High Strength Cotton for Technical Textiles Needs Development

The potential for cotton as a raw material for technical textiles will be enhanced if the strength of cotton is improved.

Arunachalam Subramaniam, veteran textile consultant with over 60 years of experience in the textile field, said that the cotton industry should look at developing high-strength, short staple cottons for industrial applications. His comments came on the sidelines of the 7th edition of the Advances in Textiles, Machinery, Nonwovens and Technical Textiles international conference, organized by Texas Tech University and the Kumaraguru College of Technology and held this year in the Indian textile city of Coimbatore. Cottons with a staple length of 25.4 to 27 mm with tenacity of 30 g/tex will be ideal for technical textiles. He added that high-strength, extra-long staple and short staple cottons will find premium use and sale values.

According to Subramaniam, high-strength, extra-long staple cotton with tenacity in the range of 33-35 g/tex is in the pipeline. He said that cotton breeders should enhance the strength of short staple cottons from its present level of 21 g/tex to 30 g/tex, adding that high-tenacity cottons will be fitting for high performance applications and will benefit cotton farmers.