If you want to develop a new fabric, you should not resort to yarn sizes that are not popular (unpopular sizes of yarn if obtainable are usually more expensive). If you need a special size yarn and try to order it from spinner, he may need 100000 pounds or more as a minimum to set up the production for you.

The techniques to identify the substance of textile yarn:

To determine what substance is of the yarn that you are looking at sometimes is difficult. It requires good knowledge and experience to make a good judgment. If you want to be very accurate you have to send it to a lab for a scientific analysis. However, there are some techniques to get the answer quickly. These are the methods which you can use to analyze the yarn ourselves without the help of any equipment.

Yarn type Description

Cotton

When you untwist the yarn and pull out the staples from it, you will see that all the staples are less than 2”. When you burn it, it burns to grayish white ash like residue of burning paper.

Silk

When you untwist, unravel the yarn and pull out the fibers from it you will see the fibers are too much longer than 2”. They are very fine and soft. When you burn it, it burns to dark grey hard ash (like a bubble). You can crush it by hand into dust.

Ramie

When you untwist, unravel the yarn and pull out the fibers from it you will see that the fibers are much longer than 2”.They are thick and stiff, not too pliable. When you burn it, it burns to grayish white as similar to cotton.

Wool

When you untwist, unravel the yarn and pull out the fibers from it you will see the fibers are longer than 2” and they are not very straight and not very fine and pliable. You would suspect either it is wool or synthetic. When you burn it, it gives you a very strong smell like burning human hair. During the process of burning it does not melt.

Synthetic

Unless you go for a sophisticated analysis by a laboratory, you cannot tell what kind of synthetic fiber it is other than separating rayon from other synthetic materials.

Polyester, Nylon,acrylic

All These are from petroleum, therefore when we untwist, unravel the yarn and pull out the fiber from it you will see that the fiber length is very long and even in thickness. When you burn it, it melts first. When it catches fire the smoke is black.

Rayon

Rayon is made of pulp which comes from mashed wood and that is why it burns like paper or cotton. Polyester, nylon, acrylic etc are side products of petroleum and they burn like plastic or petroleum. It if is rayon, then when you untwist, unravel the yarn and pull you will see that the fiber length is very long, very soft and even in thickness. When you burn it, it burns like paper or cotton to grayish white ash. In the process of burning you do not see anything melting.

The above is the guideline to find out approximately what substance it is. It needs good experience and skill to do it. If you practice often you can tell what it is without much difficulty. If you need to know the percentage of the blended yarn, you have to use a laboratory to do an analysis. If you only wish to know what they are, you can use the above methods.