Z?ich based The International Textile Manufacturers Federation (ITMF) said contamination of cotton remaining a serious problem for spinner? stickiness on a record low.
Foreign matter, stickiness and seed-coat fragments in raw cotton continue to be among the most serious problems affecting the cotton spinning industry worldwide. This is the conclusion to be drawn from the ?otton Contamination Survey 2005?which has just been released by the International Textile Manufacturers Federation (ITMF).
The survey is carried out every other year, the 2005 edition being the ninth in the series since the changeover to a new methodology in 1989. In the 2005 report, 152 spinning mills located in 18 countries evaluated 68 cotton growths.
Contamination ?falling for the first time since 1997
With 22% of all cottons evaluated in 2005 found to be seriously or moderately contaminated, the overall level of contamination fell from 26% in 2003.
The cottons evaluated in 2005 were in 7% (2003: 8%) of all cases found to be seriously contaminated by 16 different sources of foreign matter, a further 15% (2003: 18%) were moderately contaminated, leaving 78% (2003: 74%) insignificantly or not at all contaminated. As these summary data are arithmetic averages, the extent of contamination is fully illustrated only by the results for the individual contaminants, which range from 5% for ?ar?(2003: 6%) to 40% of all cottons processed being either moderately or seriously contaminated by ?rganic matter? i.e. leaves, feathers, paper, leather, etc. (down from 50% in 2003).
Other serious contaminants are ?abrics?made of cotton, ?trings?made of woven plastic and plastic film and ?norganic matter?in the form of sand or dust. Also of concern are, in descending order of incidence, woven plastic and plastic film fabrics, cotton strings, jute/hessian fabrics, and grease or oil. The most contaminated descriptions originate in Turkey, India, Paraguay, Nigeria, Syria and Central Asia. In contrast, very clean cottons can be found in Israel, Senegal, the US, Zimbabwe, Australia and Togo.
Stickiness ?on a record low
In the 2005 survey, 17% of all evaluations reveal the presence of stickiness, which is significantly lower compared to 2003 (21%). This short-term decline is in line with the long-term trend of falling levels of stickiness. In 2005, the highest occurrence of stickiness was reported for Cameroon (64%), followed by Sudan (44%), Uzbekistan (medium staple: 39%) and Mali (37%).
Of the American growths, California (35%), Pima (31%) and Arizona (31%) were reported to be sticky. On the other hand, no stickiness has been experienced in cotton originating in the South Eastern USA, Zimbabwe, Turkey (Izmir and Turkey-Others), India (Shankar-4/6 and MCU-5), Zambia, Senegal, Spain and Togo.
Seed-coat fragments ?improvement
The appearance of seed-coat fragments dropped to the level of the long-run average (37%), a significant improvement compared to the 44% recorded in 2003. The origins most affected were thosefrom Nigeria (100%), India (J-34: 86%), Turkmenistan (long-staple: 83%) and Uzbekistan (long-staple: 71%). Cottons for which the existence of seed-coat fragments was negligible (prevalence of less than 20%) included those from Togo (0%), Zimbabwe (7%), Paraguay (10%), Ivory Coast (14%), USA (Arizona: 15%), Egypt (Giza: 17%), Australia (17%) and China (Xinjiang: 17%) and Israel (Pima: 18%).
