Ensuring the quality of goods produced in a textile plant will always be of utmost importance to manufacturers, especially in today’s globally competitive market. To be sure, off-quality goods can cause problems in downstream manufacturing processes. And making sure today’s ever-savvy consumer is happy with the quality of finished goods and encouraging repeat business is always a challenge for brands and their suppliers. Fortunately, many technology companies are updating and creating new testing equipment to help manufacturers efficiently and consistently produce first-quality goods throughout the supply chain.

Yarn Production
Germany-based Textechno H. Stein GmbH & Co. KG recently introduced its Covatest capacitive evenness tester to the U.S. market through its distributor Measured Solutions Inc., Greenville. The Cova-test is suitable for sliver, roving and spun-yarn testing and has an optional Hairiness Module. The instrument uses capacitive measuring to analyze the mass irregularity along a sample and generates a mass spectrogram. The Hairiness Module features a modern optical sensor that uses laser illumination.

The company reports the tester’s simple Windows-based software and fully automatic operation make it easy to use. All numerical and statistical data are stored in a structured query language (SQL) database for further evaluation, and the Covatest can generate graphic output including diagrams of mass variation per unit length and hairness variation per unit length; and spectrograms, histograms and coefficient of variation CV(L) curves for mass variation and hairiness.

Switzerland-based Rothschild Instruments, also represented by Measured Solutions, recently introduced the Electronic Yarn R-3000 tensiometer – an updated version of its R-2000 instrument, featuring all the well-known features of its predecessor along with some notable improvements. According to the company, a new touch screen makes handling and testing the yarn easier than ever, and a new wireless version will be available in early 2014. Features include: digital and analog readings; two tension channels; simultaneous dual tension measurements; 10- to 1,200-second time base options with graphic displays on the instrument; high-precision measuring without yarn deflection during measurement; and a short 300-hertz response time for all short peak time tensions to be recorded. Rothschild reports the machine offers an accuracy of ±2 percent in its measuring range of 0.01-200,000 centinewtons. The machine’s measuring heads allow a variety of yarns to be tested including natural fiber as well as textured, monofilament, industrial, glass, carbon and other man-made fiber yarns.

At the recent ShanghaiTex 2013 exhibition in Shanghai, Switzerland-based Loepfe highlighted its Loepfe Yarnmaster® Zenit FP yarn clearer featuring the optional LabPack SFI/D off-standard bobbin detection concept. According to the company, LabPack enables 100 percent of production to be monitored and managed – in key areas such as hairiness, neps, CV irregularity and the imperfection index (IPI) – 100 percent of the time. Loepfe reports that the Yarnmaster Zenit is suitable for specialty and effect yarns such as core, slub and multitwist yarns in addition to standard yarn types. The Yarnmaster also features three dedicated sensors – one optical sensor to detect neps, short thick, long thick and thin places (NSLT) faults; a second optical sensor to look for colored foreign matter; and a triboelectric sensor that is able to detect white and transparent synthetic fibers.

Downstream Testing
X-Rite Inc., Grand Rapids, Mich., has introduced the Ci6x line of handheld spectrophotometers for color measurement of materials including textiles, automotive, packaging, plastics and paints. The company reports the tools provide improved color control for materials, in-process parts and finished goods, along with an audit trail for facilities that operate multiple sites. The spectrophotometers are NetProfiler 3.0-enabled, ensuring that the instruments are calibrated to a single centerline standard and that color measurements taken across the supply chain are accurate and reliable. NetProfiler also allows users to share, validate and audit data across multiple devices. In addition, the Ci64UV model offers ultraviolet (UV) illumination and is suitable for measuring textiles and other materials containing optical brightening agents.

Israel-based Elbit Vision Systems Ltd. (EVS) recently introduced C-Belt, an inspection system for narrow safety belts such as automotive seatbelts, safety harnessing for fire and rescue, and safety tie-downs for transportation. C-BELT detects, identifies and labels common manufacturing defects on both sides of a safety belt. According to EVS, its multi-angle viewing lines are able to detect all visible defects including ends out, broken picks, misspicks, loopy selvage, loose filament, spots, stains, holes, mono-tail slubs, bulges, dip-ins and knots. The full-color, automated inspection system works in conjunction with EVS’s online Optimization & Cut control system.

SDL Atlas, Rock Hill, S.C., has modified its Automatic Gas Controller (AGC) to meet new criteria in the recently revised ASTM International D6413/D6413M Standard Test Method for Flame Resistance of Textiles. The test methods are used to determine vertical afterflame time, afterglow time and char length. The modification addresses the distance between the solenoid valve and burner to ensure the flame does not linger beyond the termination of the test.

The AGC is featured on SDL Atlas’ Vertical Flammability Chamber and the Atlas HVUL2 Horizontal Vertical Flame Chamber. All new equipment is supplied with the new AGC, and companies with existing equipment may request a solenoid retrofit kit to easily convert their machines.

James H. Heal & Co. Ltd., United Kingdom, recently introduced the TruFade lightfastness tester and the GyroWash2 washing and dry cleaning colorfastness tester.

According to Heal, TruFade’s design and software package both are innovative and easy to operate. The machine, made from aircraft-grade aluminium components, houses nine triangular test specimen holders that allow for up to 27 specimens to be tested simultaneously, offering an exposure area totaling 1,640 square centimeters. The software was designed with touch-screen controls similar to those for a smartphone; and can track lamp and filter life, and fading progress. Other features include: an easy-access water chamber; auto-stop function; and a wide-opening test chamber for easy sample loading and unloading.
 

James H. Heal reports its TruFade lightfastness tester simplifies lightfastness testing and produces accurate and consistent results.

“The entire design process has been based on how customers use the instrument and on striving to make testing as simple as possible,” said Craig Taylor, test materials manager, James H. Heal. “We carry out extensive testing ourselves during product development to emulate the testing process and typical environmental conditions. This gives you the reassurance you need to be sure that this instrument will perform in line with relevant lightfastness testing standards.”

GyroWash2 is available as a single-bath eight- or 20-position model, and each position can hold a small or a large test vessel. The company designed a new zero-force “insert and rotate” mechanism for simple vessel loading and unloading. An intuitive UniController with auto start function makes it easy for a novice to perform tests to ISO and AATCC standards, the company reports.

November/December 2013

Following the unprecedented spike and collapse in global cotton prices almost three years ago, market participants from producers to consumers to policy makers are still coming to grips with the fallout. Although technical and fundamental factors still impact the market, their effects have been more muted than in the past. Instead, policy dynamics now overshadow traditional considerations and may continue to loom over the market well into 2014.

A Cacophony Of Trumpets …
Several evolving fundamental factors are pushing and pulling the market to and fro. On the supply side, as the Northern Hemisphere harvest approaches its conclusion, speculation is rife over differing production forecasts. Reports in recent weeks of generally favorable harvest weather across the American cotton belt are pitted against concern that after a dry spring, more acres may have been abandoned than earlier expected. Just the opposite is occurring in India, as prospects for a record harvest have improved over recent months. The heavy monsoon and recent rains are expected to increase yields and production there, but late-season rains have delayed cotton arrivals. Evolving sentiments for perhaps larger or perhaps smaller crops in different markets compete for the market’s fickle attention.
 

Click here to view Figure 1 in a new window.

Similarly, on the demand side, various issues across the global textile supply chain continue to jockey for prominence. Even though the largest spinner in the world – China – expects to produce a record volume of yarn in 2013, man-made fibers rather than cotton are the underlying winners. Rapid gains in Chinese cotton yarn imports are supporting foreign spinners including Thailand, the Indian subcontinent, America, and elsewhere. And while prospects for Indian cotton mill demand are not as upbeat as they were a few months ago, the country still expects to spin an unprecedented volume this marketing year. Similarly, the 2013-14 record cotton consumption outlook for markets like Vietnam and Bangladesh still appears underestimated.

Further downstream, offsetting drivers at the fabric, apparel and retail stages do little to elucidate the outlook for cotton prices. While China is set to produce and export a record volume of cotton cloth this year, U.S. cotton fabric exports are on track to fade to a 20-year low in 2013. At the apparel stage, improving foreign demand is driving garment output in markets like China, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Turkey this year, while Honduras and the Philippines are set to produce fewer clothes. At the end of the supply chain, shoppers in retail markets like America and China are set to buy record volumes of clothing in 2013, but much of Europe remains in a persistent funk, offsetting increases elsewhere. Indeed, gradually softer growth prospects for the world economy are weighing on the outlook for global cotton mill demand.

Away from typical supply and demand fundamentals, other dissonant issues also are trumpeting for attention. The dollar is nearing a nine-month low, a factor often supportive of prices of dollar-denominated commodities like cotton. The volume of certificated stocks for delivery against Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) cotton futures is rapidly rebounding off seasonal lows and presently stands at the highest season-to-date volume in four years. And the seasonal swoon of cotton prices remains a perennial issue not to be overlooked. Indeed, myriad factors internal and external to cotton are competing to set the market’s melody.

… But Chinese Cotton Policy Resonates Worldwide
But beyond the din of these offsetting bullish and bearish trumpets clamoring for the market’s attention comes an unmistakable, resonating pitch overshadowing all others. This overtone emanates from China, and its impact permeates the global cotton market. In particular, the China National Cotton Reserves Corporation (CNCRC) has aggressively procured – and sometimes sold – sizable volumes of cotton in recent years. This mechanism to stabilize the domestic cotton market continues to impact prices and trade far beyond China.

Previously, China used its cotton reserve system merely to balance domestic supply and demand. Policy changed in early 2011, when a procurement price was introduced to stabilize price and plantings, sparing domestic farmers from the worst of the global price collapse. Unfortunately, the initial procurement price was set as global cotton prices fell from record levels. The CNCRC has had to continue to buy cotton at this price to support the market. China typically has held the most cotton for decades, but its stockpile has ballooned in recent years to record highs. The CNCRC has been unable to auction the supplies as rapidly as it has procured new volume. Estimates vary, but some sources indicate China may have some 58 million bales stockpiled, a staggering 62 percent of total global cotton inventories. This mountain of cotton is arguably the single-biggest issue facing the market.

Clearly, the procurement and auction mechanism has had far-reaching and sometimes unintended consequences. The scheme was instrumental in stopping the plunge in Chinese prices as well as world prices. As the graph in Figure 1 shows, introduction of the 2011-12 procurement process at 19,800 renminbi per metric ton (RMB/mt) coincided with the abrupt end of the plunge in futures prices both on the ICE and in China. High prices paid by the government for procured cotton also turned domestic mills against the artificially expensive Chinese cotton, causing Chinese mill demand to plummet even though yarn spinning is likely headed to a record year. Ironically, China began sourcing unprecedented volumes of cotton yarn from overseas, driving increased yarn output in a host of foreign mills. The back-and-forth combination of procurement and auction periods in China has effectively established a long-term trading range of sorts for ICE and Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange (ZCE) cotton.

Any changes to this policy are likely to resonate across the global market well into 2014. For the third autumn in a row, the Chinese government is purchasing cotton supplies from domestic growers. Since the process commenced in early September, reserve procurement has exceeded 1 million mt, but is still far off the year-ago procurement volume. The buying will add to the already-bulging state reserve.

Chinese mills remain hopeful that the reserve auction may resume soon, a process that again may return some of this excess cotton supply to the market at lower prices. Rumors are swirling of a December start with an initial auction price of 18,000 RMB/mt or less. If auction prices presumably are well below the 2012-13 average, the process could establish a much lower level of support to the global market well into 2014. Prices already are edging lower in anticipation, with both ZCE and ICE futures recently plumbing their lowest levels in months. How much additional cotton will be procured this season and any terms regarding a looming resumption of the reserve auction remain unknown for now. But the issue of the Chinese state reserve is likely to be the major driver dictating global cotton prices and trade well through this marketing year, keeping the world cotton market on edge.
 

Editor’s note: Gary A. Raines III is chief economist and managing editor of the Globecot News Network, now the Fibers & Textiles division of FCStone LLC, Nashville, Tenn.

November/December 2013