Sbel Sardag,

Ozcan Ozdemr,
*Ismal Kara
Department of Textile Engineering,
Uludag University,
Grkle, Bursa 16059, Turkey
E-mail: sibels@uludag.edu.tr
*Can Textile,
Corlu, Tekirdag, Turkey

The Effects of Heat-Setting

on the Properties of Polyester/Viscose
Blended Yarns
Abstract
30 tex and 20 tex yarn bobbins consisting of 67% PES - 33% viscose were subjected to heatsetting at 90 C & 110 C, and under a pressure of 630 mmHg in order to investigate the
effects of heat-setting conditions on the properties of twisted yarns. Both heat-set and unset
yarns were dyed. The tensile strength properties (tenacity and elongation at break) of each
yarns were measured before heat-setting, after heat-setting and after dyeing. The inner,
middle and outer sections of the yarn bobbins were measured with a spectrophotometer
to find differences in color. As a result, heat-setting and dyeing processes were found to be
effective in the tenacity and elasticity of yarns.
Key words: heat setting, twist setting, twisting, temperature, polyester (PES), viscose,
tenacity, work of rupture.

ventional systems and operate under

vacuum with saturated steam are used
in conditioning and heat-setting. With
the aid of steaming in these systems,
yarns are conditioned or heat-set with
saturated steam under vacuum [3].

n Introduction
Moisture in the atmosphere has a great
impact on the physical properties of textile yarns and fibres. Relative humidity
and temperature decides the amount of
moisture in textile materials. Exposing
yarn to high moisture during production generally yields negative results, as
well as being undesirable for technical
processing. On the other hand, a high
degree of moisture adequatelly exposed
to yarn improves its physical properties and enables the standard humidty
of yarn to be reached. Yarns with lower
moisture content than the standard value
result in monetary loss in sale. Therefore,
conditioning and heat-set is to provide
an economical device for supplying the
necessary moisture in a short time [1].
Each step in the manufacturing process, such as twisting, spinning, weaving,
knitting etc., causes tension in fiber and
yarns. Yarns tend to snarl in order to relax themselves and get rid of this tension.
Tension and snarling are likely to lead to
problems in the following manufacturing processes [2]. The purposes of conditioning and heat-setting (twist-setting)
are to relax yarns, to prevent them from
snarling, to enable them to be worked
efficiently in the following processes and
to fix yarn-twisting. Today, besides conventional system, other systems which
can eliminate the downsides of the con-

50

The Heat-setting process, a treatment

with steam under vacuum, improves
efficiency and quality in weaving and
knitting plants by reducing yarn tension, softening yarns, moisturising them
homogenously, eliminating electrostatic
effects and reducing fly and dust [4].
Unset yarns squeeze bobbins during
dyeing with a pressure from the outside section towards the inside section,
as a consequence of which bobbins get
deformed. The higher the temperature
of heat setting is the less the bobbins get
deformed [5]. Improper heat setting is
considered to be a factor which increases
skewness in weaving, a situation in
which warp and weft yarns cannot be tied
together with a right angle, although they
are straight [6], and it increases diagonal
run in knitwear [7].
Since saturated steam used in heat-setting provides man- made fiber with good
thermal conductivity, steaming processes
under vacuum make it possible for bobbins to shrink homogenously in every
section. The yarns of such a bobbin are
dyed homogenously without causing
stripe effects or colour differences between the inner and outer sections of the
bobbin [5].
The blend consisting of PES and viscose
is used widely in the textile industry.
This type of blend benefits from the high
strength of PET fiber and from the natu-

ral qualities, brightness and comfortable

wearing property of viskose fiber. In addition, viscose fiber has a high elasticity
when compared with cotton fibres. When
used together with PES fibers, viscose
fiber gives a more hormonious blend as
regards elongation at break [8].
Since the tenacity of the wet cotton yarn
is higher than that of dry ones, cotton
yarns have a higher tenacity under high
moisture [9]. Studies concerning heatsetting are limited in literature and nearly
all of these studies are related to cotton
because of its positive reactions against
moisture. For this reason, the current
study which has been performed on the
heat-setting of yarns consisting of PES/
viscose is expected to make a contribution to textile literature.

n Experimantal
In this study, 30 tex and 20 tex carded
yarns consisting of 67% PES and 33%
viscose were used - the linear density and
staple length of PES fibres were 1,6 dtex
and 38 mm respectively, and the linear
density and staple length of viscose fibres
were 1.7 dtex and 39 mm, respectively.
Yarns were wound onto bobbins with
a Schlafhorst Autoconer 238 machine.
These yarns were subjected to heat-setting under 630 mmHg pressure and at
temperatures of 90 C and 110 C with
a machine working in compliance with
the direct vacuum steaming system of
the Welker Company. The cycles below
were followed:
n Pre-heating
: 45 C
n Vacuum
: 630 mmHg
n Heating
: 90 C (10 min),
110 C (20 min)
n Vacuum balance : 500 mmHg

FIBRES & TEXTILES in Eastern Europe October / December 2007, Vol. 15, No. 4 (63)

Yarn bobbins were dyed in a Mini-HT

laboratory-type bobbin dyeing machine
produced by Dilmenler Machinary Industry. The dyeing process was carried
out according to the conventional twostep dyeing method. PES fibres were first
dyed with disperse dyes at 130 C, and
they were then subjected to reductive
clearing at 75 C. In the second step, viscose fibres in the blend were dyed with
reactive dyes at 80 C, and then aftertreatments (washings) for reactive dyeing were performed. Finally, the bobbins
were dried on a radio frequency drier.

As can be seen in Figure 1, the heat-set

process brought about a considerable
improvement in the tenacity of yarn. The
rate of increase varied between 15% and
19.9%, depending on the yarn count and
temperature of the process (Table 1). The
tenacity of yarns, subjected to heat-set
showed a decrease of 4.4 11.3% after
the dyeing process; however, their yarn
tenacity was still higher than the tenacity
of unset yarns.
In textile material science, a classic and
fundamental problem is the connection between the tensile properties of
fibers and yarns. A yarn is a complex
system made by a fibrous structure, i.e.,
a bundle consisting of a given number of
single fibers; this bundle, after twisting,
becomes a yarn. [11] The improvments
observed in the tenacity of PES/viscose
yarns after heat-setting can be an attributed to the effects of this thermal process
on PES fibers, which constituted 67%
of the blend. The physical and chemical
properties of fibers such as dye absorption, strength etc. are close related to the
structure of non-crystalline sections. Due
to the temperature of the heat-setting
applied, the rate of crystalline sections,
the average distance between crystalline
centers and the number of bonds between
macromolecules in fibres increased, as a
consequence of which the degree of orientation in fibres increased, causing an
improvement in the yarn tenacity [12].

Yarn count, twist and tenacity measurements of the yarns were taken before
and after heat-setting and after dyeing.
Before the measurements were taken, all
the yarns were kept under standard conditions. (at 20 C 2 C and 65% 2%
relative humidity) Yarn count measurements were carried out in compliance
with ISO 2060. Yarn twist measurements
were taken in accordance with ISO 2061
on a James H.Heal twisting meter. Tenacity measurement of all the yarns was
performed in accordance with ISO 2062
on Uster Tensorapid 3.
A spectrophotometer was used to find
out whether inner, middle and outer
sections of the bobbins had any differences in colour. Measurement was made
with an observational angle of 10 and
with D65 illuminant, using the CMC 2:1
equation [10]. To investigate the effects
of heat-setting and dyeing properties on
the yarn tenacity and elongation at break,
t tests were performed at 5% (0.05) and
10% (0.1) level of significance .

The slight decrease in the yarn tenacity

after the dyeing process was something
expected. This fall arose from the fact
that especially viscose fibers and partly
PES fibres get slightly damaged during reductive washing with NaOH. The
t-tests we performed show that heat- setting and dyeing process affect the tenacity
of yarns.

n Results and discussion

The effects of heat-setting at 90 C and
110 C, and of the following dyeing process on the tenacity and elasticity properties of 20 tex and 30 tex yarns are given
in Table 1.

The effects of heat-setting at 90 C and

110 C and of dyeing on the elongation
% of yarn are given in Figure 2 .

Table 1. Changes in yarn tensile strength properties after heat-setting and dyeing process.
Yarn properties
After heat-setting
(Changes as %)
30 tex
20 tex

Parameters

Tenacity, cN/tex

After dyeing
(Changes as %)
30 tex
20 tex

90 C

110 C

90 C

110 C

90 C

110 C

90 C

110 C

15.0

19.9

16.9

15.7

-4.4

-4.8

-11.3

-9.5

CV %

-14.3

-15.8

13.6

12.3

9.3

16.7

-6.9

-5.5

8.9

8.7

8.7

5.4

-3.0

-5.7

-6.0

-3.7

-20.7

-25.5

11.8

8.8

3.2

11.4

-7.7

-6.5

15.0

12.4

13.6

12.9

-4.3

-5.5

-4.8

-4.5

-13.9

-14.1

18.7

16.9

4.3

8.9

-8.8

-8.0

Elongation at
break, %

Work of rupture,
cN

CV %
CV %

FIBRES & TEXTILES in Eastern Europe October / December 2007, Vol. 15, No. 4 (63)

Fgure 1. The effect of the heat-setting

process on tenacity of yarn.

Fgure 2. The effect of the heat-setting

process on elongation at breake of yarn.
The heat-setting processes increased
the values of yarn elongation within the
range of 5.4% and 8.7%. Since cellulose
macromoleculles, which form regenerated cellulose fibres, are short, the attraction between these macromollekules
was not very strong. Therefore, when a
force parallel to the fiber axis was applied to the regenerated cellulose fibers,
bonds between the macromollecules
weakened, causing the fibers to break.
Breakages of wet regenerated fibres took
place more easily because of the swelling and sliding effects of water [12, 13].
Consequently, the elongation values of
the wet regenerated cellulose fibers were
noticeably higher than those of dry ones.
Generally, the tenacity values decreased,
but elongation values (%) increased,
while these fibres were wet [9 - 13]. The
increase observed after the application of
heat-setting in the elongation (%) values
of the yarn fell a little after the dyeing
process. However, the elongation values
(%) obtained after the dyeing process are
still higher than those of the unset yarns.
The heat-setting process improved both
the tenacity and elongation (%) of these
yarns. The t tests performed indicate that
heat-setting and dyeing processes affected the elongation (%) of the yarns.
After heat-setting, the work of rupture
values of the yarns increase by 12 -15%,
and, as a result of this, these yarns were
expected to show a higher performance
in the following process. These values

51

ven into fabrics, snarlings cause faulty

and lower grade fabrics. Therefore, yarns
needs heat setting in order to prevent untwisting and snarling [14].

Fgure 3. The effect of the heat- setting

process on work of rupture of yarn.

decreased by 4 - 6% after the dyeing

process (Figure 3). Increases obtained
after heat-setting at 110 C were lower
than those obtained after heat setting at
90 C. The increase observed in the work
rupture value of the yarns decreased a
little because of reductive washing in the
dyeing process but this value was still
higher than that of the unset yarns .
Work of rupture can be considered to be
the working capacity of the yarn. Working capacity is the most important value
which showed the yarn performance
in the following processes. The work
capacity of a yarn corresponds to the
area below the stress-strain curve and
expresses the behavior of the yarn during subsequent treatment. Therefore, it is
suggested that increases in the tenacity
and elasticity of the yarn should not be
assessed individually, but together with
its work capacity [3].
The CV % values which belong to tenacity, elongation and work of rupture
of 30 tex and 20 tex yarns are given
in Table 1. While 30 tex yarn showed
decreases in tenacity, elongation at break
(%) and work of rupture, CV % values
after heat- setting at 90 C and 110 C,
20 tex yarns showed increases in these
CV% values. The tenacity of the yarn
decreased and tenacity CV% values
increased as the yarn got thinner. Tenacity CV% values of 30 tex yarn were
increased after dyeing, however they
were lower than those of the unset yarns.
The tenacity CV% values of 20 tex yarn
were decreased after the dyeing process,
but they were high when compared with
the values obtained before heat-setting.
Twisted yarns tend to untwist. When
twisted yarn tension is slackened (which
occurs at their unwinding from packages), the yarns usually get coupled as
loops and twisted in reverse direction
forming snarls which lead to breakeges
during furter yarn processing. When wo-

52

Twisted yarns which were subjected to

the setting processes underwent some
changes in their interior structure, as a
result of which resilient and elastic deformations were able to take place and
the macromolecules of the yarn able to
change from a curved to a straight shape.
At the same time, the monofilaments
could have become somewhat elongated
and come to occupy a position in which
they would follow a helical path without
stresses, as the elastic forces would be
suppressed.
The straightening of macromolecules led
to yarn elongation, but elastic forces tended to shorten them. As a result, there was
the possibilty that yarn length might remain unchanged, but due to the suppression of elastic forces, the stresses in yarns
could have almost disappearred [14].
Viscose yarns featured high hygroscopicity, good adsorbency, and swelling.
Swelling of viscose yarns was accompained by an increase in yarn cross section by 25 - 65% and an insignifficant
increase by 3-5% in fibre length [9,
14]. The cause of this change is that
cellulose macromolecules which form
viscose fibres shorten and the rate of the
amorphous part of fibre is high [13]. The

weakening of intermolecular ties fascilitate an easier shift of molecules. In this

case, the moisture acted as a lubricant.
Heat intensified the motion of molecules,
reduced the forces of intermolecular
effect and their shift became easier. As
twisted yarns were heated in swelled
state (i.e. stressed state) the macromolecule shift occured quicker.
If twisted yarn swelled in a free state,
its cross section increased and the orientation of yarns remained unchanged,
a shrinkage of yarn could be observed
with a certain reduction in its strength.
The yarns were stretched in a swelled
state to increase their strength [14].
The setting of twist in case of polyester
yarns was accomplished only by heating
but without swelling of yarns. By moistening the twisted yarns, having a stabilised twist in the free state, the reverse
process of deformation relaxation took
place which imparted the capacity of
spontaneous untwisting to the yarn[14].
Changes in the yarns linear density and
twist as a result of heat- setting are given
in Table 2.
As it can be seen in Table 2 slight changes took place in the twisting values of the
yarn after heat-setting. This process fixed
yarn twisting and eliminated yarn liveliness, thus preventing snarling. Thus, we
were able to enhance the performance

Table 2. Linear density and twist measurements of 30 tex and 20 tex PES/viscose yarns
after heat- setting.
Yarn properties
30 tex
Heat-set at
Heat-set at
90 C
110 C

Parameters

Pre-heat setting
Post-heatsetting
Changes as %
Post dyeing
Changes as %

20 tex
Heat- set at
Heat-set at
90 C
110 C

tex

29.4

29.4

19.6

t.p.m.

963

959

960

19.6
964

tex

30.1

30.4

20.0

20.2

t.p.m.

940

930

934

935

tex

2.4

3.4

2.1

3.1

t.p.m.

-2.4

-3.0

-2.7

-3.0

tex

31.2

31.6

20.6

20.8

t.p.m.

919

915

920

922

tex

3.7

3.9

3.0

3.0

t.p.m.

-2.2

-1.6

-1.5

-1.4

Table 3. The results of color measurements made on 30 Tex and 20 Tex PES/Viscose
yarns.
Yarn
count

innerouter

Unset, E
middle- middleouter
inner

Heat-set at 90 C, E
inner- middle- middleouter
outer
inner

Heat-set at 110 C, E
inner- middle- middleouter
outer
inner

30 tex

0.18

0.19

0.18

0.14

0.15

0.17

0.19

0.19

0.17

20 tex

0.16

0.18

0.18

0.16

0.16

0.17

0.15

0.20

0.21

FIBRES & TEXTILES in Eastern Europe October / December 2007, Vol. 15, No. 4 (63)

of the yarn in the following production

processes by means of twist setting.
The heat-setting of man-made yarns under vacuum with saturated steam, besides
reducing the residual shrinkage, resulted
in no dye variations in the fabric, no tube
buckling and no quality changes between
the inner and outer sections of the bobbin [5]. The measurements performed, as
given in Table 3, show that no considerable differences in colour among the
inner, middle and outer sections of the
bobbins existed.
The spectrophotometer gave a PASS
value in each of the measurements, indicating that the bobbins did not have an
unacceptable difference in color among
the inner, middle and outer sections. The
color difference value which came out
after the dyeing of the yarns subjected to
heat-setting at 90 C was lower than the
values which came out when the yarns
were subjected to heat-setting at 110 C,
and those not subjected to heat- setting
and dyed. However, the values of colour
differences which exist among the inner,
middle and outer sections of the fixed and
non-fixed bobbins are very close to each
other and, therefore, they can be considered insignificant.

n Conclusions
In this study, tenacity, elongation at
break (in per cent), and work of rupture
of 30 tex and 20 tex yarns were found
to be enhanced due to heat-setting. The
tenacity and elongation at break values of
the yarns decreased after dyeing; however, these values are still high when compared with those of the pre- heat setting.
The increase of temperature from 90 C to
110 C caused a decrease in the strength
values of the yarns. For this reason, heatsetting at 90 C can be considered to be
sufficient to enhance the strength properties of PES/viscose yarns consisting of
67% PES and 33% viscose.
After heat-setting, slight changes were
observed in the twist values of the yarn.
Yarn twist was fixed via heat- setting,
thus preventing yarn snarling. As a result
of these, the yarn is likely to show better
performance in the following production steps. Besides, colour differences
among the inner, middle and outer sections of bobbins were found to be insignificant after the measurements.

For furter studies it will be useful to

investigate yarn liveliness and the relationship between yarn liveliness and
heat-setting .

UNIVERSITY
OF BIELSKO-BIAA
Faculty of Materials
and Environmental Sciences

Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank the authorities of
CAN Textile for the opportunities they have
provided and Dr.Mehmet Kank for very
useful discussions.

The Faculty was founded in 1969 as

the Faculty of Textile Engineering of the
Technical University of d, Branch in
Bielsko-Biaa. It offers several courses

References

for a Bachelor of Science degree and a

1. Ozdemir O.,arda S., Yarn Conditioning

and New Methods, Textile&Technique,
Turkey, June 2004, pp. 248-260.
2. w w w. w e l k e r. d e / h t m l / e n g l i s c h/
heatsetting.html., 2004.
3. Toggweiler P., Gleich S., Wanger F.,
Improved Quality With The Contexxor
Conditioned Yarn, Meiland English No. 9
(1995) pp. 154-155.
4. Xorella catalogue, 2003.
5. Xorella Contexxor, The Innovative Conditioning and Steming System, 2003
catalogue.
6. Yazdi A. A., Woven Fabric Skewness and
Yarn Twist., Proceedings of 2nd International Istanbul Textile Congress, pp.1-7.
[CD-ROM] April, 2004 .
7. Artzt P., The Influence of Different Spinning Processes on The Structure and
Properties of Yarns, Proceedings of 2nd
International Istanbul Textile Congress,
pp.1-8. [CD-ROM] April, 2004.
8. Enhos S.A., An Investigation About the
Factors Affecting the Strength Properties
of Blended Yarns, Master thesis, University of Uludag, Bursa 2001., pp.73.
9. Adanur S., Wellington Sears Handbook of
Industrial Textiles, Technomic Publishing
Co.Inc. Lancaster.-Basel., 1995, pp.
593-594.
10. Kara I., An Investigation About the Effects
of the Twist Setting Conditions, Final
Year Project, University of Uludag, Bursa,
2002.
11. Ahumada O., Cocca M., Gentle G.,
Martuscelli E., Dorazo L., Uniaxial
Tensile Properties of Yarns: Effect of
Moisture Level on the Shape of StresStrain Curves, Textile Research Journal
174 (11) 2004,1001-1006.
12. Tarakcoglu I., Textile Finishing and
Machines Production and Finishing
of Polyester Fibres; Araclar Publishing
Co.Izmir, 1986, pp. 414-416.
13. Morton W.E., Hearle J.W.S., Physical
Properties of Textile Fibres; Heineman,
1975,pp.290.
14. Usenko V., Processing of Man-made
Fibres, 1979 , Moscow, pp. 178-189.

Textile Engineering and Environmental

Received 10.05.2006

FIBRES & TEXTILES in Eastern Europe October / December 2007, Vol. 15, No. 4 (63)

Master of Science degree in the field of

Engineering

and

Protection.

The

Faculty considers modern trends in

science and technology as well as the
current needs of regional and national
industries. At present, the Faculty consists of:
g The Institute of Textile
Engineering and Polymer
Materials, divided into the following Departments:
g Physics and Structural Research
g Textiles and Composites
g Physical Chemistry of Polymers
g Chemistry and Technology of
Chemical Fibres
g The Institute of Engineering and
Environmental Protection, divided into the following Departments:
g Biology and Environmental
Chemistry
g Hydrology and Water Engineering
g Ecology and Applied Microbiology
g Sustainable Development
of Rural Areas
g Processes and Environmental
Technology

University of Bielsko-Biaa
Faculty of Materials
and Environmental Science

ul. Willowa 2, 43-309 Bielsko-Biaa

tel. +48 33 8279 114, fax. +48 33 8279 100

Reviewed 26.01.2007

53