jute cotton blended yarn is being made in rotor spinning. The count of rotor yarn is very low. Rotor yarn is coarser than carded yarn. Rotor Spinning Machine Input Drawn Sliver is finished which counts 0.11 Ne and produced 10 Ne, 12 Ne and 16 Ne counts. Rotor speed was 1.08 lack rpm.
Result
After the blending process of jute and cotton fibers, card sliver is tested, micronaire, strength, hairiness, unevenness, and length are also tested.
Comb sorter diagram:
Fig: opened Jute fiber.
Fig: jute cotton blend fiber length analyses
Physical properties analyses of jute cotton blended yarn:
Yarn sample(30 tex yarn)
Breaking Strength(g/tex)
Elongation at break(%)
CSP
Flexural rigidity(nM mm)
50/50 jute/cotton
10.93
5.80
1630
7.50
60/40 jute/cotton
10.00
5.62
1590
8.20
70/30 jute/cotton
9.10
4.85
1480
10.00
Cotton 100%
11.50
6.40
1692
4.72
Sulphonated jute
10.60
5.71
1027
11.94
Cost Reduction
Bangladesh, the second-largest apparel exporter in the world, is already a top denim products supplier in the US and European markets. Currently, 40 denim mills are producing 280 lakh metres of denim fabrics in Bangladesh. The main ingredient in denim is cotton. But, Cotton prices on the world market have reached a decade high after the Russia-Ukraine war. Cotton price rose 9.09% to reach $1.32 per pound. Every year Bangladesh has to import cotton. Since the production of jute in our country is good. Therefore, if we produce denim by mixing jute and cotton, the cost will also be reduced and since jute is environmentally friendly, it will be possible to produce sustainable denim.
Conclusion
Jute fiber is a sustainable fiber. Bangladesh produces 5.5-6 million bales of raw jute every year. Since the yield of jute is good in our country, the government has taken initiative to make denim cloth from jute to ensure its versatility. Besides, initiatives are being taken in the private sector of the country. Bangladesh has many opportunities to be successful through the diversified use of jute in other ways including denim and garments sector.
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