of all unconventional spinning techniques, open-end rotor spinning has now become the most widely accepted. strenuous efforts are being made to extend the field of application to the fine yarn sector. the open-end friction spinning system has gained acceptance in the coarse yarn sector. the fibre-wrapped spinning system (air false-twist spinning system) is used for spun yarns of man-made fibres and for blend yarns. for reasons of raw material costs it is unlikely that the system can be economically viable for cotton yarns the filement-wrapped spinning system is used especially for cut-pile fabrics for reasons of quality. automation of the open-end rotor spinning machine has already been extended to automatic sliver supply. some of these automation stages are available on other spinning machines operating on unconventional principles. examples are given. the economic viability of automation is provided particularly by benefits in yarn quality and in downstream processing. examples are given of automation and quality being mutually interactive. 9 refs