Fabric Definitions — definitions of fabrics, cloths, laces and textile materials from Apparel Search
Ring spinning is a method of spinning textile fibers, such as cotton, flax or wool, to make a yarn. It is a continuous process, unlike mule spinning which uses an intermittent action: the roving is first attenuated by drawing rollers, then spun and wound around a rotating spindle contained within an independently rotating ring flyer. Ringspun fabrics typically have a soft hand, and finer yarn can produce finer fabrics.
Ring spinning creates ring spun yarn. Ring spun yarn can create fabulous ring spun fabrics.
This process provides a soft desirable fabric.
Ring spinning is a method of spinning textile fibers, such as cotton, flax or wool, to make a yarn. Ring spinning is a continuous process, unlike mule spinning which uses an intermittent action. In ring spinning, the roving is first attenuated by using drawing rollers, then spun and wound around a rotating spindle which in its turn is contained within an independently rotating ring flyer.
The ring frame developed from the throstle frame, which in its turn was a descendant of Arkwright's water frame.
Machine shops experimented with ring frames and components in the 1830s. The success of the ring frame, however, was dependent on the market it served and it was not until industry leaders like Whitin Machine Works in the 1840s and the Lowell Machine Shop in the 1850s began to manufacture ring frames that the technology started to take hold.
Jacob Sawyer vastly improved spindle for the ring frame in 1871, taking the speed from 5000rpm to 7500rpm and reducing the power needed, formerly 100 spindles would need 1 hp but now 125 could be driven. This also led to production of fine yarns. Finer yarn can produce finer fabrics. Ringspun fabrics typically have a soft hand.
Technically how it works:
A ring frame was constructed from cast iron, and later pressed steel. On each side of the frame are the spindles, above them are draughting (drafting) rollers and on top is a creel loaded with bobbins of roving. The roving (unspun thread) passes downwards from the bobbins to the draughting rollers. Here the back roller steadied the incoming thread, while the front rollers rotated faster, pulling the roving out and making the fibers more parallel. The rollers are individually adjustable, originally by mean of levers and weights. The attenuated roving now passes through a thread guide that is adjusted to be centred above the spindle. Thread guides are on a thread rail which allows them to be hinged out of the way for doffing or piecing a broken thread. The attenuated roving passes down to the spindle assembly, where it is threaded though a small D ring called the traveller. The traveller moves along the ring. It is this that gives the ring frame its name. From here the thread is attached to the existing thread on the spindle.
The traveller, and the spindle share the same axis but rotate at different speeds. The spindle is driven and the traveller drags behind thus distributing the rotation between winding up on the spindle and twist into the yarn. The bobbin is fixed on the spindle. In a ring frames, the different speed was achieved by drag caused by air resistance and friction (lubrication of the contact surface between the traveller and the ring was a necessity). The up and down ring rail motion guides the thread onto the bobbin into the shape required: i.e. a cop. The lifting must be adjusted for different yarn counts.
Doffing is a separate process. An attendant (or robot in an automated system) winds down the ring rails to the bottom. The machine stops. The thread guides are hinged up. The completed bobbin coils (yarn packages) are removed from the spindles. The new bobbin tube is placed on the spindle trapping the thread between it and the cup in the wharf of the spindle, the thread guides are lowered and the machine restarted. Now all the processes are done automatically. The yarn is taken to a cone winder.
You will most likely want to also learn about open-end spinning.
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Learn about knit fabrics.
Learn about woven fabrics.
The ring frame's ancestry runs from Arkwright's water frame through the throstle frame, and its triumph was economic as much as technical. Machine shops experimented with ring frames in the 1830s, but the technology took hold only when manufacturers such as Whitin Machine Works in the 1840s and the Lowell Machine Shop in the 1850s built them at industrial quality — and when the market wanted what the frame was good at. Unlike the mule, which spins intermittently in a cycle of drawing out and winding on, the ring frame spins continuously: roving is attenuated by drafting rollers, twisted by the traveller's lag around the ring, and wound onto the cop in a single uninterrupted flow, guided up and down by the ring rail. Continuous action means more yarn per spindle-hour, simpler tending, and consistent twist — and the process handles a wide range of counts, from coarse work yarns to the fine yarns that Sawyer's faster spindle made practical in 1871.
Today 'ringspun' survives in shops mainly as a cotton quality claim on T-shirts and denim, and the claim has real content. The continuous twisting pulls the cotton fibers into a dense, aligned strand with the fiber ends worked into the yarn, so the yarn is smoother, stronger for its size and less prone to the fuzzy surface that makes garments look worn early. Open-end spinning, the main alternative, is faster and cheaper but produces a bulkier, weaker, hairier yarn. The soft hand the definition attributes to ringspun fabrics follows from that smoothness: a fabric of smooth yarns presents a smooth face to the skin. The trade-off is cost — the traveller's friction limits spindle speeds far below open-end rotor speeds — which is why ringspun is specified where softness and durability are selling points and open-end serves the budget end. Doffing, once an attendant's manual round of winding down rails and swapping full cops for empty tubes, is now automated, and the yarn goes from the frame to a cone winder ready for weaving or knitting.
The attenuated roving passes through a small D-ring called the traveller, which moves around the ring on the spindle assembly. The spindle is driven and the traveller drags behind it, so the speed difference between them is split between winding the yarn onto the bobbin and inserting twist into the yarn — the traveller and ring give the frame its name.
Sawyer vastly improved the spindle for the ring frame in 1871, raising its speed from 5000 rpm to 7500 rpm and reducing the power needed — where 100 spindles had needed 1 hp, 125 could now be driven. Faster, cheaper spinning also led to the production of finer yarns.
Ring spinning twists the fibers continuously as the yarn is drawn out, aligning them into a smooth, even, tightly twisted strand. In fabric, that smooth aligned surface feels softer against the skin than the looser, hairier yarn from faster open-end spinning, and ringspun fabrics typically have a soft hand.