Industrial cotton waste: Recycling, Reclaimed fiber behavior and quality prediction of its blend

This paper aims to explore the use of industrial cotton waste as an alternative of virgin cotton and to understand the effects of recycling process in the global quality of reclaimed fiber. It also tries to predict the quality of the mix of recycled fiber with virgin cotton using mathematical approach.The global quality of recycled fibers was investigated using single criteria like Mean Length (ML), Span Length (SL 2.5 )… and with complex criteria such as Fiber Quality Index (FQI) and Spinning Consistency Index (SCI). The blending fibers properties were simulated mathematically. The ML, SL 2.5 , Upper Half Mean Length (UHML), Upper Quality Length (UQL), Fineness and Uniformity Ratio (UR) were analyzed according to the simulation results which were reported by experimental analysis using R² as correlation coefficient. The optimum quality of reclaimed fiberswasselected with the consideration of FQI and SCI plots. The blend of recycled fibers with Malian fibers was selected as the beneficial mix. Under the optimum recycling condition, the effect of recycled fibers (40%, 50%, 60% and 75%) on the irregularity and the tenacity of blended yarn were evaluated. It was shown that the CVm %, Thinness 30%/Km, Thickness 30%/km, Neps 280%/m andHairiness % of obtained yarn increase by 20%, 13%, 32%, 50% and 20%, respectively, when the ratio of recycled fibers increase from 40% to 75%. While the tenacity of obtained yarn decrease by 16%.The use of yarn based on recycled fibers suggests the recent and progress demand for special DENIM woven in particular is met, at least partially, through this way.