Blow Room Process: Objects and Understanding its Vital Importance in Textile Manufacturing Easily

June 16, 2023 by Kazi Md. Rashedul Islam

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What is Blow Room?

The blow room in textile manufacturing is a specialized section or department where raw fibers, such as cotton, polyester, or wool, undergo a series of mechanical processes to achieve a number of objectives. As part of the fiber-to-yarn conversion process, it plays a vital role in preparing the fibers for subsequent manufacturing processes. A blow room is defined as a designated area with various machines and equipment for opening, cleaning, blending, and controlling fibers. The primary goals of blow room process are:

An impurity removal process.
An open bale of compressed fibers.
A homogeneous fiber blend.
A condition that allows the fibers to be processed optimally.

In summary, the blow room is where the compressed bales are transformed into uniform laps of specific length by opening, cleaning, blending, or mixing to transform them into a uniform lap.

Objectives of Blow room:

In the textile industry, the blow room is an integral part of the spinning process. It is primarily responsible for processing raw cotton fibers and preparing them for further processing in a spinning mill. As an intermediary between cotton bales and the carding machine, the blow room ensures that impurities are removed, fiber tufts are opened, and fiber properties are uniform. The following are the objectives of the blow room:

Opening: Opening is a vital part of the blow room process. The raw material we use to produce yarn is bale. Bales are fiber packages that are highly compressed and dense (450kg/m³) when loaded and contain about 40-50 billion fibers. In contrast, the yarn density varies from 0.40 gm/cm³ to 0.85 gm/cm3 and the cross section contains 35-150 fibers, depending on its count. Due to the shape of the cross section of the fiber package from bale to yarn, comparing reduction of volumetric density is not appropriate. Therefore, reducing phenomena need to be handled in the blow room.
Cleaning: Bales of natural fiber contain more impurities than bales of manmade fiber. These impurities can hinder the formation of a proper yarn structure and adversely affect the yarn quality. In order to reduce impurities to a minimum level, cleaning operations are required. Cleaning technology and cleaning point are different depending on the type and size of impurities. For color impurities, we use optical technology to scran and air blow to clean, and for metallic impurities, we use magnets to separate.
Preparation of Card Feed Materials: The card feed material requires a special preparation treatment, which is carried out in the blow room, because poor-quality card feed material will hamper the main objective of the card frame, namely individualization of fibers, which in turn will adversely affect spinning.

Importance of Blow Room:

The first working zone in short staple spinning is the blow room. In this section, the first and preliminary predominance of mechanical load is applied to fiber in an enormous way. The blow room is therefore an important section of short staple spinning in terms of its technical aspects. It is possible to discuss the importance of the blow room from the following perspective:

In view of processilization: In short staple spinning, raw materials are received in the form of a package of highly dense material under a high compressive load for the production of yarn. There needs to be intensive opening and cleaning to reduce density of a bale of 220 kg with a diameter ranging from 0.10 mm to 2.0 mm and weighting 10.0-50.0 g/km. Another important point, number of fiber in yarn cross section ranges 35-150 where as a bale contains approximately (4.0 ×1010 fibers. This phenomenon need opening, cleaning, weight reduction and these operations are carried out in blow room at multiple process stages to prepare the material at suitable form for carding machine.
In view of mechanical stress: from the view point of quality, stresses loaded on fibers bear significant role. Stressing on fibers during processing on blow room machines plays considerable negative effect on fiber properties, especially strength, fiber length, neps and elasticity. From experiment it is seen that for one more machine than necessary in blow room short fiber increases about 10% and neps generation is noticeably high.
In view of product cost: considering the overall costs of a ring spinning plant, the share of the blow room line within approximately 5 to 10%, is not very significant. But analyzing the cost structure of a yarn in which the raw material accounts for about 50-70%, it produces a clear picture of understanding that it is better way to reduce costs through the raw material. In this respect blow room is very important, in the respect of raw materials treatment, e.g the avoidance of deterioration and optimum preparation for further processing as well as the best possible utilization or realization. With the introduction a modern high-performance blow room line, it enables a somewhat cheaper material to be used with better treatment of rwa matrial than with an older blow room line. In the respect of better utilization or realization of raw material, the amount of wastage removed in blow room play important role in evaluation of product cost. This concept is related to quality attribute of the product also. A change in wastage in increasing order from the optimal level effets in yarn cost and yarn realization negatively. But the change in wastage in decreasing order from the optimal level effect in yarn quality and meeting the customer complaint negatively also.
In view of product quality. To understand the importance of blow rom in view of product quality, we have to look into the following parameter:

About 50% of all shortcomings in the yarn:
About 50% of all quality reducing factors; and
About 50% of all breakage in spinning process

Causes can be traced back to the operation of the blow room and cards.

All the above mentioned problems are exposed because of off standard operation due to an off-standard blow room line or off-standard technical setting in blow room along with card frame. This implies the significance of the role of standard blow room line

Conclusion:

It is essential to successfully process raw cotton fibers that the blow room section in the textile industry serves critical objectives. As part of its role in preparing fibers for spinning processes, the blow room focuses on fiber opening, cleaning, distribution, length control, waste removal, and dust control. The blow room’s objectives are integral to the success of the spinning process in the textile industry. Ultimately, the blow room contributes to manufacturing superior textile products by producing consistently high-quality yarn.

References

Belal, P. D. (2009). Understanding Textiles for a Merchandiser . Dhaka: L. B Graphics and Printing.
Chowdhury, M. F. (2016). Manual of Short Staple Spinning. Dhaka: Granthanir Prokashoni.
Corbman, D. P. (1983). Textiles Fiber to Fabric. NewYork: Mary McGarry.
Hossain, M. S. (2014). Introduction to Textile Engineering. Dhka: Books Fair Publications.
Principles of short staple spinning (Volume-1) by Prof. Dr. Engr. Ayub Nabi Khan
The Technology of Short-staple spinning by W. Kelin