Sewing Thread
Introduction:
Sewing thread is a basic raw material for giving desired shape to a garment
and holding the body parts together by creating seams. It is a very important
item for tailoring shops, industrial garment manufacturers and
fashion houses. It has both functional and aesthetic properties. When we are
using it for making seams then it is playing its functional role and when we
are using it for embellishment purposes like embroidery or appliqué then it
is playing its aesthetic properties.
Besides, it is also used in the automotive industries for making car seats,
airbags, seat belts and the vehicle interior design. It is also used in the
footwear industries. It has a great use in the embroidery industries too.
Definition of Sewing Thread:
Sewing thread is a trim which ensures the functional properties of a garment or
any clothing product by securing the seams. It is a special type of yarn which
is used for sewing but not for knitting or weaving.
It can be made of staple fiber or continuous filaments by twisting hardly or
slightly. Two or more filament yarns are twisted together to make threads.
Sometimes single filament is also used. Natural or synthetic or blended fibers
can be used to make sewing threads. If we talk about closing and top stitch
seams then core spun threads are perfect which can give outstanding quality
seams. For over locking or cover stitch seams continuous bulk filament threads
are perfect. For high quality denim garment, natural and synthetic fiber
blended core spun threads are perfect for closing seams. For achieving perfect
seam strength for leather goods, continuous filament threads are perfect.
Technology of Sewing Thread Manufacturing Process:
Yarn singeing:
Sewing thread must be singed to ensure that the projecting fibers do not
interfere with downstream processing. Percentage of singeing can be
achieved varied by varying the yarn collection speed. Hair removal
efficiency at singeing machine is normally 30 - 50%. Flame temperature is
around 8000 C. Singeing is mainly done in Cotton Sewing Threads.
Features:
• The heart of the machine - the burner, serves to singe reliably the projecting
fibers of yarn running through at high speed, without inflicting burns on
yarn itself. There is a choice between the gas burner and the electric burner.
Gas burner is widely used. The gas burner consumes about 55 gm of
natural, propane or butane gas an hour, depending on singeing rate and yarn
type.
• Speed: 300-1200 m/min.
Hank to Cone Winding:
• Conversion of hank in to cone of suitable weight
• Waxing for reducing co-efficient of friction in sewing thread.
Features of New Machines:
• Twin Input Rollers: At the front of the head are the twin-input rollers, set
to a fixed speed but proportional to the winding speed. The main functions
of this unit are to eliminate unwanted tensions prior to yarn entering
waxing unit.
• The speed of machine ranging from 400-700 m/m, with possible traverse
from150-200 mm.
Polishing:
Some threads for special end uses like leather industries, bag stitching,
kite flying are treated with starch, softeners, whitener, etc on this
machine. Cooked starch is mixed with other chemicals and different
recipes are made for different qualities depending on the end uses.
Main objectives of polishing are:
• Extra ordinary smooth surface
• Thread becomes round.
• Stiffness increases.
• Increase in tensile strength (7-10%).
Cross Winding and Lubrication:
• Winding in various types of sewing thread packages like cone, cop, tube,
ball, vicone and spool.
• Threads are treated with special waxes for achieving best workability
during sewing operation.
• Lick roller lubrication is applied on industrial sewing thread where
thread has to run on high speed sewing machine; the basic ingredient of
the most of the lubricants is paraffin wax. Although silicones are also
used because of their stability to heat and various additives are also
included to give some special properties.
Geometry of Packages:
Threads are wound in many forms. Small length spools are employed in retail
store distribution, whereas somewhat larger spools are used to a limited extent
industrially. Some of the very fine soft threads are wound on cones, very
coarse soft threads are in skein form, but the largest proportion by far is wound
on the one headed tube with base or straight tubes.
These packages in some instances are put on a weight basis; however, the
larger percentage is marked on a length basis. Ready-wound bobbins in a
number of styles to accommodate the various sewing machines employed are
also available. Cross winding threads are generally laid in with traverse ratio
1: 6 (one double traverse = six spindle revolution) and 1: 4 for coarser counts.
The following types of packages are used in sewing threads
(with commonly used dimensions).
Spool:
Spools are small flanged plastic or wooden bobbins, they are both with
tapered (so-called Diabolo spools) and straight flanges. Mainly parallel
winding (because side unwinding is easy) is done. Cross-windings are also
possible on the spools. They contain relatively short length of 100-500
meter thread. The length of traverse on spool is 2.9-3.8 cm.
End users: Upholstery, footwear, leather goods manufacturing, and in
hand sewing operations.
Cop:
Cops are small cylindrical flangeless spools, with precision cross winding.
They are mostly made of paper and plastic. They are of two types, small Cop
(Tube) and medium Cop (Cop). The lack of flanges facilitates regular off
winding on industrial sewing machines although their small diameter makes
them less well suited to the faster thread take off machines. Smaller Cops are
popular make-up in fashion trades, where a variety of shades are used and
production runs for any one color or style of garments. The length of thread
wound ranges from 100-2000 m on small cop and 400-4000 m on cop. The
length of traverse on small cop is 5 - 6.3 cm and on cop is10 cm.
End uses:
Kite flying, Upholstery, ready-made garment, tailoring, hosiery, umbrella, and
shoe stitching
Cone:
This is self-supporting, cross wound conical package. It is easier to withdraw
yarn over end from a cone than from a cheese and because of this, cone is
more widely used. They contain relatively long lengths 1000-25000 m with
length of traverse ranging from 10-15 cm. They give trouble free thread
unwinding at intermittent or continuous high speeds. Cones are the most
economical packages for conventional sewing threads in situations where
thread consumption is high and production runs are long.
End uses: readymade garment, tailoring, hosiery, leather stitching,
Upholstery, shoe stitching, denim, embroidery, and kite flying.
Vicone or King Spool:
Vicones are parallel tubes or low angled cones with an additional base in
the form of a raised flange, which may incorporate a small tip. The build
of vicone depends on the exact conformity of the taper with the angle of
vicone’s base. Coarse yarns require a large traverse for the taper -- fine
yarn a small one. They contain lengths of 1000-5000 m with length of
traverse 6.5-9 cm.
End uses: embroidery, core-spun, and filament threads .
Prewound Bobbin:
Prewound bobbins are precision parallel wound thread package designed
to replace metal bobbins on a variety of lock stitch machines.
Skein:
A very small hank of soft twisted plied thread (around 8 m) of coarse
count is parallel wound with the help rotating flyer, which withdraws the
thread from the supply package cone.
End uses: embroidery.
Ball:
A typical ball like structure, wound with the help of four types of
different winding. They are: Rough base winding, form winding,
surface layer winding, and circumference winding. The initial winding
provides firmness at the base. Next winding process makes space for
placing the identification ticket. The third stage of winding provides
firm gripping of the ticket. The last stage of winding makes a band over
the ball, which retains its shape. An easy unwinding of thread is
possible.
End uses: embroidery, fishing net and bag closing.
Cocoon:
Cocoons are self-supporting i.e. center-less thread package specially
designed for the insertion in the shuttle of multi needle quilting and
some types of embroidery. Cocoons are used in the shuttle of multi
needle quilting and some types of embroidery machines.
Thanks for all
