Thread Construction and Size |
General Types of Thread Construction
- Spun - most common thread where staple fibers are spun together. Long staple - at least 1 1/8"
- Core spun - a continuous filament core (usually polyester) covered with cotton or polyester fibers�..added strength (Dual Duty, etc.)
- Continuous filament - strong and consistent threads made by extruding filaments, twisting them into yarns, then
twisting the yarns into a thread....bonded nylons and polyesters, embroidery, high-tech threads
- Monocord - rather than the filaments being twisted into yarns, all of
the filaments are twisted together to create a more solid appearing thread.....good abrasion resistance
- Textured - texture added to the continuous filament threads for softness and bulk�...woolly nylon
- Monofilament - one continuous filament extruded with no twist�sized usually from .003" to .012" in diameter
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Twist
- most threads today are left-twist (Z twist). Normally, the yarns
that are plied together to make these threads are right-twist (S twist).
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Thread sizing
- Almost all threads (except monofilament) are sized by the weight
of the thread �.not it's diameter. There are two general systems
Fixed weight system�......as the number gets bigger the thread is smaller....
generally used for spun threads
English cotton count - One of the oldest system and the one still used for many
of the spun threads. Here the size of the thread is expressed as a fraction such
as 30/3. This tells us that this thread is made up of 3 yarns plied together and
by dividing the 3 into 30 we know that it would take 10 hanks (840 yards) to weigh
one pound. The same weight of thread could be made up by plying together 4 yarns
and it would be called a 40/4.
So, a 30/3 thread (10 hank/lb) is bigger than a
30/2 (15 hanks/lb) and much bigger than a 90/2 (45 hanks/lb).
The term "weight" used sometimes for quilting and embroidery threads. This works
really well but just for 2 ply threads. A 40/2 is a 40 weight thread�20/2 is
20 weight etc. A 20/3 is not the same size �. It is 20/3 = 6.67 which would make
it about a 13 weight thread (2 x 6.67) in 2 ply terms.
Fixed length systems��as the number gets bigger the thread is bigger.
There are two primary methods used for fixed length sizing:
- Td (denier) - the weight in grams of 9,000 meters of the thread....
used for continuous filament threads.
To further
confuse the issue the ending digit of the denier is dropped so a 690 denier thread
becomes size 69, a 920 denier thread becomes size 92, etc.
- Tex - the weight in grams of 1,000 meters of the thread. This was
another hoped for thread sizing standard for both spun and filament threads
and has seen some acceptance.
One interesting point about the Tex system is that it uses brackets of thread sizes
to reduce the number of sizes in the system. For example, a Tex-60 thread could actually be any size from 50 to 50.9. As a very general rule:
Light threads are up to Tex-24, Medium threads are 27 to 35, and Heavy threads are
40 to 90.
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Conversion from one thread sizing method to another
- Cotton count = 5315/denier
- Tex = .1111 x Denier
- Tex = 590.5/Cotton count
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