Optimising the manufacturing process and product design using the design of experiment method: the case of fancy bouclé yarns

Since bouclé profiles of multiple-thread bouclé yarns are typically created from one or two threads, the aim of this study is to use the factorial design method to show the aesthetic influence of the number of effect threads on the structure, appearance and quality of bouclé yarns. The bouclé yarns were made on a hollow-spindle spinning system and the study was based. The responses were the circularity ratio of the bouclé profiles, their size, their number and the fancy bulkiness of the bouclé yarns. It was found that using two effect threads, instead of only one effect thread, has resulted in advantages to the bouclé yarn structure, style and quality. These were shown as increases to the circularity ratio of the bouclé profiles and the number of bouclé profiles, while reducing the size of bouclé profiles reducing the variability of the circularity ratio and the variability of the profile size.