Standardization of pre steaming temperature and duration for bivoltine and multibivoltine raw silk and its effect on quality characteristics

Abstract

　　Winding performance of the raw silk skeins produced in reeling machinery is affected with the prevailing conditions of the twisting industry in India. It was thought to improve the winding performance of the raw silk by treating the raw silk using steam before converting the skeins on to bobbins on winding machine. Standardization of pre steaming conditions viz., pre steaming temperature and duration for both the bivoltine and multibivoltine raw silk were carried out using central composite experimental design. It was observed that using saturated steam, steaming the silk skeins at 60ºC temperature inside the vessel (Steaming temperature is 95 ºC) for 15 minutes duration was found to improve the winding performance and elongation characteristics of bivoltine raw silk significantly and for 10 minutes duration with same conditions found to be suitable for multibivoltine raw silk. The methodology can be easily adopted in all the twisting units as steaming chamber is supplied along with the twisting machinery package.