GLOSSAR

Find information on the different product grades Swicofil offers listed below in alphabetical order:
 

• adhesive activated
  Treatment by the yarn manufacturer to promote better abhesion to another material (e.g. to rubber) and / or allow easier processing.
  
   
• advanced composites
  Matrix-material system (polymer, resin or other) in which reinforcement is done by hi-strength, hi-modulus materials in either continuous filament yarn form or staple fibers.
  
   
• air jet spinning
  Fibers that are spun into a yarn by air stream.
  
   
• airtextured yarn
  Yarn (mostly filament yarn) that has been processed by the airtexturing (also called taslaniszing) process. With this process, yarn is fed into a small jet nozzle. The yarn then gets tangled due to a high pressure air that creates airstreams. The result is that the filament yarn, originally stiff and with a very smooth surface, feels now more like spun yarn due to in improved hairyness.
  
   
• BCF textured yarn
  BCF stands for "bulked continuous filament" and refers to a one step process where one or multiple filament yarns are tangled by airstream. The end use for BCF yarns is usually carpets as BCF yarns are very bulky.
  
   
• braid
  Braids are a kind of 3D-surface creation. Compared to twists, braids have a closed surface, which serves as an additional protection of abrasion or so. With braiding, a multiple of yarns are taken and braided together.
  
   
• chenille yarn
  Chenille yarns has a velvet like appearance. This velvet like appearance is constructed by placing short cut fibers between two yarn strangs. The two yarns are then highly twisted together, clamping the fibers placed between the two yarns. To prevent the fibers from falling out, low melting yarns are sometimes used in the core as well. Not to be confused with flocked yarn that consists of one strang of yarn and the flock to be glued on it. 
  
   
• dip coated yarn
  Technique of coating where a yarn is driven into a bath that is filled with some kind of solution (for example with PTFE like Solaflon). 
  
   
• double heater textured yarn
  see "Set textured yarn"
  
   
• endless yarn
  Refers to artifical or synthetic yarn / materials in regard of synthetic type spinning. 
  
   
• extrusion coated yarn
  Technique of coating a yarn with a second layer of polymer. This includes the bicomponent technique where the sheath coating is applied onto the core directly while extruding.
  Extrusion coating can however also be applied after extruding the "core" has happened. This is for example the case for yarn that are coated with PVC: the yarn, fully spun and on bobbins, are taken off the bobbin again and are fed through a coating machine, where they receive their PVC coating.
  
   
• fabric
  Fabrics refer to a surface / a network made out of yarn. It can be created by mainly two methods like weaving or knitting.
  
   
• false twist texturization
  see "friction textured yarn"
  
   
• fancy yarn
  Fancy yarn has no absolute definition as this term comprises various techniques, various effects, various appearances. Roughly, fancy yarns have in common that they have a structure of some kind. This can refer to a special twist, to the yarn being thicker and thinner, to have a bouclé effect and so on. 
  
   
• FDY
  stands for "fully drawn yarn" and refers to the orientation of the molecules in the yarn that are in such way, the yarn cannot really prolong its length any more. 
  
   
• fibers
  In the textile vocabulary, fibers refer to a matter that is longer than its wide. Fibers are no yarn as fibers are limited in length whereas yarn can theoretically be endlessly long.
  Fibers can be of natural origin (cotton, ramie, wool, etc. - things that grow by nature) or synthetic origin (PET, Polyamide, etc. - materials made from polymer. Usually the synethetic fibers are being cut into a certain length after extusion).
  
   
• filament yarn
  Yarn that consists of various single filaments. Usually, filament yarn is produced by synthetic type spinning. 
  
   
• flat yarn
  Flat yarns are also called FOY (fully oriented yarn) or FDY (fully drawn yarn). These terms are only applicable in reference to synthetic type spun yarns. As the synonyms already imply, flat yarn is fully stretched in contrary to partially oriented yarn POY. Meaning that directly after the extrusion process, the yarn is stretched up to five times its original length
  
   
• flock
  Fibers of very small length (up to abt. 5mm). Find more information on flock here.
  
   
• flocked yarn
  Yarn that has flock "glued" to it. Find more information on flocked yarn here.
  
   
• FOY
  FOY is "flat yarn" whereas the yarn is extruded "fully oriented" at extrusion and does not need to be drawn in an additional step.
  
   
• friction textured yarn
  Is the preamble for HE texturizing and Set texturizing. With friction texturizing, the yarn goes through friction discs that creates a twist. Depending on wheter the yarn gets friction textured by the HE or Set process, the twist is then fixed with either a single heater or a double heater.
  
   
• FT
  French abbreviation for "fausse torsion", referring to HE textured yarn.
  
   
• HE textured yarn
  Also called "single heater textured yarn". One of the two techniques of friction texturization, where the created twist gets fixed by heat during the texturization, resulting in the yarn to be of high elasticity and regularity of the crimp. HE stands for "high elasticity".
  
   
• high tenacity yarn
  Yarn that is of high strength. There is no absolute value that makes a yarn of high tenacity. Rather, the classification differs from material to material, is therefore relative.
  
  For example, a Polyester PET yarn is of high tenacity with a value of > 60 cN/tex is required whereas a PVDF meets already the requirements for the term "high tenacity" with a value of > 20 cN/tex.
  
  High tenacity yarns are used where a high performance is required. PET ht is therefore often applied in safety belts, coated fabrics such as tarpaulins, sport articles like sails or tents as well as fastening riggings for bore-islands. Polyamide high tenacity yarns on the other hand are often processed into netting ropes, cables, hawsers, tires and air bag fabrics.
  
   
• knit de knit 
  Knit de knit (KdK) refers to yarn that is knitted into a fabric which then gets heat-set. After this fixation, the fabric will be unknitted again, resulting the yarn to have the characteristic loop shape. 
  
   
• medium tenacity yarn
  Yarn that is of medium strength. There is no absolut value that makes a yarn of medium tenacity. Rather, the classification differs from material to material, is therefore relative.
  
  An example for medium tenacity is with Polypropylene, where a tenacity value of abt. 40 cN/tex up to 49 cN/tex classifies the yarn of medium tenacity. 
  
   
• metallic foil yarn
  Metallic foil yarn is commonly known as metallic yarn. In contrary to all other yarns, metallic foil yarn technically is not yarn but foil that is very thinly sliced. Find more information on metallic (foil) yarn here.
  
   
• mixed yarn
  Mixed yarns have in common that they consist of at least two different materials that have been "married together". For spun yarns, that means there has been a mixture of fibers pre-spinning, resulting in the yarn to be of intimite mix. For filament yarns on the other hand, it means the two materials have been either been brought together by twisting or then texturizing. 
  
   
• monofilament
  Synthetic type spun yarn consisting of one filament / strang. Monofilaments are often used to produce filtering farbics, hook and loop fasteners, narrow fabrics, selvedge yarns, sewing threads, fishing lines and nets. Also, they can also be used for 3D printing. More information on monofilaments can be found here.
  
   
• non woven
  Non woven fabrics are flat, flexible, porous sheet structures that are produced by interlocking layers or networks of fibers, filaments, or film-like filamentary structures. More information on non woven can be found here. 
  
   
• plasma metal coated yarn
  Yarn that is metal coated by the plasma process. Find more information on plasma metal coated yarn here.
  
   
• polymer
  The raw material for synthetic type spinning. Polymers are large molecules that are composed of many repeated subunits. Polymers can either be of natural origin, like PLA. Or then of synthetic origin which make up a large part of plastics like PET, PMMA or PPS.
  
   
• POY
  POY stand for "partially oriented yarn" in reference to synthetic type spinning. During this spinning process of a multifilament - more precisely after melting and extruding - the yarn can be stretched up to five times its original length. The purpose of stretching is to orient the molecules  which in the end gives the yarn its characteristical properties. Meaning depending on the degree of the stretch, the yarn has a certain tenacity, shrinkage and elongation.
  
  POY only gets partly stretched (meaning less than the possible five times of the original length), in contrary to a FOY (fully oriented yarn, also called flat yarn or fully drawn yarn FDY) that is stretched to its full extend.
  
  POY mainly finds application in texturizing or draw warping. Furthermore, a POY usually is of lower tenacity than a FOY.
  
   
• Set textured yarn
  Also called "doubleheater textured yarn". One of the two techniques of friction texturization, where the created twist gets fixed by heat during the texturization as well as right after it. The yarn is thus of highest bulkiness.
  
   
• sewing thread
  Thread is a tightly twisted strand of two or more plys of yarn that are circular when cut in cross section. It is used for hand sewing and in home sewing machines. More information on sewing thread can be found here.
  
   
• single heater textured yarn
  see "HE textured yarn"
  
   
• sliver
  Sliver refers to a long bundle of fiber that is generally used to spin yarn (cotton type or wool type spinning). A sliver is created by carding or combing of the fiber, which is then drawn into long strips where the fibers are parallel.
  
   
• spun (yarn)
  Spun yarn refers to a technique where staple fibers are twisted together so that the fibers create one long thread.
  
   
• stretch textured yarn
  see "HE textured yarn"
  
   
• tape yarn
  Tape yarn is also called ribbon yarn.
  
   
• taslan(ized)
  see "airtextured yarn"
  
   
• textured yarn
  This term refers to mainly three different types: HE textured yarn, Set textured yarn or airtextured yarn. Rarely, the term "textured yarn" also refers to BCF textured yarn, kDk and more. More information on texturing in general can be found here.
  
   
• tops
  Tops are preoriented fibers that are intended to be used for either cotton type or wool type spinning. Tops are the preliminary stage of slivers.
  
   
• tow
  A tow is a relatively thick accumulation of single filaments (usually starting in the 5 ktex area upwards, whereas the single filaments have a count of around dtex 1.7). Tows exist only for synthetic materials like Polyester and are the raw material for applications like flock or converting (convertings means crimping in order to match the characteristics of natural fibers).