Yarn Industry: Finding New Resources and Entering New Fields

On the one hand, there is a shortage of fiber raw materials and high production costs. On the other hand, in the mid-to-low-end product sector, it has been affected by foreign companies. In the recent period, domestic spinning companies have experienced difficulties. Where is the way out for China's yarn industry? Spinning companies have already felt the urgency of transformation and upgrading, but how do they turn?

At the "Rizhao Yuhua Cup" 2012 China Yarn Quality and New Product Development Technology Forum held recently, Yao Mu, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, analyzed the constraints faced by China's yarn industry and introduced the development of new fiber resources. He proposed that new fiber resources must be adopted, combined with new design ideas and new processing technologies, to produce high-performance textiles with new functions, occupy new markets, and enter a new era.

Technological Innovation Leads the Yarn Industry Since the second quarter of last year, yarn market demand has shrunk, exports have declined, business inventories have grown, and sales prices have fallen. Many SMEs have had to stop production or half production. In this situation, some companies are pessimistic about the prospects of the industry, and some textile companies have chosen to change their business.

In this regard, Yao Mu said that according to the UN’s prediction, the global textile fiber processing volume will increase from the current 80 million tons to 253 million tons per year by 2050, of which 41.50 million tons for apparel fibers, accounting for 16.4%, and 41 million tons for household fibers , accounting for 16.2%; industrial fiber 170.5 million tons, accounting for 67.4%. From this trend, China's yarn industry will continue to develop.

Yao Mu analysis pointed out that in recent years, China's yarn industry has made breakthrough development. Spinning processing volume still occupies an important part of the textile industry; spinning technology continues to deepen and improve: ring spinning continues to develop embedded composite spinning, soft spinning on the basis of agglomeration spinning, siro spinning, silai silk, cable spinning, etc. At the same time, many spinning technologies such as parallel spinning, air-jet spinning, air-jet vortex spinning, rotor spinning, vortex spinning, and friction spinning have emerged. At the same time, false twist deformation processing, air deformation processing, heat flow deformation processing, multiple deformation processing and natural colored cotton, dyed color cotton spinning yarn, a variety of decorative yarns and fancy yarn processing methods have been widely used in China. At the same time as the development of cotton spinning, combed wool spinning has occupied the international high-end, original hair semi-worsted spinning technology. While the spinning of linen has continued to develop in wet spinning, dry spinning has taken its place, and new developments have been made in twist spinning.

In the manufacture and supply of new high-precision, automated, continuous spinning equipment, China has occupied high-end: automatic change cans, automatic roving doffing, automatic doffing of spun yarn, blow carding, roll-to-roll, thick and thin yarns, and thin yarns. The rapid development of such equipment; double twisting machine, triple screwing machine, and quadruple twisting machine have been realized; large-scale twisting, untwisting, and weaving equipments for the production of various lines, ropes and cables have been operating smoothly. Many spinning machines are controlled by computers, and they widely promote high-speed, high-efficiency, low-vibration, energy-saving, and noise-reduction technologies. With technological innovation, the yarn industry is welcoming a new era.

Fiber raw material constrains industrial development Yao Mu analysis believes that at present China's yarn industry development is facing a series of constraints, including the shortage of textile fiber raw materials, rising labor costs, increasingly stringent environmental protection requirements, deterioration of the quality of natural textile fiber raw materials.

Due to the global population explosion, agricultural products are the first guarantee for food, and the area for planting fiber raw materials is limited. In order to protect the environment, resources such as wood and cotton linters are restricted, and the resources of regenerated cellulose fibers are shrinking. At present, 97% of synthetic fibers use chemical raw materials, while the United Nations predicts that by 2050, the world’s already doubled exploration and reserves of oil and gas will be depleted.

In the past 30 years, the cost of domestic labor has risen sharply. Coupled with the demand for the doubling of the minimum wage during the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period, China’s textile industry has lost its competitive advantage in low-end or low-end and mid-range products.

China's per capita freshwater resources are only 24% of the global average, and oil dependence on foreign countries is 54.8%. There is a large gap between resources and energy. Therefore, saving energy, reducing the discharge of sewage pollutants, saving water, reducing the consumption of various materials, and being friendly to the environment have become an important part of China's sustainable development, and the pressure on these spinning requirements cannot be ignored.

The deterioration of natural textile fiber raw materials has seriously affected the production of high-grade textiles. In the past 10 years, cotton has widely promoted transgenic insect-resistant cotton, and the fibers became thicker. The cashmere production of goats increased several times, from 150 grams per goat per year to more than 500 grams, and up to 900 grams or more, while the average diameter of cashmere fibers increased by more than 12%. Ricinus communis thickens at the same time as it increases yield, causing itching. In the past 10 years, the cocoon rate of silkworm cocoon in China (ie, the ratio of 100 kg of fresh cocoon made into plant silk) has dropped from 38% to the current 25%. The reason is that silkworm cocoons in fresh cocoons are getting larger and cocoons are getting thinner. The increase in the weight of a single silkworm cocoon, that is, the rapid increase in cocoon production, is the rapid increase in the cost of Chinese silk raw materials and the rapid decline in the quality of silk. All these have seriously affected the production of high-grade textiles.

New fiber resources bring new space The yarn industry needs transformation and upgrading. In equipment, technology, design, management, etc., we must continue to innovate. We must adopt new types of equipment with high degree of automation, low labor consumption, energy saving, and consumption reduction. We must also pay attention to the basics. theoretical research. Emphasis on product design, make full use of all kinds of new fiber developed at home to design and produce high-performance, new-functional textiles, improve product quality and added value, and achieve multiple varieties, small batches, fast delivery. Not only technological innovations, equipment upgrades, but also the transition from the eastern region to the central and western regions should be adjusted at the same time as the product structure. The introduction of high-end and high-end products from developed countries to China, and the transfer of low-grade, low-middle-end products to South Asia and Southeast Asia.

Yao Mu believes that one of the important pillars of the development of new products in the yarn industry is the development of new textile raw materials. Need to pay attention to differentiated fibers, including: fine fiber types in natural fibers, such as ultra-fine cotton fiber, ultrafine sheep wool fiber, superfine ramie fiber, etc.; superfine polyester fiber, nylon, viscose, copper ammonia, Polypropylene fiber, hollow fiber, shaped cross-section fiber. Dyeing of natural fibers (multicolor blended, side-blend blended, rainbow yarn), pigmented chemical fiber, high crimped fiber. New varieties of fiber: non-toxic or low-toxic ** fiber, kapok, fox velvet, Wusuli velvet, lotus root fiber, island cotton woody species. New functional fibers: anti-wrinkle, fiber-retaining, sweat-drier, fast-drying fiber, high-absorbent fiber, anti-static fiber, anti-ultraviolet fiber, antibacterial, antibacterial, deodorant fiber, far-infrared radiation fiber, flame-retardant fiber, anti-drop fiber , Anti-electromagnetic radiation fiber, negative oxygen ion release fiber, drive locust fiber, mosquito fiber. High-performance fibers: high-strength, high-modulus fibers, ultra-high-strength, ultra-high-modulus fibers, high-temperature resistant fibers, low-temperature resistant fibers, conductive fibers, light guide fibers, electrically insulating fibers, magnetically permeable fibers, chemically resistant fibers, Composite functional fibers. Many high-performance fibers have a variety of functions. For example, high-strength, high-modulus fibers are mostly resistant to high temperatures and insulation. Another example is PTFE fiber not only high temperature and low temperature resistance, but also high insulation properties, and has a strong chemical resistance, not only acid, alkali, antioxidant, and the friction coefficient is very low.

Yao Mu pointed out that the only way to solve the shortage of textile fiber raw materials is to do everything possible to make use of renewable, biodegradable, recyclable, environmentally friendly biomass resources. Natural fibers such as cotton, wool, hemp, and silk will be grown without grain and cultivated land, and new varieties of natural fibers will be developed and planted in saline-alkaline land, wasteland, and hillside land. Regenerated cellulose fiber uses as much as possible waste crop straws and develops new regenerated cellulose fibers such as sodium alginate fibers, chitin fibers, chitosan fibers, polylactic acid fibers, and the like. Synthetic fiber to develop coal chemical production chemical raw materials as much as possible to replace oil, and strive to develop the use of abandoned crop straw, the use of advanced biological engineering technology to produce chemical raw materials for synthetic fiber. Develop new varieties as far as possible, such as kapok in natural fibers, woody species in mountain cotton, melon melon fiber, non-toxic or low-toxic **, foxtail and so on. In addition, the recycling of waste textiles will become an important task for the development of the textile industry.

Yao Mu also proposed that the yarn enterprises should broaden their horizons, extend the industry backwards, and realize development and processing alliances with dyeing and finishing, garment, home textile, and industrial enterprises; meanwhile, the industry should extend forward, control fiber quality, and strive to develop new fibers. Insufficient raw materials.