Ring-Spun vs Open-End vs Combed Cotton Yarn

How cotton becomes yarn

Cotton reaches a spinning mill as compressed bales of short, tangled fibers. Every yarn, whatever the spinning system, goes through the same early stages:

1. Opening and cleaning. Machines break up the bales and pull out leaf, seed fragments and dust.
2. Carding. Wire-covered rollers tease the fibers apart, line them up loosely and form a soft rope called sliver. Carding removes some short fibers and trash but leaves plenty behind.
3. Combing, for premium yarn only. Combing machines take out the short fibers and the small tangles called neps, leaving longer fibers lying parallel.
4. Drawing. Several slivers are combined and stretched together to even out thick and thin places.

From here the two spinning systems part ways.

Ring spinning

Ring spinning is the older system and still makes most of the world's yarn. The drawn sliver is first thinned into roving, a slightly twisted strand, and then drafted thinner again on the spinning frame. A spindle turns the yarn package while a small traveler runs around a ring, putting twist into the narrow ribbon of fibers as it winds on.

Because the fibers are drafted thin and twisted as a continuous ribbon, they lie fairly parallel along the yarn. That gives ring-spun yarn its strength and its soft, smooth hand, and it lets mills spin very fine counts. The cost is speed: the extra roving step and the slower, package-turning spindles make ring-spun yarn more expensive per pound.

Open-end (rotor) spinning

Open-end spinning skips roving altogether. Sliver feeds a fast combing roll that separates it into individual fibers, and an air stream carries them into a spinning rotor. The fibers collect in a groove around the rotor's inner wall and are twisted onto the tail of the yarn being drawn out of the middle. The rotor does the twisting, so nothing has to spin the heavy yarn package, and the machine runs far faster than a ring frame.

Compared with ring yarn spun from the same cotton, Cotton Incorporated's technical bulletin lists open-end yarn as weaker, more even, bulkier, less hairy, less prone to shedding and more resistant to abrasion. The fibers are less parallel, and many on the surface simply wrap around the core. Those wrapper fibers are a big part of why open-end jersey feels drier and firmer than ring-spun jersey. The system is most economical on coarser counts, the thicker yarns used in sturdy basics and heavy jerseys.

Carded vs combed

Every cotton yarn is carded; combing is the optional extra. Yarn described only as cotton, or as carded, still contains the short fibers. Combed yarn has had them pulled out, which makes it smoother, more even and less fuzzy, and lets it be spun finer. Combing also turns a share of the cotton into waste, which is part of why combed blanks cost more.

The two words describe separate steps, so they combine: carded open-end, carded ring-spun and combed ring-spun are all common. Trade names such as Bella+Canvas's Airlume describe a maker's own combed and ring-spun cotton rather than a different process.

How each feels, wears and prints

Durability and pilling

Durability is less one-sided than marketing suggests. Ring-spun yarn is stronger, so at the same weight a ring-spun jersey resists holes and tears better, but open-end yarn holds up well to rubbing and sheds less lint. In a 100% cotton tee, pilling is rarely the main problem with either yarn, because cotton pills tend to break away in the wash. Pilling mostly appears in blends, where strong polyester fibers keep the little balls anchored.

Printing

For plastisol, both yarns print well because the ink sits on top. The difference shows in fine work. A combed ring-spun jersey has a flatter, tighter face with fewer loose fiber ends, so halftone dots, hairlines and small type stay crisp, and DTG prints come out sharper with less fiber poking through the ink after washing. On a coarse open-end jersey the yarn texture shows through soft water-based prints and breaks up the finest detail, which some designs use on purpose for a worn look. Mesh count and print feel covers the screen side of the same problem.

How to read a fabric spec line

A spec line packs several facts into a few words. Take a typical one: "100% cotton, combed ring-spun, 30 singles, 4.3 oz."

• 100% cotton is the fiber. Check the color exceptions underneath: heathers and some greys are often blends.
• Combed means the short fibers were removed before spinning.
• Ring-spun is the spinning system. When a budget spec sheet says nothing about spinning, the yarn is often open-end; ask if it matters to you.
• 30 singles is the yarn count, also written 30s or 30/1, in the English cotton count: the number of 840-yard lengths of yarn in one pound. Higher numbers are finer, so 30 singles is thinner than 18 singles.
• Doubles (written 30/2, or "30 doubles") means two strands of that count twisted together. A 30 doubles yarn is about as thick as a 15 singles, but rounder, more even and stronger, which gives a smooth, sturdy jersey.
• 4.3 oz is the fabric weight per square yard. See GSM and fabric weight.

Yarn count and fabric weight move together. Cotton Heritage publishes the yarn for every tee, which makes its line a clear example:

Other makers follow the same pattern. Bella+Canvas lists the 3001 at 32 singles and 4.2 oz, and AS Colour its Staple Tee at 28 singles combed and 5.3 oz. At the heavy end, Made Blanks builds its 7 oz Homeroom tee from 16 singles cotton, Shaka Wear lists its Max Heavyweight at 16 singles and 7.5 oz, and AS Colour's 8.2 oz Heavy Tee uses 26 doubles. Count is not the only variable: the 5.6 oz Heavyweight Tee from Lane Seven uses 20 singles, the same count as Cotton Heritage's 6.5 oz heavyweight, because knit density changes the weight too.

Why budget basics use open-end, and some premium heavyweights do too

Open-end spinning costs less per pound of yarn: no roving, faster machines, larger packages and fewer stops. For a basic tee sold by the dozen for uniforms, events and promotions, that saving matters more than the last bit of softness, and an open-end jersey carries a bold plastisol graphic perfectly well.

The same yarn shows up at the top of the market too. The dry, sturdy hand of coarse open-end cotton is part of the vintage heavyweight look: Los Angeles Apparel builds its 1801GD from 18 singles open-end yarn and then garment-dyes it. Open-end is a different character rather than simply a lower grade, so choose the yarn for the feel and the print you want.

Which to choose

• Fine detail, DTG, a retail fit and a soft hand: combed ring-spun, typically in the high 20s to low 30s singles.
• Bold plastisol graphics on a budget, uniforms, events: a carded open-end midweight does the job.
• Vintage or streetwear heavyweights: coarse yarns, singles or doubles, ring-spun or open-end, at 6.5 oz and up. Feel samples, because the finish matters as much as the spinning.
• Discharge and water-based prints: the fiber and dye matter more than the spinning. Use 100% cotton dyed with dyes that discharge, and test the exact color. Screen printing inks explains why.

Useful for: clothing brands, creators.