Roller from a speed frame textile machine

Roller from a speed frame textile machine

This leather and metal roller is from a speed frame machine used in textile manufacturing. Rollers are used in the process that converts untwisted cotton fibres called slivers into low twisted strands called roving. The process of reducing the thickness of the sliver by rollers is called drafting.

The rollers worked in pairs, one directly above the other, applying slight pressure to either side of a cotton sliver; this draws the cotton fibres into roving - a denser, more elongated pattern that is a stronger, finer material ready to be passed onto the next stage of the yarn making process.