From birth to the last breath, cotton is associated to us as a textile fibre in one way or another. It has received recognition in terms of value and a basic necessity all over the world. The agriculture sector is the backbone of India and cotton is a leading contributor of the Indian economy, as it contributes 9 to 10 per cent of the global production in the cotton market. Cotton also provides very comfortable skin contact fabric due to its absorbency and good heat and electrical conductivit

Assessment

In this fashion conscious world, dyeing of yarn/fabric/clothes has become necessary to cope with the current requirements. In many textile mills, dyeing and finishing procedure requires lot of water. Disposing of solution after dyeing and finishing creates environmental pollution with unpredictable chain reactions and some of the dyeing agents cause harmful effect on the health of workers. Though, it is noted that naturally colored cotton helps as a remedy for over 50 various somatic and psychosomatic disorders of men.

Since the quality of a yarn/ fabric depends greatly on the quality of fibre, it will be interesting to see the result of some of the new generation white cotton as well as colored cotton. The new range of hybrid cotton depicts a great production, quality and resistance to moisture stress as well as pests and diseases. Another remarkable aspect is the colored cotton, which is eco friendly. However, the majority of cottons are white in color; there are genotypes/species which produce naturally colored cotton. The shade differs from white to black and various shades of brown, green, purple, etc and even multi-colored lint have been observed. The cross breeding of colors can also create many shades.

By being controlled genetically, color development in the lint is highly affected by environ�mental aspects, particularly sunlight, soil and mineral content, which affect the color of cotton. Shade variance may also be noted because of change of place. But the genes accountable for color of the lint have been recognized and defined.


Naturally coloured cotton:

It has many benefits as compared to white cotton. In making white lint, the use of insecticides is huge as compared to any other crops. It creates environmental pollution and problems to human health. Due to problems of dye hazards, the white lint has to be bleached and dyed. The colored cotton does not require to be dyed or bleached, and the dyeing process uses huge amount of water & energy.

The major objectives of pro�duction of colored cotton are:
1. Addition of aesthetic value in producing fashion textiles.
2. Dyeing cost savings.
3. Advancement of hand loom and artisan fabrics.
4. Economic importance in agriculture and premium price in trade & exports.

It is observed while studying the commer�cial value of colored cotton that the colored cotton has a shorter staple length, weaker fibre strength, low micronaire value & low maturity coefficient against white cotton. The main aim of cultivating colored cotton, besides normal fibre properties, is to have stability of intensity of color and its reaction to sunlight, washing, etc which have bettered without sacrificing uniformity of color of lint.

It is also noted that colored cotton have many insect- and diseases-resistant qualities, as well as salt and drought tolerance.

From a study on color development in naturally colored cotton, it is noted that the color of the cotton is influenced by the number of pollination of colored cotton. These changes could be biochemical, physio�logical or both which makes white fibres in the colored fibre. So there could be connections between color development and cellulose layer deposition.

Hybrid cotton

A study on the yield and fibre properties of F1 & F2 hybrid and three parents revealed that the differentiation among the genotypes were noteworthy for yield, lint per cent, fibre length and fibre uniformity. In comparative output, F1 & F2 hybrid on an average produced 36.4 per cent & 20.1 per cent correspondingly more yield than the parents and in lint per cent F1 & F2 hybrids were greater than parental lines, but amazingly F2 & not the F1 expressed 9 per cent. In fibre length F1 has showed 3 per cent rise over parents, whereas F2 equals parent's length.

Material and methods

Materials

Here, the following ranges of new generation white cotton fibre were chosen by random sampling method:

.K2MB (Female parent)
.REBA-B-50 (Male parent)
.jKHY-2 - (Hybrid)
.IH-35 (HR)
.IH-63 (MR)
.VI KRAM

The following types of colored cotton were also chosen:
JCC-1, KC-95-2, KC-95-1, KC-95�3 and KC-94-2

Methods

All eleven kinds of cotton in which six types are of white cotton and five types of colored cotton, were tested before being spun into the yarn.

.Trash percentage had been checked on StratexTrash Separator.
.Fineness was tested on Eureka Fibre Fineness Tester.
.Maturity Ratio (MR) was tested on Projection Microscope.
.Spinning Consistency Index was checked on HVI.
.Strength was checked on HVI.
.Length was checked on HVI.
.Uniformity was checked on HVI.
.Short Fibre Index (SFI) was checked on HVI.
.Elongation percentage was tested on HVI.
.Count Strength Product (CSP) was checked on HVI.
.Color Grade was checked on HVI.

For spinning into the yarn, USTER MOTA (Miniature Model) and Rotoring Sliver, i.e., QUICK�SPIN were chosen. The yarn was spun into 20's count and following factors were chosen.

.Rotor Speed was considered at 30000 rpm
.Opening roller speed was considered at 5000 rpm
.Delivery speed was taken at 25 m/min Yarn samples of each types of cotton were chosen and taken for testing. Testing was done after conditioning in a standard atmosphere. Following tests were done on each variable:
.Yarn strength and elon�gation were noted at Electronic Tensile Strength Tester, Make: System and Control.
.Evenness Testing on Premier -7000.
.Yarn count was noted on Wrap Reel and Electronic Balance.

Results

The outcome of fibre properties checked under standard methods and conditions are mentioned in Table 1.

From Table 1, it is obvious that jKHY-2 will provide best quality yarn and K2MB will offer the least quality yarn. Therefore, it was considered essential to grade the range of samples, which is given in Table 2.

The corresponding yarn properties are also analyzed as mentioned in Table 3.

From the observation of results of fibre and yarn properties of white type of new generation cotton fibre, one can conclude that jKHY-2 proves over all better results due to some genetic rea�son and also it is a hybrid fibre, which is bred to achieve better proper�ties than the parent fibres. Once again, if one gives a rank to the yarn it will be completely equivalent to the ranking array of the fibre. The yarn ranking is as mentioned in Table 4. In this, five kinds of naturally colored cotton samples were also analyzed. The fibres' test results are mentioned in Table 5.

From the Table 5, it is very obvious that KC-95-1 is the better category in comparison of fibre length, strength, short fibre con�tent and fineness. Each type was spun into yarn and the KC-95-1 showed great spinnability. The outcomes are mentioned in Table 6.

Conclusion

From the results it may be assumed that:
1. jKHY-2 has better spin�nability and shows best quality against other types.
2. KC-95-1 depicts better spinnability.
3. Colored cottons have little staple length than white varieties and special precautions.