Rieter

Choice of clothing

Index

Of all the individual components of the card, the clothing has the greatest influence on quality and productivity. The development of new clothing enabled, for example, the production rate of the card to be increased from 5 kg/h to the current level of up to 220 kg/h. New clothing was not, of course, the only factor involved in this increase, but it made a major contribution to it. Unfortunately, a price has to be paid for this development in the form of a steadily increasing departure from any possibility of universal clothing, which was formerly aimed at. Mills now have to make a difficult choice between hundreds of available clothing types, a choice of the utmost importance. Selection criteria are:

  • type and design of card;
  • rotation speed of the cylinder;
  • production rate;
  • material throughput;
  • raw material type (natural or man-made fibers);
  • fiber characteristics (mainly fineness, length, bulk, dirt content);
  • overall quality requirements;
  • price of the clothing;
  • service offered by the clothing supplier.

Operating conditions not only differ between mills – they can alter within a single mill. Compromises are therefore unavoidable.