Textile Manufacturing or
Textile Engineering
Textile Manufacturing or Textile Engineering is a major industry. It is largely based on the conversion of fibre into yarn, then yarn into fabric. These are then dyed or printed, fabricated into cloth which is then converted into useful good ...
is a major
industry
Industry may refer to:
Economics
* Industry (economics), a generally categorized branch of economic activity
* Industry (manufacturing), a specific branch of economic activity, typically in factories with machinery
* The wider industrial sector ...
. It is largely based on the conversion of
fibre into
yarn
Yarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibres, used in sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, embroidery, ropemaking, and the production of textiles. Thread is a type of yarn intended for sewing by hand or machine. Modern manu ...
, then yarn into fabric. These are then
dyed
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 ...
or printed, fabricated into cloth which is then converted into useful goods such as
clothing
Clothing (also known as clothes, apparel, and attire) are items worn on the body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin sheets of materials and natural ...
,
household
A household consists of two or more persons who live in the same dwelling. It may be of a single family or another type of person group. The household is the basic unit of analysis in many social, microeconomic and government models, and is i ...
items,
upholstery
Upholstery is the work of providing furniture, especially seats, with padding, springs, webbing, and fabric or leather covers. The word also refers to the materials used to upholster something.
''Upholstery'' comes from the Middle English w ...
and various industrial products.
Different types of fibres are used to produce yarn.
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus ''Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor perce ...
remains the most widely used and common natural fiber making up 90% of all-natural fibers used in the textile industry. People often use cotton clothing and accessories because of comfort, not limited to different weathers. There are many variable processes available at the
spinning and fabric-forming stages coupled with the complexities of the
finishing and colouration processes to the production of a wide range of products.
History
Textile manufacturing in the modern era is an evolved form of the art and craft industries. Until the 18th and 19th centuries, the textile industry was a household work. It became mechanised in the 18th and 19th centuries, and has continued to develop through science and technology in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Processing of cotton
Cotton is the world's most important natural fibre. In the year 2007, the global yield was 25 million tons from 35 million hectares cultivated in more than 50 countries.
There are six stages to the manufacturing of cotton textiles:
*
Cultivating and Harvesting
*
Preparatory Processes
*
Spinning
*
Weaving
Weaving is a method of textile production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. Other methods are knitting, crocheting, felting, and braiding or plaiting. The longitudinal ...
or
Knitting
Knitting is a method by which yarn is manipulated to create a textile, or fabric. It is used to create many types of garments. Knitting may be done by hand or by machine.
Knitting creates stitches: loops of yarn in a row, either flat or i ...
*
Finishing
*
Marketing
Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...
Cultivating and harvesting
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus ''Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor perce ...
is grown in locations with long, hot, dry summers with plenty of sunshine and low humidity. Indian cotton, ''
Gossypium arboreum
''Gossypium arboreum'', commonly called tree cotton, is a species of cotton native to India, Pakistan and Bangladesh and other tropical and subtropical regions of the Old World. There is evidence of its cultivation as long ago as the Harappan c ...
'', is finer but the
staple is only suitable for hand processing. American cotton, ''
Gossypium hirsutum
''Gossypium hirsutum'', also known as upland cotton or Mexican cotton, is the most widely planted species of cotton in the world. Globally, about 90% of all cotton production is of cultivars derived from this species. In the United States, the wo ...
'', produces the longer staple needed for mechanised textile production.
The planting season is from September to mid-November, and the crop is harvested between March and June. The cotton bolls are harvested by
stripper harvesters and
spindle pickers that remove the entire boll from the plant. The cotton boll is the seed pod of the cotton plant; attached to each of the thousands of seeds are fibres about 2.5 cm long.
There is a higher rate of cotton being produced compared to the actual workers needed to produce the material. In 2013 a cotton farmer in Mississippi, Bower Flowers, produced around 13,000 bales of cotton in that year alone. This amount of cotton could be used to produce up to 9.4 million T-shirts.
*Ginning
::The seed cotton goes into a
cotton gin. The cotton gin separates seeds and removes the "trash" (dirt, stems and leaves) from the fibre. In a saw gin, circular saws grab the fibre and pull it through a grating that is too narrow for the seeds to pass. A roller gin is used with longer-staple cotton. Here, a leather roller captures the cotton. A knife blade, set close to the roller, detaches the seeds by drawing them through teeth in circular saws and revolving brushes which clean them away. The ginned cotton fibre, known as lint, is then compressed into bales which are about 1.5 m tall and weigh almost 220 kg. Only 33% of the crop is usable lint. Commercial cotton is graded and priced according to its quality; this broadly relates to the average length of the staple and the variety of the plant. Longer-staple cotton (2½ in to 1¼ in) is called Egyptian, medium staple (1¼ in to ¾ in) is called American upland, and short staple (less than ¾ in) is called Indian.
The cotton seed is pressed into a cooking oil. The husks and meal are processed into animal feed, and the stems into paper.
Preparatory processes – preparation of yarn
![Catalonia Terrassa mNATEC Batuar 1885](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Catalonia_Terrassa_mNATEC_Batuar_1885.jpg)
*Ginning, bale-making and transportation is done in the country of origin.
*Opening and cleaning
::Cotton is shipped to
mills
Mills is the plural form of mill, but may also refer to:
As a name
* Mills (surname), a common family name of English or Gaelic origin
* Mills (given name)
*Mills, a fictional British secret agent in a trilogy by writer Manning O'Brine
Places Uni ...
in large 500-pound bales. When the cotton comes out of a bale, it is all packed together and still contains vegetable matter. The bale is broken open using a machine with large spikes, called an opener. To fluff up the cotton and remove the vegetable matter, the cotton is sent through a picker or a similar machine. In a picker, the cotton is beaten with a beater bar to loosen it up. It is then fed through various rollers, which serve to remove the vegetable matter. The cotton, aided by fans, then collects on a screen and gets fed through more rollers where it emerges as a continuous soft fleecy sheet, known as a lap.
*Blending, Mixing and
Scutching
Scutching is a step in the processing of cotton or the dressing of flax or hemp in preparation for spinning. The scutching process separates the impurities from the raw material, such as the seeds from raw cotton or the straw and woody stem fr ...
Scutching refers to the process of cleaning cotton of its seeds and other impurities. The first scutching machine was invented in 1797, but did not come into further mainstream use until after 1808 or 1809, when it was introduced and used in Manchester, England. By 1816, it had become generally adopted. The scutching machine worked by passing the cotton through a pair of rollers, and then striking it with iron or steel bars called beater bars or beaters. The beaters, which turn very quickly, strike the cotton hard and knock the seeds out. This process is done over a series of parallel bars so as to allow the seeds to fall through. At the same time, air is blown across the bars, which carries the cotton into a cotton chamber.
*Carding
![Catalonia Terrassa mNATEC Pentinadora](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/Catalonia_Terrassa_mNATEC_Pentinadora.jpg)
:In the carding process, the fibres are separated and then assembled into a loose strand (sliver or tow). The cotton comes off of the picking machine in laps, and is then taken to carding machines. The carders line up the fibres neatly to make them easier to spin. The carding machine consists mainly of one big roller with smaller ones surrounding it. All of the rollers are covered in small teeth, and as the cotton is moved forwards, the teeth get finer (i.e. closer together). The cotton leaves the carding machine in the form of a sliver: a large rope of fibres. In a wider sense, carding can refer to these four processes:
::Willowing: loosening the fibres;
::Lapping: removing the dust to create a flat sheet or lap of cotton;
::Carding: combing the tangled lap into a thick rope of 1/2 inch in diameter, a sliver; and
::Drawing: where a drawing frame combines 4 slivers into one, repeated for increased quality.
::Combing is optional, but is used to remove the shorter fibres, creating a stronger yarn.
::Several slivers are combined. Each sliver will have thin and thick spots, and by combining several slivers together, a more consistent size can be reached. Since combining several slivers produces a very thick rope of cotton fibres, the slivers are separated into rovings. Generally speaking, for machine processing, a roving is about the width of a pencil. These rovings (or slubbings) are then what are used in the spinning process.
Spinning – yarn manufacture
*
Spinning
::Most spinning today is done using break, or
open-end spinning
Open-end spinning is a technology for creating yarn without using a spindle. It was invented and developed in Czechoslovakia in Výzkumný ústav bavlnářský / Cotton Research Institute in Ústí nad Orlicí in 1963.Carl A Lawrence (2010) ''Advan ...
. This is a technique where the fibres are blown by air into a rotating drum, where they attach themselves to the tail of formed yarn that is continually being drawn out of the chamber. Other methods of break spinning use needles and
electrostatic
Electrostatics is a branch of physics that studies electric charges at rest ( static electricity).
Since classical times, it has been known that some materials, such as amber, attract lightweight particles after rubbing. The Greek word for amb ...
forces. This method has replaced the older methods of ring and mule spinning. It is also easily adapted for
artificial fibres
Synthetic fibers or synthetic fibres (in British English; see spelling differences) are fibers made by humans through chemical synthesis, as opposed to natural fibers that are directly derived from living organisms, such as plants (like cotton) ...
.
::The spinning machines takes the roving, thins it and twists it, creating yarn which it winds onto a bobbin.
::In
mule spinning
The spinning mule is a machine used to spin cotton and other fibres. They were used extensively from the late 18th to the early 20th century in the mills of Lancashire and elsewhere. Mules were worked in pairs by a minder, with the help of two ...
the roving is pulled off a bobbin and fed through rollers, which are feeding at several different speeds. This thins the roving at a consistent rate. If the roving was not a consistent size, then this step could cause a break in the yarn, or jam the machine. The yarn is twisted through the spinning of the bobbin as the carriage moves out, and is rolled onto a cylinder called a spindle, which then produces a cone-shaped bundle of fibres known as a "cop", as the carriage returns. Mule spinning produces a finer thread than
ring spinning
Ring spinning is a spindle-based method of spinning fibres, such as cotton, flax or wool, to make a yarn. The ring frame developed from the throstle frame, which in its turn was a descendant of Arkwright's water frame. Ring spinning is a continu ...
.
::*The mule was an intermittent process, as the frame advanced and returned a distance of five feet. It was the descendant of the 1779 Crompton device. It produces a softer, less twisted thread that was favoured for fine fabrics and wefts.
::*The ring was a descendant of the Arkwright
Water frame
The water frame is a spinning frame that is powered by a water-wheel. Water frames in general have existed since Ancient Egypt times. Richard Arkwright, who patented the technology in 1769, designed a model for the production of cotton thread; ...
of 1769. It was a continuous process, the yarn was coarser, had a greater twist and was stronger, thus suitable for use as warp thread. Ring spinning is slow due to the distance the thread must pass around the ring.
::Sewing thread was made of several threads twisted together, or doubled.
*Checking
::This is the process where each of the bobbins is rewound to give a tighter bobbin.
*Folding and twisting
::Plying is done by pulling yarn from two or more bobbins and twisting it together, in a direction opposite to the one it was spun in. Depending on the weight desired, the cotton may or may not be plied, and the number of strands twisted together varies.
*Gassing
:: Gassing is the process of passing yarn very rapidly through a series of Bunsen gas flames in a gassing frame, to burn off the projecting fibres and to make the thread round and smooth and bright. Only the better qualities of yarn are gassed, like the kinds used for voiles, poplins, venetians, gabardines, Egyptian cottons, etc. The thread loses around 5-8% of its weight if it's gassed. The gassed yarn is darker in shade afterwards, but should not be scorched.
File:Textile-Spinning room.jpg, Mule spinning
File:Catalonia Terrassa mNATEC Selfactina.jpg, Mule spinning
File:Ringspinnen.JPG, Ring spinning
File:Ring spinning machine in the 1920s.jpg, Ring spinning
Measurements
*Cotton Counts: Refers to the thickness of the cotton yarn where 840 yards of yarns weighs . 10-count cotton means that of yarn weighs . This is coarser than 40-count cotton where 40x840 yards are needed. In the United Kingdom, counts from 10 to 40 are coarse (Oldham Counts), 40 to 80 are medium counts and above 80 is a fine count. In the United States ones, counts up to the 20s are coarse counts.
*Hank: A length of 7 leas or 840 yards (the worsted hank is only 560 yd)
*Thread: A length of 54 in (the circumference of a warp beam)
*Bundle: Usually 10 lb
*Lea: A length of 80 threads or 120 yards
*Denier: this is an alternative method. It is defined as a number that is equivalent to the weight in grams of 9000m of a single yarn. 15 denier is finer than 30 denier.
*Tex: is the weight in grams of 1 km of yarn.
Weaving
![Catalonia Terrassa mNATEC Ordidor](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/Catalonia_Terrassa_mNATEC_Ordidor.jpg)
The weaving process uses a
loom. The lengthwise threads are known as the
warp
Warp, warped or warping may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Books and comics
* WaRP Graphics, an alternative comics publisher
* ''Warp'' (First Comics), comic book series published by First Comics based on the play ''Warp!''
* Warp (comics), a ...
, and the crosswise threads are known as the
weft
Warp and weft are the two basic components used in weaving to turn thread or yarn into fabric. The lengthwise or longitudinal warp yarns are held stationary in tension on a frame or loom while the transverse weft (sometimes woof) is draw ...
. The warp, which must be strong, needs to be presented to loom on a warp beam. The weft passes across the loom in a
shuttle that carries the yarn on a
pirn. These pirns are automatically changed by the loom. Thus, the yarn needs to be wrapped onto a beam, and onto pirns before weaving can commence.
*Winding
::After being spun and plied, the cotton thread is taken to a warping room where the winding machine takes the required length of yarn and winds it onto warpers' bobbins.
*Warping or beaming
::Racks of bobbins are set up to hold the thread while it is wound onto the warp beam of a loom. Because the thread is fine, often three of these would be combined to get the desired number of ends.
*
Sizing
::A sizing machine is needed for strengthening the warp by adding starch, to reduce breakage.
*Drawing in, Looming
::The process of drawing each end of the warp separately through the dents of the
reed
Reed or Reeds may refer to:
Science, technology, biology, and medicine
* Reed bird (disambiguation)
* Reed pen, writing implement in use since ancient times
* Reed (plant), one of several tall, grass-like wetland plants of the order Poales
* ...
and the eyes of the healds, in the order indicated by the draft.
*Pirning (Processing the weft)
::A pirn-winding frame was used to transfer the weft from cheeses of yarn onto the pirns that would fit into the shuttle.
*
Weaving
Weaving is a method of textile production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. Other methods are knitting, crocheting, felting, and braiding or plaiting. The longitudinal ...
::At this point, the thread is woven. Depending on the era, one person could manage anywhere from 3 to 100 machines. In the mid-nineteenth century, four was the standard number. A skilled weaver in 1925 could run 6
Lancashire Loom
The Lancashire Loom was a semi-automatic power loom invented by James Bullough and William Kenworthy in 1842. Although it is self-acting, it has to be stopped to recharge empty shuttles. It was the mainstay of the Lancashire cotton industry for ...
s. As time progressed, new mechanisms were added that stopped the loom any time something went wrong. The mechanisms checked for such things as broken warp or weft threads, the shuttle going straight across, and if the shuttle was empty. Forty of these
Northrop Loom
The Northrop Loom was a fully automatic power loom marketed by George Draper and Sons, Hopedale, Massachusetts beginning in 1895. It was named after James Henry Northrop who invented the shuttle-charging mechanism.
Background
James Henry N ...
s or automatic looms could be operated by one skilled worker.
![Strickmaschine im Museum](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Strickmaschine_im_Museum.JPG)
:::The three primary movements of a loom are shedding, picking, and beating-up.
::::*''Shedding'': The operation of dividing the warp into two lines, so that the shuttle can pass between these lines. There are two general kinds of sheds: "open" and "closed." In an open shed, the warp threads are moved when the pattern requires it, from one line to the other. In a closed shed, the warp threads are all placed level.
::::*''Picking'': The operation of projecting the shuttle from side to side of the loom through the division in the warp threads. This is done by the overpick or underpick motions. The overpick is suitable for quick-running looms, whereas the underpick is best for heavy or slow looms.
::::*''Beating-up'': The third primary movement of the loom when making cloth: the action of the
reed
Reed or Reeds may refer to:
Science, technology, biology, and medicine
* Reed bird (disambiguation)
* Reed pen, writing implement in use since ancient times
* Reed (plant), one of several tall, grass-like wetland plants of the order Poales
* ...
as it drives each pick of weft to the fell of the cloth.
::: The
Lancashire Loom
The Lancashire Loom was a semi-automatic power loom invented by James Bullough and William Kenworthy in 1842. Although it is self-acting, it has to be stopped to recharge empty shuttles. It was the mainstay of the Lancashire cotton industry for ...
was the first semi-automatic loom.
Jacquard looms and
Dobby loom
A dobby loom, or dobbie loom, is a type of floor loom that controls all the warp threads using a device called a dobby.
Dobbies can produce more complex fabric designs than tappet looms but are limited in comparison to Jacquard looms.
Dobby lo ...
s are looms that have sophisticated methods of shedding. They may be separate looms, or mechanisms added to a plain loom. A
Northrop Loom
The Northrop Loom was a fully automatic power loom marketed by George Draper and Sons, Hopedale, Massachusetts beginning in 1895. It was named after James Henry Northrop who invented the shuttle-charging mechanism.
Background
James Henry N ...
was fully automatic and was mass produced between 1909 and the mid-1960s. Modern looms run faster and do not use a shuttle: there are air jet looms, water jet looms and
rapier looms
A rapier loom is a shuttleless weaving loom in which the filling yarn is carried through the shed of warp yarns to the other side of the loom by finger-like carriers called rapiers.
A stationary package of yarn is used to supply the weft yarns ...
.
Measurements
* Ends and Picks: Picks refer to the weft, ends refer to the warp. The coarseness of the cloth can be expressed as the
number of picks and
ends
End, END, Ending, or variation, may refer to:
End
*In mathematics:
**End (category theory)
** End (topology)
**End (graph theory)
** End (group theory) (a subcase of the previous)
**End (endomorphism)
*In sports and games
** End (gridiron footbal ...
per quarter-inch square, or per inch square. Ends is always written first. For example: ''Heavy domestics are made from coarse yarns, such as 10's to 14's warp and weft, and about 48 ends and 52 picks.''
Associated job titles
*Piecer
*
Scavenger
*Weaver
*
Tackler
A tackler was a supervisor in a textile factory responsible for the working of a number of power looms and the weavers who operated them. The title derived from the job, which was to "tackle" any mechanical problems encountered with the looms in ...
*Draw boy
Issues
When a hand loom was located in the home, children helped with the weaving process from an early age. Piecing needs dexterity, and a child can be as productive as an adult. When weaving moved from the home to the mill, children were often allowed to help their older sisters, and laws had to be made to prevent
child labour
Child labour refers to the exploitation of children through any form of work that deprives children of their childhood, interferes with their ability to attend regular school, and is mentally, physically, socially and morally harmful. Such e ...
from becoming established.
Knitting – fabric manufacture
Knitting
Knitting is a method by which yarn is manipulated to create a textile, or fabric. It is used to create many types of garments. Knitting may be done by hand or by machine.
Knitting creates stitches: loops of yarn in a row, either flat or i ...
by
machine
A machine is a physical system using Power (physics), power to apply Force, forces and control Motion, movement to perform an action. The term is commonly applied to artificial devices, such as those employing engines or motors, but also to na ...
is done in two different ways; warp and weft. Weft knitting (as seen in the pictures) is similar in method to hand knitting with stitches all connected to each other horizontally. Various weft machines can be configured to produce textiles from a single spool of
yarn
Yarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibres, used in sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, embroidery, ropemaking, and the production of textiles. Thread is a type of yarn intended for sewing by hand or machine. Modern manu ...
or multiple spools, depending on the size of the machine cylinder (in which the needles are bedded). In a
warp knit, there are many pieces of yarn and there are vertical chains, zigzagged together by crossing the cotton yarn.
Warp knits do not stretch as much as a weft knits, and they are run-resistant. A weft knit is not run-resistant, but it has more stretch. This is especially true if spools of
elastane
Spandex, Lycra, or elastane is a synthetic fiber known for its exceptional elasticity. It is a polyether-polyurea copolymer that was invented in 1958 by chemist Joseph Shivers at DuPont's Benger Laboratory in Waynesboro, Virginia, US.
Th ...
are processed from separate spool containers and interwoven through the cylinder with cotton yarn, giving the finished product more flexibility and preventing it from having a 'baggy' appearance. The average
t-shirt
A T-shirt (also spelled tee shirt), or tee, is a style of fabric shirt named after the T shape of its body and sleeves. Traditionally, it has short sleeves and a round neckline, known as a ''crew neck'', which lacks a collar. T-shirts are general ...
is a weft knit.
Finishing – processing of textiles
Finishing is a broad range of physical and chemical processes/treatments that complete one stage of textile manufacturing, sometimes in preparation for the next step. Finishing adds value to the product and makes it more attractive, useful and functional for the end-user. Fresh off the loom, cotton fabric not only contains impurities, including warp size, but it also requires further treatment to develop its full potential and to add to its value.
Desizing
Depending on the size that has been used, the cloth may be steeped in a dilute acid and then rinsed, or enzymes may be used to break down the size.
Scouring
Scouring is a chemical washing process carried out on cotton fabric to remove natural waxes and non-fibrous impurities (like the remains of seed fragments) from the fibres and any soiling or dirt that might remain. Scouring is usually carried out in iron vessels called
kiers. The fabric is boiled in an
alkali
In chemistry, an alkali (; from ar, القلوي, al-qaly, lit=ashes of the saltwort) is a basic, ionic salt of an alkali metal or an alkaline earth metal. An alkali can also be defined as a base that dissolves in water. A solution of a ...
solution, which forms a soap with free fatty acids. A kier is usually enclosed, so the solution of
sodium hydroxide can be boiled under pressure, excluding
oxygen
Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements as wel ...
, which would degrade the
cellulose
Cellulose is an organic compound with the formula , a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundred to many thousands of β(1→4) linked D-glucose units. Cellulose is an important structural component of the primary cell w ...
in the fibre. If the appropriate
reagents are used, scouring will also remove size from the fabric, although desizing often precedes scouring and is considered to be a separate process. Preparation and scouring are prerequisites to most of the other finishing processes. At this stage, even the most naturally white cotton fibres are yellowish, and bleaching is required.
Bleaching
Bleaching improves whiteness by removing natural colouration and whatever impurities remain in the cotton; the degree of bleaching is determined by the levels of whiteness and absorbency required of the fabric. Cotton, being a vegetable fibre, is bleached using an
oxidizing agent
An oxidizing agent (also known as an oxidant, oxidizer, electron recipient, or electron acceptor) is a substance in a redox chemical reaction that gains or "Electron acceptor, accepts"/"receives" an electron from a (called the , , or ). In ot ...
, such as diluted
sodium hypochlorite
Sodium hypochlorite (commonly known in a dilute solution as bleach) is an Inorganic chemistry, inorganic chemical compound with the chemical formula, formula NaOCl (or NaClO), comprising a sodium cation () and a hypochlorite anion (or ). It may ...
or diluted
hydrogen peroxide
Hydrogen peroxide is a chemical compound with the formula . In its pure form, it is a very pale blue liquid that is slightly more viscous than water. It is used as an oxidizer, bleaching agent, and antiseptic, usually as a dilute solution (3% ...
. If the fabric is to be dyed a deep shade, then lower levels of bleaching are acceptable. However, for white bedding and for medical applications, the highest levels of whiteness and absorbency are essential.
Mercerising
A further possibility is mercerising, during which the fabric is treated with a caustic soda solution, to cause swelling of the fibres. This results in improved lustre, strength and dye affinity. Cotton is mercerised under tension, and all alkali must be washed out before the tension is released, or
shrinkage will take place.
Many other chemical treatments may be applied to cotton fabrics to produce low flammability, crease-resistance and other qualities, but the four most important non-chemical finishing treatments are:
Singeing
Singeing is designed to burn off the surface fibres from the fabric to produce smoothness. The fabric passes over brushes to raise the fibres, then passes over a plate heated by gas flames.
Raising
During raising, the fabric surface is treated with sharp teeth to lift the surface fibres, thereby imparting downiness, softness and warmth, as in flannelette.
Calendering
Calendering is a procecss in which the fabric is passed between heated rollers to generate smooth, polished or embossed effects.
Shrinking (sanforising)
Sanforisation is a form of mechanical pre-shrinking, so that the fabric will shrink less upon laundering.
Dyeing
Dyeing is commonly carried out with an anionic direct dye by completely immersing the fabric (or yarn) in an aqueous dye bath according to a prescribed procedure. For improved fastness to washing, rubbing and light, further dyeing methods can used. These require more complex chemistry during processing, and are thus more expensive to apply.
Printing
Printing is the application of colour in the form of a paste or ink to the surface of a fabric in a predetermined pattern. It can be described as a form of localised dyeing. Printing designs onto previously dyed fabric is also possible.
Economic, environmental and political consequences of cotton manufacture
Production of cotton requires
arable land
Arable land (from the la, arabilis, "able to be ploughed") is any land capable of being ploughed and used to grow crops.''Oxford English Dictionary'', "arable, ''adj''. and ''n.''" Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2013. Alternatively, for the ...
.
In addition, cotton is farmed intensively and uses large amounts of fertilizer and 25% of the world's insecticides. Native Indian varieties of cotton were rainwater fed, but modern hybrids used for the mills need irrigation, which spreads pests. The 5% of cotton-bearing land in India uses 55% of all pesticides used in India.
The consumption of energy in form of water and electricity is relatively high, especially in processes like washing, de-sizing, bleaching, rinsing, dyeing, printing, coating and finishing. Processing is time-consuming. The major portion of water in textile industry is used for wet processing of textile (70 per cent). Approximately 25 per cent of energy in the total textile production like fibre production, spinning, twisting, weaving, knitting, clothing manufacturing etc. is used in dyeing. About 34 per cent of energy is consumed in spinning, 23 per cent in weaving, 38 per cent in chemical wet processing and five per cent in miscellaneous processes. Power dominates consumption pattern in spinning and weaving, while thermal energy is the major factor for chemical wet processing.
Cotton acts as a
carbon sink
A carbon sink is anything, natural or otherwise, that accumulates and stores some carbon-containing chemical compound for an indefinite period and thereby removes carbon dioxide () from the atmosphere.
Globally, the two most important carbon si ...
as it contains
cellulose
Cellulose is an organic compound with the formula , a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundred to many thousands of β(1→4) linked D-glucose units. Cellulose is an important structural component of the primary cell w ...
and this contains 44.44% carbon. However, due to carbon emissions from fertiliser application, use of mechanized tools to harvest the cotton and so forth cotton manufacture tends to emit more CO
2 than is stored in the form of cellulose.
The growth of cotton is divided into two segments i.e. organic and
genetically modified
Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification or genetic manipulation, is the modification and manipulation of an organism's genes using technology. It is a set of technologies used to change the genetic makeup of cells, including ...
.
Cotton crop provides livelihood to millions of people but its production is becoming expensive because of high water consumption, use of expensive pesticides, insecticides and fertiliser. Genetically modified products aim to increase disease resistance and reduce the water required. The organic sector in India was worth $583 million. Genetically modified cotton, in 2007, occupied 43% of cotton growing areas in India.
Before mechanisation, cotton was harvested manually by farmers in India and by African slaves in America. In 2012
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked cou ...
was a major exporter of cotton and uses manual labour during the harvest. Human rights groups have expressed concerns over healthcare professionals and children being forced to pick cotton.
There was a 1.5 million tonne cotton deficit in 2018 due to adverse weather conditions, limited water, and pest issues.
Processing of other vegetable fibres
Flax
Flax is a
bast fibre
Bast fibre (also called phloem fibre or skin fibre) is plant fibre collected from the phloem (the "inner bark", sometimes called "skin") or bast surrounding the stem of certain dicotyledonous plants. It supports the conductive cells of the phl ...
, which means it comes in bundles under the bark of the Linum usitatissimum plant. The plant flowers and is harvested.
:*
Retting
Retting is a process employing the action of micro-organisms and moisture on plants to dissolve or rot away much of the cellular tissues and pectins surrounding bast-fibre bundles, and so facilitating separation of the fibre from the stem.retting ...
:*Breaking
:*
Scutching
Scutching is a step in the processing of cotton or the dressing of flax or hemp in preparation for spinning. The scutching process separates the impurities from the raw material, such as the seeds from raw cotton or the straw and woody stem fr ...
:*
Hackling
Heckling (or "hackling") is the last of three steps in dressing flax, or preparing the fibers to be spun. It splits and straightens the flax fibers, as well as removes the fibrous core and impurities."Heckle." ''The Oxford English Dictionary''. 2 ...
or combing
It is now treated like cotton.
Jute
Jute is a
bast fibre
Bast fibre (also called phloem fibre or skin fibre) is plant fibre collected from the phloem (the "inner bark", sometimes called "skin") or bast surrounding the stem of certain dicotyledonous plants. It supports the conductive cells of the phl ...
, which comes from the inner bark of the plants of the Corchorus genus. It is retted like flax, sundried and baled. When spinning a small amount of oil must be added to the fibre. It can be bleached and dyed. It was used for sacks and bags but is now used for the backing for carpets. Jute can be blended with other fibres to make composite fabrics and work continues in Bangladesh to refine the processes and extend the range of usage possible. In the 1970s, jute-cotton composite fabrics were known as ''jutton'' fabrics.
Hemp
Hemp is a
bast fibre
Bast fibre (also called phloem fibre or skin fibre) is plant fibre collected from the phloem (the "inner bark", sometimes called "skin") or bast surrounding the stem of certain dicotyledonous plants. It supports the conductive cells of the phl ...
from the inner bark of ''
Cannabis sativa
''Cannabis sativa'' is an annual herbaceous flowering plant indigenous to Eastern Asia, but now of cosmopolitan distribution due to widespread cultivation. It has been cultivated throughout recorded history, used as a source of industrial fibe ...
''. It is difficult to bleach, and is used for making cord and rope.
:*
Retting
Retting is a process employing the action of micro-organisms and moisture on plants to dissolve or rot away much of the cellular tissues and pectins surrounding bast-fibre bundles, and so facilitating separation of the fibre from the stem.retting ...
:*Separating
:*Pounding
Other bast fibres
These bast fibres can also be used:
kenaf
Kenaf tymology: Persian ''Hibiscus cannabinus'', is a plant in the family Malvaceae also called Deccan hemp and Java jute. ''Hibiscus cannabinus'' is in the genus '' Hibiscus'' and is native to Africa, though its exact origin is unknown. The name ...
,
urena
''Urena'' is the genus of plants, which grow in various tropical and subtropical areas worldwide. Some view the plant as a weed, but others make use of its fiber for various purposes. The leaves and flowers are also a famine food in Africa. I ...
,
ramie
Ramie (pronounced: , ; from Malay ) is a flowering plant in the nettle family Urticaceae, native to eastern Asia. It is a herbaceous perennial growing to tall; ,
nettle
{{redirect, Nettle
Nettle refers to plants with stinging hairs, particularly those of the genus '' Urtica''. It can also refer to plants which resemble ''Urtica'' species in appearance but do not have stinging hairs. Plants called "nettle" includ ...
.
Other leaf fibres
Sisal
Sisal (, ) (''Agave sisalana'') is a species of flowering plant native to southern Mexico, but widely cultivated and naturalized in many other countries. It yields a stiff fibre used in making rope and various other products. The term sisal may ...
is the main leaf fibre used; others are:
abacá
Abacá ( ; fil, Abaka ), binomial name ''Musa textilis'', is a species of banana native to the Philippines, grown as a commercial crop in the Philippines, Ecuador, and Costa Rica. The plant, also known as Manila hemp, has great economic impo ...
and
henequen
Henequen (''Agave fourcroydes'') is a species of flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae, native to southern Mexico and Guatemala. It is reportedly naturalized in Italy, the Canary Islands, Costa Rica, Cuba, Hispaniola, the Cayman Islands and ...
.
Processing of wool and silk
Wool
![An ancient tradition](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/An_ancient_tradition.jpg)
Wool comes from domesticated sheep. It is used to create two kinds of yarn,
woolen
Woolen (American English) or woollen (Commonwealth English) is a type of yarn made from carded wool. Woolen yarn is soft, light, stretchy, and full of air. It is thus a good insulator, and makes a good knitting yarn. Woolen yarn is in contrast t ...
s and
worsted
Worsted ( or ) is a high-quality type of wool yarn, the fabric made from this yarn, and a yarn weight category. The name derives from Worstead, a village in the English county of Norfolk. That village, together with North Walsham and Aylsham, for ...
s. These are distinguished by the direction of the wool fibres in relation to the thread; woolens are perpendicularly arranged, allowing for fluffy yarns that trap air, while worsteds have parallel fibres, creating a strong and smooth yarn.
Modern sheep have uniform fleeces, while primitive and
landrace
A landrace is a domesticated, locally adapted, often traditional variety of a species of animal or plant that has developed over time, through adaptation to its natural and cultural environment of agriculture and pastoralism, and due to isolatio ...
sheep often have dual coats; a soft, short under layer and a hardier, coarser, and longer guard layer. These can be sorted to be processed separately, or spun together. The differing characteristics of each coat allows for very different yarn; the guard hairs can be used for durable outerwear, while the inner coat is what is traditionally used to produce the ultrafine wedding ring shawls across Europe. Spinning them together, like in
lopi, produces a unique yarn that combines the strength of the guard hairs with the loft and softness of the undercoat.
Wool that has never been used is known as virgin wool and can be mixed with wool that has been recovered from rags. "Shoddy" is the term for recovered wool that is not matted, while "mungo" comes from
felt
Felt is a textile material that is produced by matting, condensing and pressing fibers together. Felt can be made of natural fibers such as wool or animal fur, or from synthetic fibers such as petroleum-based acrylic or acrylonitrile or wood ...
ed wool. Extract is recovered chemically from mixed cotton/wool fabrics.
The fleece is
shorn
Sheep shearing is the process by which the woollen fleece of a sheep is cut off. The person who removes the sheep's wool is called a '' shearer''. Typically each adult sheep is shorn once each year (a sheep may be said to have been "shorn" or ...
in one piece from the sheep. Ideally, the wool is cut as close to the skin as possible to maximise fibre length. Going over the same spot twice produces small fibres that will produce pills in finished fabric, something that skilled shearers are usually able to avoid. This is then skirted to remove the soiled wool from around the legs and anus, graded, and baled. Grading is done on quality as well as length of the fibres. Long wool fibres can be up to 15 in, but anything over 2.5 inches is suitable for combing into worsteds. Fibres less than that form short wool and are described as clothing or carding wool, and are best suited for the jumbled arrangement of woolens.
At the mill the wool is scoured in a detergent to remove grease (the yolk) and impurities. This is done mechanically in the opening machine. Vegetable matter can be removed chemically using
sulphuric acid (carbonising). Washing uses a solution of soap and
sodium carbonate
Sodium carbonate, , (also known as washing soda, soda ash and soda crystals) is the inorganic compound with the formula Na2CO3 and its various hydrates. All forms are white, odourless, water-soluble salts that yield moderately alkaline solutions ...
. The wool is oiled before carding or combing.
:*Woollens: Fibre is prepared through
carding, which arranged fibres perpendicular to the spun yarn. It can also use noils from the worsted combs, mungo, and shoddy.
:*Worsteds
:::
Combing
Combing is a method for preparing carded fibre for spinning. Combing is divided into linear and circular combing. The Noble comb is an example of circular combing. The French comb is an example of linear combing. The process of combing is acco ...
: Oiled slivers are wound into laps, and placed in the circular comber. The worsted yarn gathers together to form a top. The shorter fibres or noils remain behind and are removed with a knife.
:*
Angora
Silk
The processes in silk production are similar to those of cotton but take account that reeled silk is a continuous fibre. The terms used are different.
*Opening bales. Assorting skeins: where silk is sorted by colour, size and quality, scouring: where the silk is washed in water of 40 degrees for 12 hours to remove the natural gum, drying: either by steam heating or centrifuge, softening: by rubbing to remove any remaining hard spots.
*Silk throwing (winding). The skeins are placed on a reel in a frame with many others. The silk is wound onto spools or bobbins.
:*Doubling and twisting. The silk is far too fine to be woven, so now it is doubled and twisted to make the warp, known as organzine and the weft, known as tram. In organzine each single is given a few twists per inch (tpi), and combine with several other singles counter twisted hard at 10 to 14 tpi. In tram the two singles are doubled with each other with a light twist, 3 to 6 tpi. Sewing thread is two tram threads, hard twisted, and machine-twist is made of three hard-twisted tram threads. Tram for the crepe process is twisted at up to 80 tpi to make it 'kick up'.
:*Stretching. The thread is tested for consistent size. Any uneven thickness is stretched out. The resulting thread is reeled into containing 500 yd to 2500 yd. The skeins are about 50 inches in loop length.
:*Dyeing: the skeins are scoured again, and discoloration removed with a sulphur process. This weakens the silk. The skeins are now tinted or dyed. They are dried and rewound onto bobbins, spools and skeins. Looming, and the weaving process on power looms is the same as with cotton.
*Weaving. The organzine is now warped. This is a similar process to in cotton. Firstly, thirty threads or so are wound onto a warping reel, and then using the warping reels, the threads are beamed. A thick layer of paper is laid between each layer on the beam to stop entangling.
Environmental consequences of wool and silk manufacture
Both wool and silk require
farmland
Agricultural land is typically land ''devoted to'' agriculture, the systematic and controlled use of other forms of lifeparticularly the rearing of livestock and production of cropsto produce food for humans. It is generally synonymous with bo ...
. Whereas silkworms require mulberry leaves, sheep eat grass, clover, forbs and other pasture plants. Sheep, like all ruminants emit via their digestive system. Also, their pastures may sometimes be fertilised which further increases emissions.
Synthetic fibres
Synthetic fibres are the result of extensive development by scientists to improve upon the naturally occurring animal and plant fibres. In general,
synthetic fibre
Synthetic fibers or synthetic fibres (in British English; see spelling differences) are fibers made by humans through chemical synthesis, as opposed to natural fibers that are directly derived from living organisms, such as plants (like cotton) ...
s are created by forcing, or
extruding
Extrusion is a process used to create objects of a fixed cross-sectional profile by pushing material through a die of the desired cross-section. Its two main advantages over other manufacturing processes are its ability to create very complex ...
, fibre forming materials through holes (called spinnerets) into the air, thus forming a thread. Before synthetic fibres were developed,
cellulose fibre
Cellulose fibers () are fibers made with ethers or esters of cellulose, which can be obtained from the bark, wood or leaves of plants, or from other plant-based material. In addition to cellulose, the fibers may also contain hemicellulose and li ...
s were made from natural
cellulose
Cellulose is an organic compound with the formula , a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundred to many thousands of β(1→4) linked D-glucose units. Cellulose is an important structural component of the primary cell w ...
, which comes from plants.
The first artificial fibre, known as
art silk Artificial silk or art silk is any synthetic fiber which resembles silk, but typically costs less to produce. Frequently, "artificial silk" is just a synonym for rayon. When made out of bamboo viscose it is also sometimes called bamboo silk.
Th ...
from 1799 onwards, became known as
viscose
Rayon is a semi-synthetic fiber, made from natural sources of regenerated cellulose, such as wood and related agricultural products. It has the same molecular structure as cellulose. It is also called viscose. Many types and grades of viscose ...
around 1894, and finally
rayon
Rayon is a semi-synthetic fiber, made from natural sources of regenerated cellulose, such as wood and related agricultural products. It has the same molecular structure as cellulose. It is also called viscose. Many types and grades of viscose f ...
in 1924. A similar product known as
cellulose acetate
In biochemistry, cellulose acetate refers to any acetate ester of cellulose, usually cellulose diacetate. It was first prepared in 1865. A bioplastic, cellulose acetate is used as a film base in photography, as a component in some coatings, and ...
was discovered in 1865. Rayon and acetate are both artificial fibres, but not truly synthetic, being made from wood. Although these artificial fibres were discovered in the mid-nineteenth century, successful modern manufacture began much later in the 1930s. Nylon, the first synthetic fibre, made its debut in the United States as a replacement for silk, and was used for
parachute
A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag or, in a ram-air parachute, aerodynamic lift. A major application is to support people, for recreation or as a safety device for aviators, who ...
s and other military uses.
The techniques used to process these fibres in yarn are essentially the same as with natural fibres, modifications have to be made as these fibres are of great length, and have no texture such as the scales in cotton and wool that aid meshing.
Unlike natural fibres, produced by plants, animals or insects, synthetic fibres are made from
fossil fuel
A fossil fuel is a hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the remains of dead plants and animals that is extracted and burned as a fuel. The main fossil fuels are coal, oil, and natural gas. Fossil fuels m ...
s, and thus require no farmland.
See also
*
Clothing technology
Clothing technology involves the manufacturing, materials - innovations that have been developed and used. The timeline of clothing and textiles technology includes major changes in the manufacture and distribution of clothing.
From clothing in ...
*
Dref Friction Spinning
Friction Spinning or Dref Spinning is a textile technology that suitable for spinning coarse counts of yarns and technical core-wrapped yarns. Dref yarns are bulky, with low tensile strength making them suitable for blankets and mop yarns, the ...
*
Fashion design
Fashion design is the Art (skill), art of applying design, aesthetics, clothing construction and natural beauty to clothing and its Fashion accessory, accessories. It is influenced by culture and different trends, and has varied over time and plac ...
*
Glossary of textile manufacturing
The manufacture of textiles is one of the oldest of human technologies. To make textiles, the first requirement is a source of fiber from which a yarn can be made, primarily by spinning. The yarn is processed by knitting or weaving, which turns y ...
*
Textile from algae
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Textile design
*
Timeline of clothing and textiles technology
This timeline of clothing and textiles technology covers the events of fiber and flexible woven material worn on the body; including making, modification, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, and manufacturing systems (te ...
*
Wet processing engineering
Wet Processing Engineering is one of the major streams in Textile Engineering or Textile manufacturing which refers to the engineering of textile chemical processes and associated applied science. The other three streams in textile engineering a ...
References
Bibliography
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External links
Cotton Year Book 1910 (Textile Mercury)Descriptions and calculations for purchasing all cotton processing machines.
1921 John Hetherington & Sons CatalogueDescriptions and illustrations of principal machines.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Textile Manufacturing
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Textile industry