Greige goods (Gray goods, Grey goods, Corah or ) are loom state woven fabrics, or unprocessed knitted fabrics. Greige goods undergo many subsequent processes, for instance,
dyeing
Dyeing is the application of dyes or pigments on textile materials such as fibers, yarns, and fabrics with the goal of achieving color with desired color fastness. Dyeing is normally done in a special solution containing dyes and particular ...
,
printing
Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ea ...
, and
finishing,
prior to further converting to finished goods such as clothing, or other textile products."Grey fabrics" is another term to refer to unfinished woven or knitted fabrics.
"Corah silk" was a type of light silk from
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
in the 19th century. It was a pale straw-colored material made from unbleached (raw) silk.
Characteristics
Greige goods do not mean their color but their unprocessed form; they are sometimes called grey. Greige goods are
unfinished
Unfinished may refer to:
*Unfinished creative work, a work which a creator either chose not to finish or was prevented from finishing.
Music
* Symphony No. 8 (Schubert) "Unfinished"
* ''Unfinished'' (album), 2011 album by American singer Jor ...
fabrics that come out directly from a
loom
A loom is a device used to weave cloth and tapestry. The basic purpose of any loom is to hold the warp threads under tension to facilitate the interweaving of the weft threads. The precise shape of the loom and its mechanics may vary, but th ...
or a
knitting machine
A knitting machine is a device used to create knitted fabrics in a semi or fully automated fashion. There are numerous types of knitting machines, ranging from simple spool or board templates with no moving parts to highly complex mechanisms co ...
.
Woven materials are also called
''loom state fabrics''.
Greige materials are scoured (to clean) and sometimes
bleached (to remove natural color) before dyeing and printing.
Greige goods contain many types of impurities.
Impurities
Foreign matter in addition to the actual
fiber
Fiber or fibre (from la, fibra, links=no) is a natural or artificial substance that is significantly longer than it is wide. Fibers are often used in the manufacture of other materials. The strongest engineering materials often incorporate ...
is known as impurities. Textile fibers contain the following types of impurities.
* Natural impurities: Impurities gathered from the natural environment by the fibres. Natural impurities also include non-fibrous parts that are incorporated into the fiber during its growth. Notably, these are not present in synthetic fibres, which are manufactured artificially.
* Added: Oils and waxes during spinning or knitting or weaving.
* Accidental: dirt or mishandling, foreign contaminants.
Impurities in cotton
Cotton Pectins, waxes, proteins, mineral compounds, and ash, etc.
Impurities in wool
Impurities in silk
Silk is an
animal fiber
Animal fibers are natural fibers that consist largely of certain proteins. Examples include silk, hair/fur (including wool) and feathers. The animal fibers used most commonly both in the manufacturing world as well as by the hand spinners are w ...
it consists 70–80%
fibroin
Fibroin is an insoluble protein present in silk produced by numerous insects, such as the larvae of ''Bombyx mori'', and other moth genera such as ''Antheraea'', '' Cricula'', '' Samia'' and ''Gonometa''. Silk in its raw state consists of two ...
and 20–30%
sericin
Sericin is a protein created by ''Bombyx mori'' (silkworms) in the production of silk. Silk is a fibre produced by the silkworm in production of its Pupa#Cocoon, cocoon. It consists mainly of two proteins, fibroin and sericin. Silk consists of ...
(the gum coating the fibres). It carries impurities like dirt, oils, fats and
sericin
Sericin is a protein created by ''Bombyx mori'' (silkworms) in the production of silk. Silk is a fibre produced by the silkworm in production of its Pupa#Cocoon, cocoon. It consists mainly of two proteins, fibroin and sericin. Silk consists of ...
.
Natural color
Most natural fibers have natural color, the natural color of the cotton cloth is off White or
Beige
Beige is variously described as a pale sandy fawn color, a grayish tan, a light-grayish yellowish brown, or a pale to grayish yellow. It takes its name from French, where the word originally meant natural wool that has been neither bleached no ...
when it is undyed or not
processed. Because of the presence of natural pigment, wool has a slight yellow tint. Though the color is undesirable and is removed during the pre-treatment processes of scouring and bleaching.
Fugitive tint
The tint is an application of very light dyes, or colorants, the fugitive (temporary) tint is used to identify and distinguish different batches. The fugitive tint is readily removable during subsequent wet processing treatments. The practice is common with synthetic textile materials.
Parameters
Textile manufacturing is a complicated and lengthy procedure. The material passes through various stages. It is necessary to decide the yarn count, stitch length, thread count, and g.s.m. at the beginning, i.e., the greige stage, to achieve a desired finished product. Since the
textile industry
The textile industry is primarily concerned with the design, production and distribution of yarn, cloth and clothing. The raw material may be natural, or synthetic using products of the chemical industry.
Industry process
Cotton manufacturi ...
still works in a fragmented way, the greige goods are also sold for further processing at different units. They are then stitched together for subsequent operations.
RFD fabrics
The semifinished state of fabrics that have been scoured or bleached in preparation for subsequent processes such as dyeing and printing is referred to as RFD (ready for dyeing). PFD stands for "prepared for dyeing," while PFP stands for "prepared for printing.". RFD multifiber that is composed of various fibers is used in testing of
washing fastness for cross staining. It's known as "adjacent fabric."
See also
*
Textile
Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...
*
Piece goods
Piece goods were the textile materials sold in cut pieces as per the buyer's specification. The piece goods were either cut from a fabric roll or produced with a certain length, also called yard goods. Various textiles such as cotton, wool, silk, ...
*
Batch production
Batch production is a method of manufacturing where the products are made as specified groups or amounts, within a time frame. A batch can go through a series of steps in a large manufacturing process to make the final desired product. Batch prod ...
*
Bolt (cloth)
A bolt is a piece of cloth woven on a loom or created by a knitting machine, as it is processed, stored and/or marketed. Consequently, its dimensions are highly variableflexible and dependent upon the manufacturing, machinery, quantity, size, th ...
*
Lot number
A lot number is an identification number assigned to a particular quantity or lot of material from a single manufacturer. Lot numbers can typically be found on the outside of packaging. For cars, a lot number is combined with a serial number to fo ...
*
Scouring (textiles)
Scouring is a preparatory treatment of certain textile materials. Scouring removes soluble and insoluble impurities found in textiles as natural, added and adventitious impurities, for example, oils, waxes, fats, vegetable matter, as well as di ...
*
Quality control
Quality control (QC) is a process by which entities review the quality of all factors involved in production. ISO 9000 defines quality control as "a part of quality management focused on fulfilling quality requirements".
This approach places ...
References
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Textile industry
Textiles
Quality control
Woven fabrics
Knitted fabrics