Here is were manufacturers mix and blend the yarns, it is imperative that the manufacturer has conscience of buying good quality fibers. Blending must be done in a consistent manner, with modern equipment so that the blends are up to par with what the yarn manufacturer says it is !!

No textile equipment in the world is precise, so there is always some percentage in variation of the various fiber blends. Then these fibers are combed and carded in order to pararelize the fibers for maximum spinnability .  The carding section of a company is the key component to quality yarns.

Yarn manufacturers must have the latest technology in carding in order to provide a clean strong product, and a product with very little variation and defects. The larger the packages the less stopping that would occur in spinning process.

There is basically three types of spinning processes in the world:

1) Roving spinning known also as ring spinning

2) Open End spinning

3) Friction spinning known also as dref spinning

The first spinning system was the roving spinning, which is practically obsolete, just very old factories in third world countries may have such systems still operational, yarns from roving systems are pretty good due to the fact that they must use good staple fiber in order to work, but the bad thing about them is that these yarns are usually full of knots, due to the small packages that these machines utilized, making the yarn manufacturer put many knots per pound of yarn.

Open End spinning revolutionized the industry because it gave the possibility of similar tensile strength as roving systems but because of the larger size of the packages it enabled less knots, higher production, etc. This spinning method is still quite used in the industry, but it has focused more onto high end yarns , and lower priced yarns are being made in Friction Spinning systems.

Friction Spinning, ( Dreff spinning), is a fairly new technology ; not only is the highest production alternative, but also allows to provide a better formulation on the yarns, for example, it allows manufacturers to wrap color fiber around a white core, lowering costs not having to put color fiber inside the whole yarn. It also allows advantages in designs like putting highly absorbent fibers in the core and long staple durable fibers (for better durability) in the outer layers, yielding to a better engineered mop.

The problem with friction spinning is that it is a little weaker than Open end spinning. Some top quality manufacturers have compensated this by putting a high tensile strength filament in the inside core of the yarn, improving this way the strength of the whole twisted yarn, so basically if each ply of yarn has a filament, and then this yarn is twisted in four plies we then have a very strong yarn. A key factor in this spinning system is the size of the output package, enabling at the moment of twisting hardly no knots and increased productivity.

                      

this is another key factor in the production lines, these are custom designed machines for the industry, usually fully electronic, allowing detection when one or more plies of yarn has finished or busted, to prevent less mop yarn variation . In addition to this, the size of the bottles or twisted yarn packages are of extremely large size, all in the pursuit of high productivity , less weight variation and less knots.

From the twister, the yarns go to either cone winding or ball warping, for final presentation.

          

Here is were things get a little confusing. Yarn sizes or thickness are expressed as titles, this titles are mathematical derivations from common textile formulas, that usually indicate the amount of yards that a pound of a particular yarn would yield, thus, a thicker yarn will have less yards in the same pound as a thinner yarn.

A 0.40 yarn is thicker than a 0.60 yarn, a 0.80 yarn is thicker than a 1.0 yarn.  Just like everything else in the world, these measurements or titles vary from country to country, these titles are used in english systems, but metric systems are used also. If you see NE, it means that english count is used and if you see NM it means that the metric system is used. These letters are usually used before or after the actual title of yarn.

When these yarns are used in the real world, they are usually twisted in several plies, for better strength and appearance. For example in 4 plies. So the title would be expressed in the following way: NE 0.40/4 ply , indicating that the yarn thickness is 0.40 and that it is twisted in 4 plyes.

For example: NE 0.80/8 ply means that we are using a 0.80 title, twisted in 8 plies of the same yarn.

Once you have this yarn twisted, it is called a single end . When companies request mop yarn put up on single ends its because the are going to use it in special processes like loop end machines, special dustmop equipment, other industrial processes, etc.

Many companies can put it up on a multi end “ball warp”, some companies around the world offer snake warp, which is not put up on anything, just put directly in boxes or bags. Others use a coreless package (not put up on a cardboard center tube) , both of the previous methods are very uncomfortable to mop manufacturers, resulting in loss of production.

Usually, professional mop yarn companies offer several types of ballwarps, to accommodate the requirements of their customers, specially a palletizable version, that lays flat and that it is easy to handle.

Usually, the thicker the yarn, the lower the cost, due to the fact that the machines outputs more yarn per hour of production. Some manufacturers have different policies with the twisting of the yarns than others, and it is really based on their twisting capabilities and the conditions of certain machines, and what machines they are going to use for what title and amount of plies.

So, a 4 ply yarn might be lower price than a 8 ply or even lower than a 16 ply.