Card Production Rate, Total Draft & Flat Waste

The carding ratio here is cylinder surface travelled per metre of sliver delivered — a proxy for how much wire action each length of fibre receives, and the figure that actually falls when production is pushed. It is a ratio, not an absolute: comparing it between cards is only meaningful at the same wire point density and the same cylinder-to-flat setting, because a worn or coarse clothing presents fewer working points per unit area. Total draft on a card is nominal rather than mechanical, since the web is condensed rather than drafted in the drawing-frame sense, and it says nothing about fibre orientation — a card sliver is a poorly oriented product by design, which is why drawing exists. Flat strips and licker-in droppings both remove short fibre and neps along with good fibre; cutting them to raise yield reliably shows up two processes later as ends down at the ring frame.