Birla Cellulose, a pioneer in sustainable textile solutions, is revolutionising the perception of open-end (OE) yarn with its groundbreaking product, Excel.
Contrary to the prevailing belief that OE yarn is only suitable for low-end applications using cotton waste, Birla Cellulose has unlocked the true potential of OE yarn, particularly in the home textile business and denim applications.
By combining OE yarn structure with exceptional strength and whiteness, Birla Cellulose has provided spinning mills with an innovative solution to reduce their reliance on virgin cotton, increase waste utilisation, and achieve superior results throughout the value chain.
Need for Sustainability
Sustainability is a pressing concern in the fashion industry, with the need to address global warming and reduce greenhouse emissions. Mechanical recycling of pre- and post-consumer textile waste has emerged as a greener option in the textile sector.
However, shredding and opening textile waste often results in inferior-quality recycled fibres. The properties of mechanically recycled cotton hard waste fibres typically include:
- Higher short fibre %
- Reduced span length
- Higher neps per gram
- Weaker fibre strength
Introducing Excel Fibres
To overcome the limitations associated with recycled fibres, Birla Cellulose has identified its Excel fibre (lyocell fibre) as the ideal partner for blending with mechanically recycled cotton.
| FIBRE | COTTON | EXCEL (LYOCELL) |
| Microscopic view | ||
| Dry fibre tenacity (gram/tex) | 24 – 27 | 40 – 42 |
| Wet fibre tenacity (gram/tex) | 27 – 31 | 33 – 36 |
| Fibre Elongation % | 7 – 8 | >12 |
| Moisture regain % | 7.5 | 13 |
Excel fibre or lyocell fibre offers uniform length, denier, whiteness, and higher strength in yarn manufacturing. Thus, effectively compensating for the shortcomings of mechanically recycled cotton fibres. The resulting products, crafted from a blend of recycled cotton and Birla Excel, offer numerous advantages such as:
- Enhanced yarn strengt
- Increased productivity
- Ability to spin fibre rotor yarn
- Soft touch and feel
- Vibrant colour shades
- Improved fabric lustre
- Wide range of applications
Below mentioned industrial data of cotton v/s cotton: Excel blend will give the insights about USPs of Excel blend with recycled cotton.
| Parameters for 10s OE yarn | Cotton Recycled & Virgin-80/20 | Recycled cotton: Excel-80/20 |
| Rotor type | T533 | T533 |
| Rotor speed | 95000 | 100000 |
| Navel type | K4A | K4A |
| Yarn Imperfections/km | 296 | 208 |
| Yarn TM | 5.3 | 5.2 |
| Yarn CSP | 1406 | 1678 |
| Efficiency | 88 % | 92 % |
Followed by the introduction of Birla Excel (lyocell) as a value-added product for mechanical recycling yarn spinning, Many OE mills have shown keen interest in blending Birla Excel with recycled cotton & other soft wastes.
Apart from denim application, spinning Mills also started offering OE recycled yarn with specialised Birla Excel fibre blend in a count range from 6s to 34s for various applications such as bed linen, covers, shirting, trousers, towels, ladies’ dress material, and knits.
With a dedicated technical service team and Textile Research Application and Development Centre (TRADC), Birla Cellulose also extends technical guidance for improving OE yarn productivity & quality thereby adding value to the spinner.
The company’s focused Business Development team’s presence Pan-India provides support for order tie-ups with various value chain partners across different categories for promoting EXCEL-based products.
