Press Release
Controlling evenness parameters for improved quality and profitability
Uster, Switzerland February 25, 2011 – Since 1948, more than 14,000 USTER ®
evenness testers have been sold worldwide – this is more than any other evenness tester in the world. It is therefore safe to say that the textile industry appreciates and values the benefits of this legendary quality control instrument on a daily basis. The latest models of USTER
®
TESTER 5 – the S800 and S400 for spun yarns and the C800 for filament yarns – are backed by over 60 years’ experience in evenness testing. They offer a host of new and valuable features like speed in the business (800 m/min), the FM Sensor (classification of foreign fibers) and the unique FANCY
YARN PROFILE for the measurement of slub yarn . Quality is critical in today’s competitive textile markets, so the fundamental advantages of evenness testing are more valuable than ever – and especially for the growing percentage of compact-spun yarns now being produced.
Essential quality parameters
The range of test parameters now available with the USTER
®
TESTER 5 is being continuously extended so that the system now offers the ultimate yarn inspection capability, covering all key properties that influence product quality and saleability. This is possible through USTER
® ’s ability to employ several sensor technologies, individually or in combination, to create customized modules targeting all specific potential problems.
An example of such a module is the OH sensor for hairiness measurements. Hairiness variation is a critical aspect of quality especially in compact-spun yarns, and accounts for about 15% of all subsequent fabric appearance problems. Accurate hairiness data based on comprehensive, reproducible measurements is given by the USTER
® ‘s OH sensor and therefore highly relevant by fabric producers.
The USTER
®
TESTER 5 is unique in its range of sensors and features with the added benefit of test results that integrate perfectly with the USTER
®
STATISTICS global benchmarks.
Essential tool today
The sheer speed and broad testing capabilities of the USTER
®
TESTER 5 make it an indispensable tool for modern spinning mills. Higher spindle speeds are becoming the norm and the 800 m/min sample throughput of the USTER
®
TESTER 5 at last enables laboratory testing to match yarn productivity needs, while maintaining tightest-possible control of all the critical quality issues and providing higher-volume testing that is statistically more significant. It means spinners can minimize the risk of damaging claims and complaints caused by failing to control quality to the standards customers demand.

The quality parameters can be used and controlled by spinners to adjust their raw materials and processing regimes to set and achieve desired targets for improvements in both quality and profitability. They can also help to identify defective machine components, worn parts and drafting faults, based on spectrogram analysis.
To make life easier for spinners and their customers, the majority of quality parameters handled by the USTER
®
TESTER 5 can also be incorporated into yarn profiles, giving clear and objective specifications which can be the basis for buying and selling contracts.
Focus on compact yarns
Ring spinning has changed dramatically since the commercial introduction of the compact spinning technique in the late 1990s – and this has had a profound impact on quality requirements. Compact-spun yarns now range across all raw materials and blends and cover the complete range of yarn counts. This development is driven by benefits such as better tenacity, lower hairiness, increased elongation, (often) improved evenness and greatly-reduced imperfections.
However, the compact process brings its own set of quality challenges, the most serious of which is a tendency for clogged drums, aprons or suction elements. Put simply, a clogged compact spinning machine will produce a conventional ring yarn, which results in increased hairiness; more neps in the yarn and pilling in the fabric; lower strength and elongation; higher levels of endbreaks; and cloudy or fuzzy fabric appearance.
Solving the problem
Compact yarns are a major challenge for spinners, as their less hairy and much more even appearance means any faults and irregularities stand out sharply. For these yarns, unevenness and imperfections need to be measured with absolute precision, and the CS Sensor for the
USTER
®
TESTER 5 provides the ideal solution. To manage the hairiness of compact yarns, the
USTER
®
OH Sensor produces accurate information to enable the spinner to make any necessary adjustments to machinery, as well as providing a recognized USTER
®
value for hairiness (H), to be used in yarn specification and trading.
To provide the perfect complement to the benefits of the USTER
®
TESTER 5 and its OH Sensor, the new USTER
®
ZWEIGLE HL400 instrument enables highly-accurate measurement and classification of hairiness length . The two systems together amount to an integrated ‘total solution’ for all hairiness testing requirements.
The USTER
®
ZWEIGLE HL400 measures the hairiness length, allowing the spinner to forecast how the yarn will affect subsequent fabric appearance and performance, especially useful when assessing how a new yarn design will behave. The system calculates the S3 value of the yarn – the number of fibers protruding by 3mm or more – which influences the entanglement of warp yarns and the degree of pilling in the finished fabric. The sensitive measuring principle of the
USTER
®
ZWEIGLE HL400 also helps the spinning mill decide on traveler changes and maintenance schedule.

Helping spinners stay in tune
In the textile industry today, precise and reproducible quality is more and more critical, and only by employing a comprehensive range of quality assurance technologies can spinners guarantee to stay in tune with changing yarn trends, new manufacturing techniques and the increasingly tougher demands of their customers. USTER
®
pioneered evenness testing more than 60 years ago and the USTER
®
TESTER 5 follows in this tradition in offering an unbeatable range and testing speed to give 21 st Century proof that the concept is more important than ever.
About Uster Technologies Ltd.
The Uster Group is the leading high-technology instrument manufacturer of products for quality measurement and certification for the textile industry. The Group provides testing and monitoring instruments, systems and services that allow optimization of quality through each individual stage of textile production. This includes raw textile fibers, such as cotton or wool, all staple fiber and filament yarns, as well as downstream services to the final finished fabric. The Uster Group provides benchmarks that are a basis for the trading of textile products at assured levels of quality across global ma rkets. The Group’s aim is to forward know-how on quality, productivity and cost to the textile industry.
The Group is headquartered in Uster, Switzerland and operates through a worldwide Market
Organization complemented by Technology Centers. It has sales and service subsidiaries in the major textile markets and Technology Centers in Uster (Switzerland), Knoxville (USA) and Suzhou (China).