Ring, open-end and air-jet: three ways to spin yarn

Ring, open-end and air-jet spinning are three ways of putting twist into a strand of fiber to make yarn. Ring spinning twists the strand with a spindle and a traveller running on a ring. It is the slowest of the three but gives the strongest yarn and the widest count range, from very coarse to very fine. Open-end, or rotor, spinning breaks the strand into single fibers and reassembles them inside a fast-spinning rotor. It is much more productive and cheaper per kilogram, but the yarn is weaker, harsher and best suited to coarser counts. Air-jet spinning uses swirling compressed air to wrap surface fibers around a nearly untwisted core. Its yarn is very low in hairiness and pills less, but feels stiffer than ring yarn.