LINEN TYPE SPINNING

Linen type spinning describes the spinning process of the linen plant, which also called flax. Depending on the length of the plant when harvested, one of the following techniques is suitable for further processing: 
 

• wet spinning for longer fibers
• dry spinning for shorter fibers
• stretch break spinning

Linen type spinning is only recommended for processing linen. Other materials, such as cotton or polyester for example, should be processed by other techniques due to the practisability of linen type spinning. Linen type spinning is designed to process fibers that are not of uniform length due to the linen harvesting process and the different growth rates of the linen plants. Accordingly, a recommended (cut-)length does not exist for linen type spinning. 

The linen type spinning process roughly comprises the following steps:
 

1. Harvesting
   The flax harvest requires the use of specific processes, technologies and equipment. Primarily, this concerns pulling the plants an retting on ground, which leads to the natural decomposition of the pectins that bin the fibers together. 
    
2. Scutching
   The individual steps for extracting the fibers from the flax stalks essentially serve two purposes: splitting the plant into its individual components and hence releasing the fibers as well as cleaning them from other substances. The aim of scutching is to extract the fibers = thze operation of separating the woody part of deseeded or retted flax straw.
   Another word for this process is swingle, which means to clean by beating it with a swingle, so as to separate the coarse parts and the woody substances from it.
    
3. Hackling
   The aim of hackling is to clean, untangle and aligh parallel the bundles of scutched flax, to separate the fibrous bundles and to start dividing them. This in order to form a continuous sliver that is ready to undergo the doubling and drafting opeartions that come next. 
   Scutched flax is hackled on so-called hackling frames. Handfuls of strands of line flax, weighing 80 to 120 grams and held in mobile clamps, are feed manually in the hackling frames. Moving up and down these clamps convey the fibrous bundles to a double set of combs. Hackling is carried out certically and horizontally. 

Depending on the fiber lenght, the next three steps for processing linen vary as follows:

7. Spinning
   Spinning is the final operation in the whole spinning process, for both longer fiber as well as short fiber spinning. There are several methods for spinning the flax:
    
   • wet spinning
     which can be done with grey, boiled and bleached roves
      
   • semi-wet spinning
      
   • dry-spinning
      

8. Winding
   Regardless of the spinning method that is used, the yarn must be cleaned of all impurities and be wound on a bobbin that is suitable for further processing. Such are the functions of the winding operation, carried out on winding frames. This is the last step in flax production before the yarn leaves the spinning mill for delivery to the weaver or knitter.