# Carding Behavior and Bearing Capacity of a Newly Developed Cylinder Card-Clothing Compatible with Cotton and Terylene Fibers by Nb Alloying of AISI 1090 Steel

## TL;DR

A new cylinder card clothing made from Nb alloyed steel can handle both cotton and terylene fibers without needing replacement.

## Contribution

A novel Nb alloyed AISI 1090 steel card clothing is developed for compatibility with multiple fibers.

## Key findings

- Nb alloying of AISI 1090 steel improved wear resistance and hardness for carding applications.
- The new card clothing performed well with cotton and terylene fibers in real spinning mill tests.
- The fine grain structure of the alloy increased by 25% compared to conventional materials.

## Abstract

Changing the metallic card clothing on a carding machine is costly when the spinning mills want to card different fibers from cotton to terylene or vice versa. This article proposes a newly developed cylinder card clothing compatible with cotton and terylene fibers by Nb alloying of AISI 1090 steel so that the spinning mills can change the type of fiber without changing the card clothing. Based on an idea developed from classical carding balance theory to study the adaptability of the cylinder card clothing for cotton and terylene fibers, the wall shear stress was used as the basis for compatibility analysis of carding behavior and bearing capacity with cotton and terylene fibers and as the focus of this study. Nb alloying of AISI 1090 steel showed good wear resistance in carding areas after heat treatment with high hardness above 840 Hv0.2 and extremely fine grain grade of 13.5 class, which increased about 25% compared to conventional 80 WV. The testing results in the spinning mills, including one cotton and two terylene fibers, showed good performance with this newly developed card clothing. In conclusion, the card clothing made of Nb alloying of AISI 1090 steel can handle different fibers with acceptable carding performance.