During any production process, a manufacturer requires relevant data and accurate information to start the process accurately. The same happens with the textile material. Manufacturing of textile goods with yarn or thread includes many different processes that require different data and units to produce best quality of the fabric. There are many units which are used to measure the yarn count of a textile material. Some conventional units which are used to determine the measurement of yarn are cotton count, worsted count and yield count.
Apart from the above-mentioned counts, the most popular and well-known measuring units which are used to measure the linear density of fiber are Denier and Tex. The unit “Tex” is used in the textile manufacturing industries of Europe and Canada, while the unit “Denier” is used mainly in textile manufacturing industries in the UK and US. The SI unit to compute the linear density of yarn is measured in “kilogram in one meter”. Let’s discuss the units in detail.
Denier
A Denier is a very basic unit which is used to measure the linear density of the fibers and is calculated in the heap of fiber in 9000 meters of the length of a fiber. The computation is done on the basis of natural reference which state that a single filament of silk, which is 9000 meters long is equivalent to one gram. Also the filament of 9000 meters, which is less than one gram, is considered as a micro – denier.
Tex
Tex is also a measuring unit of textile which helps to measure the linear density of fiber. The unit Tex is computed by determining the weight of fiber per 1000 Km length. Another popular measurement unit which is used by the textile manufacturers is “Decitex”, which is equal to the weight of fiber (in gram) per 10000 meters of fiber.
Above discussed measuring units are essentially used in textile manufacturing industries to determine the quality of the products they manufacture. In order to find the exact count of a material, Beesley balance is used. It is easy to use testing equipment that is used to determine accurately the yarn count of a provided fiber. The Beesley balance is a very lightweight device, which rotates on tiny jewel bearings. On the one end of the beam, a hook is present and pointer on the other hand.
To operate the instrument, first of all, a tip is placed in such a manner so that it directly points to a datum line. On the tip side, a weight of the standard size is placed in a notch. Now small lengths of yarn are cut with the use of a template. The short lengths of the fabrics are sliced with the help of a template. These pieces are placed on the hook until the pointer comes against the datum line. The number of threads required to cover the area till the datum line provides the yarn count. This count is then used to determine various properties of fibers.