Towels are consumer goods that have to fulfil many expectations: those of private consumers as well as those of industrial users such as hospitals and hotels. Absorbent, easy to wash, lint-free, colour-fast, durable, sustainable without a lot of chemicals – to name just a few of the requirements. For towel manufacturers, the demands on yarn quality and yarn structure are high: pilling-free, sufficient strength and stretch and few imperfections. With Belairo yarns spun on the Autoairo air spinning machine, it is possible to fulfil all these wishes and also offer towel manufacturers new economic prospects. A towel made from Belairo yarn lasts up to 10 times longer and retains its shape better, thus contributing to sustainable use.
Everyday life without terry cloth towels is unimaginable. Everyone uses them every day in the bathroom, swimming pool, hotel or at the beach. For the user, it is important that they be soft, absorbent, easy to wash (at least 60 degrees), colour-fast and made of natural materials – preferably cotton. Towels should match the furnishings, be affordable for every budget and be produced as sustainably as possible without using a lot of chemicals.
A high-quality terry towel for private use weighs between 400 and 500 grams per square metre. Velour towels are somewhat lighter, as the loops are cut open and shortened to achieve that velvety velour effect.
In order to meet consumer demands and be successful on the market, towel manufacturers are looking at how they can optimise the production process. One important lever for cost optimisation is the yarn used. Up to 80% of the weight of the towel is made up of the pile yarn, the yarn that comes into contact with the skin.
The classics for pile yarns are combed ring-spun yarns: durable, high quality, complex to produce and correspondingly expensive. The ring yarns are combed to reduce the hairiness of the yarns and the associated formation of unwanted fibre fluff on the towel.
The combing process ensures that the towels do not become thinner through frequent washing, during which short, less-bonded fibres are washed out. The short fibres responsible for this in the yarn are eliminated from the outset by combing, which accounts for approx. 10-15% of the fibre mass. Towels made from cheaper, uncombed, exclusively carded ring yarns lose fibres over time due to the yarn structure.
But there is another way – with Belairo yarn which is similar to ring-spun yarn. The yarn produced on the Autoairo air spinning machine is a cost-effective alternative to classic ring yarns. Thanks to the yarn structure with parallel core fibres and the defined twisting of the wrapping fibres, all of the fibres are optimally integrated, even the shorter ones. During the air spinning process, fibres that are too short are removed pneumatically. However, this proportion is significantly lower than in a classic combing process. Belairo yarns therefore offer the best conditions for lint-free towels. Thanks to the high rub resistance of the towels, hardly any fibres come loose from the fabric composite during washing. Fibre migration is zero with Belairo yarns.
If you compare towels made from ring yarn with towels made from Belairo yarns, you will notice that the surface appearance of Belairo towels is more even, their absorbency is higher, and their drying time is shorter. These properties result from the special Belairo yarn structure and are particularly popular with private and industrial consumers.
