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Textile manufacturing

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 goods such as clothing, household items, upholstery and various industrial products.[1]

Weaving at Finlayson factory in Tampere, Finland in 1951

Different types of fibres are used to produce yarn. Cotton 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.[2]

Processing of cotton

Cotton manufacturing processes
 
Bale breaker Blowing room
     
Willowing  
   
Breaker scutcher Batting
   
Finishing scutcher Lapping Teasing
     
Carding Carding room
     
Sliver lap  
   
Combing  
     
Drawing
 
Slubbing
 
Intermediate
 
Roving   Fine roving
     
Mule spinning Ring spinning Spinning
     
         
  Reeling   Doubling
     
Winding Bundling Bleaching
       
Weaving shed   Winding
     
Beaming   Cabling
     
Warping   Gassing
     
Sizing/slashing/dressing   Spooling
     
Weaving    
     
Cloth Yarn (cheese) Bundle Sewing thread

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.[3]

There are six stages to the manufacturing of cotton textiles:[4]

Cultivating and harvesting

Cotton is grown in locations with long, hot, dry summers with plenty of sunshine and low humidity. Indian cotton, Gossypium arboreum, is finer but the staple is only suitable for hand processing. American cotton, Gossypium hirsutum, produces the longer staple needed for mechanised textile production.[5] 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.[6] 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.[7]

  • 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.[8] 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.[9] 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

 
  • Ginning, bale-making and transportation is done in the country of origin.
  • Opening and cleaning
Cotton is shipped to mills 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.[9][10]

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
 
Carding machine
 
A Combing machine
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.[11] 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.[12]
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.[13]

Spinning – yarn manufacture

Most spinning today is done using break, or open-end spinning. 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 forces.[14] This method has replaced the older methods of ring and mule spinning. It is also easily adapted for artificial fibres.
The spinning machines takes the roving, thins it and twists it, creating yarn which it winds onto a bobbin.[15]
In mule spinning 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.[16]
  • 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 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.[17]
  • 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.[18]


Measurements

  • Cotton Counts: Refers to the thickness of the cotton yarn where 840 yards of yarns weighs 1 pound (0.45 kg). 10-count cotton means that 8,400 yards (7,700 m) of yarn weighs 1 pound (0.45 kg). 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[19])
  • 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[20]
  • 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.[21]

Weaving

 
A Warper

The weaving process uses a loom. The lengthwise threads are known as the warp, and the crosswise threads are known as the weft. 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.[22]

  • 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.[23]
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 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.
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 Looms. 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 Looms or automatic looms could be operated by one skilled worker.[24]
 
A Draper loom in the textile museum, Lowell, Massachusetts
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 from one line to the other when the pattern requires it. 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 as it drives each pick of weft to the fell of the cloth.[25]
The Lancashire Loom was the first semi-automatic loom. Jacquard looms and Dobby looms are looms that have sophisticated methods of shedding. They may be separate looms or mechanisms added to a plain loom. A Northrop Loom 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.

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 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.[26]

Associated job titles

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 from becoming established. The working conditions of cotton production were often harsh, with long hours, low pay, and dangerous machinery. Children, above all, were also prone to physical abuse and often forced to work in unsanitary conditions. It should also be noted that Children who worked in handlooms often faced extreme poverty and were unable to obtain an education. The working conditions of cotton production were often harsh, with long hours, low pay, and dangerous machinery. Children, above all, were also prone to physical abuse and often forced to work in unsanitary conditions. It should also be noted that Children who worked in handlooms often faced extreme poverty and were unable to obtain an education.

Knitting – fabric manufacture

 
A circular knitting machine.
 
Close-up on the needles.

Knitting by machine 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 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 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 is a weft knit.[27]

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.[28] 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.[29][30]

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.[31]

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 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, which would degrade the cellulose 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.[31]

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, such as diluted sodium hypochlorite or diluted hydrogen peroxide. 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.[32]

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.[33]

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. 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.[5]

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.[3]

Cotton acts as a carbon sink as it contains cellulose 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 CO2 than is stored in the form of cellulose.[34]

The growth of cotton is divided into two segments i.e. organic and genetically modified.[3] 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.[5]

Before mechanisation, cotton was harvested manually by farmers in India and by African slaves in America. In 2012 Uzbekistan 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.[35]

There was a 1.5 million tonne cotton deficit in 2018 due to adverse weather conditions, limited water, and pest issues.[36]

Processing of other vegetable fibres

Flax

Flax is a bast fibre, which means it comes in bundles under the bark of the Linum usitatissimum plant. The plant flowers and is harvested.

It is now treated like cotton.[37]

Jute

Jute is a bast fibre, 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.[38] 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.[39]

Hemp

Hemp is a bast fibre from the inner bark of Cannabis sativa. It is difficult to bleach, and is used for making cord and rope.

Other bast fibres

These bast fibres can also be used: kenaf, urena, ramie, nettle.

Other leaf fibres

Sisal is the main leaf fibre used; others are: abacá and henequen.

Processing of wool and silk

Wool

 
Traditional spinner in her family's house in Old Bagan, Myanmar (2019).

Wool comes from domesticated sheep. It is used to create two kinds of yarn, woolens and worsteds. 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 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.[41] 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 felted wool. Extract is recovered chemically from mixed cotton/wool fabrics.

The fleece is shorn 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. 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: 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.

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.[42]

Environmental consequences of wool and silk manufacture

Both wool and silk require farmland. Whereas silkworms require mulberry leaves, sheep eat grass, clover, forbs and other pasture plants. Sheep, like all ruminants emit CO2 via their digestive system.[43] Also, their pastures may sometimes be fertilised[44] 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 fibres are created by forcing, or extruding, fibre forming materials through holes (called spinnerets) into the air, thus forming a thread. Before synthetic fibres were developed, cellulose fibres were made from natural cellulose, which comes from plants.

The first artificial fibre, known as art silk from 1799 onwards, became known as viscose around 1894, and finally rayon in 1924. A similar product known as cellulose acetate 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 parachutes and other military uses.[citation needed]

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.[citation needed]

Unlike natural fibres, produced by plants, animals or insects, synthetic fibres are made from fossil fuels, and thus require no farmland.[45]

See also

References

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  40. ^ Collier 1970, p. 19
  41. ^ Lovick, Elizabeth (2013). The magic of Shetland lace knitting. ISBN 978-1-84448-935-0. OCLC 862210511.
  42. ^ "Silk manufacture", Antiques Digest: Lost Knowledge from the Past, Old and Sold, 1900, retrieved 4 July 2009
  43. ^ Whitelaw, F. G.; Brockway, J. M.; Reid, R. S. (22 January 1972). "Measurement of Carbon Dioxide Production in Sheep by Isotope Dilution". Quarterly Journal of Experimental Physiology and Cognate Medical Sciences. 57 (1): 37–55. doi:10.1113/expphysiol.1972.sp002136. PMID 4553559. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
  44. ^ Use of nitrogen fertiliser to boost winter pasture growth
  45. ^ "Do Synthetic Fabrics Harm the Environment – No". www.actforlibraries.org. Retrieved 20 October 2022.

Bibliography

  • Barfoot, J. R. (1840), The Progress of Cotton, Barfoot's series of coloured lithographs of 1840 depicting the cotton manufacturing process., Spinning the Web, Manchester Libraries: Darton, p. 12, retrieved 11 February 2009
  • Collier, Ann M (1970), A Handbook of Textiles, Pergamon Press, p. 258, ISBN 978-0-08-018057-1
  • Curtis, H P (1921), , Arthur Roberts Black Book., Manchester: Marsden & Company, Ltd. 1921, archived from the original on 6 October 2011, retrieved 11 January 2009
  • Gurr, Duncan; Hunt, Julian (1998), The Cotton Mills of Oldham, Oldham Education & Leisure, ISBN 978-0-902809-46-8
  • Hills, Richard Leslie (1993), Power from Steam: A History of the Stationary Steam Engine, Cambridge University Press, p. 244, ISBN 978-0-521-45834-4, retrieved 11 January 2009
  • Nasmith, Joseph (1894), Recent Cotton Mill Construction and Engineering, John Heywood, Deansgate, Manchester, reprinted Elibron Classics, ISBN 978-1-4021-4558-2, retrieved 11 January 2009
  • Roberts, A S (1921), , Arthur Roberts Black Book., One guy from Barlick-Book Transcription, archived from the original on 23 July 2011, retrieved 11 January 2009

External links

  Media related to Textile manufacturing at Wikimedia Commons

  • Cotton Year Book 1910 (Textile Mercury) Descriptions and calculations for purchasing all cotton processing machines.
  • 1921 John Hetherington & Sons Catalogue Descriptions and illustrations of principal machines.

textile, manufacturing, this, article, needs, additional, citations, verification, please, help, improve, this, article, adding, citations, reliable, sources, unsourced, material, challenged, removed, find, sources, news, newspapers, books, scholar, jstor, aug. This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Textile manufacturing news newspapers books scholar JSTOR August 2021 Learn how and when to remove this template message 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 goods such as clothing household items upholstery and various industrial products 1 Weaving at Finlayson factory in Tampere Finland in 1951 Different types of fibres are used to produce yarn Cotton 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 Contents 1 History 2 Processing of cotton 2 1 Cultivating and harvesting 2 2 Preparatory processes preparation of yarn 2 3 Spinning yarn manufacture 2 3 1 Measurements 2 4 Weaving 2 4 1 Measurements 2 4 2 Associated job titles 2 4 3 Issues 2 5 Knitting fabric manufacture 2 6 Finishing processing of textiles 2 6 1 Desizing 2 6 2 Scouring 2 6 3 Bleaching 2 6 4 Mercerising 2 6 5 Singeing 2 6 6 Raising 2 6 7 Calendering 2 6 8 Shrinking sanforising 2 6 9 Dyeing 2 6 10 Printing 2 7 Economic environmental and political consequences of cotton manufacture 3 Processing of other vegetable fibres 3 1 Flax 3 2 Jute 3 3 Hemp 3 4 Other bast fibres 3 5 Other leaf fibres 4 Processing of wool and silk 4 1 Wool 4 2 Silk 4 3 Environmental consequences of wool and silk manufacture 4 4 Synthetic fibres 5 See also 6 References 7 Bibliography 8 External linksHistory EditMain article Textile manufacturing by pre industrial methods Main article Textile manufacture during the British Industrial RevolutionTextile 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 2 Processing of cotton EditCotton manufacturing processes Bale breaker Blowing room Willowing Breaker scutcher Batting Finishing scutcher Lapping Teasing Carding Carding room Sliver lap Combing Drawing Slubbing Intermediate Roving Fine roving Mule spinning Ring spinning Spinning Reeling Doubling Winding Bundling Bleaching Weaving shed Winding Beaming Cabling Warping Gassing Sizing slashing dressing Spooling Weaving Cloth Yarn cheese Bundle Sewing threadCotton 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 3 There are six stages to the manufacturing of cotton textiles 4 Cultivating and Harvesting Preparatory Processes Spinning Weaving or Knitting Finishing MarketingCultivating and harvesting Edit Cotton is grown in locations with long hot dry summers with plenty of sunshine and low humidity Indian cotton Gossypium arboreum is finer but the staple is only suitable for hand processing American cotton Gossypium hirsutum produces the longer staple needed for mechanised textile production 5 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 6 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 7 GinningThe 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 8 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 2 in to 1 in is called Egyptian medium staple 1 in to in is called American upland and short staple less than in is called Indian 9 The cotton seed is pressed into a cooking oil The husks and meal are processed into animal feed and the stems into paper dd Preparatory processes preparation of yarn Edit Platt Bros picker Ginning bale making and transportation is done in the country of origin Opening and cleaningCotton is shipped to mills 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 9 10 dd Blending Mixing and ScutchingScutching 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 CardingMain article Carding Carding machine A Combing machine 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 11 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 12 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 13 dd Spinning yarn manufacture Edit Main article Cotton spinning machinery SpinningMost spinning today is done using break or open end spinning 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 forces 14 This method has replaced the older methods of ring and mule spinning It is also easily adapted for artificial fibres The spinning machines takes the roving thins it and twists it creating yarn which it winds onto a bobbin 15 In mule spinning 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 16 dd 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 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 dd CheckingThis is the process where each of the bobbins is rewound to give a tighter bobbin dd Folding and twistingPlying 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 17 dd GassingMain articles Singe Textiles and Gassing textile process 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 18 dd Mule spinning Mule spinning Ring spinning Ring spinning Measurements Edit Main article Units of textile measurement Cotton Counts Refers to the thickness of the cotton yarn where 840 yards of yarns weighs 1 pound 0 45 kg 10 count cotton means that 8 400 yards 7 700 m of yarn weighs 1 pound 0 45 kg 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 19 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 20 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 21 Weaving Edit A Warper The weaving process uses a loom The lengthwise threads are known as the warp and the crosswise threads are known as the weft 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 22 WindingAfter 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 dd Warping or beamingRacks 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 23 dd SizingA sizing machine is needed for strengthening the warp by adding starch to reduce breakage dd Drawing in LoomingThe process of drawing each end of the warp separately through the dents of the reed and the eyes of the healds in the order indicated by the draft dd 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 dd WeavingMain article Power loom 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 Looms 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 Looms or automatic looms could be operated by one skilled worker 24 dd A Draper loom in the textile museum Lowell Massachusetts 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 from one line to the other when the pattern requires it 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 as it drives each pick of weft to the fell of the cloth 25 dd The Lancashire Loom was the first semi automatic loom Jacquard looms and Dobby looms are looms that have sophisticated methods of shedding They may be separate looms or mechanisms added to a plain loom A Northrop Loom 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 dd dd Measurements Edit 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 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 26 Associated job titles Edit Piecer Scavenger Weaver Tackler Draw boyIssues Edit 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 from becoming established The working conditions of cotton production were often harsh with long hours low pay and dangerous machinery Children above all were also prone to physical abuse and often forced to work in unsanitary conditions It should also be noted that Children who worked in handlooms often faced extreme poverty and were unable to obtain an education The working conditions of cotton production were often harsh with long hours low pay and dangerous machinery Children above all were also prone to physical abuse and often forced to work in unsanitary conditions It should also be noted that Children who worked in handlooms often faced extreme poverty and were unable to obtain an education Knitting fabric manufacture Edit A circular knitting machine Close up on the needles Main article Knitted fabric Knitting by machine 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 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 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 is a weft knit 27 Finishing processing of textiles Edit Main article Finishing 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 28 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 29 30 Desizing Edit 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 31 Scouring Edit 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 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 which would degrade the cellulose 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 31 Bleaching Edit Main article Textile 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 such as diluted sodium hypochlorite or diluted hydrogen peroxide 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 32 Mercerising Edit Main article Mercerised cotton 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 33 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 Edit Main article Singe Textiles 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 Edit 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 Edit Main article Calender Calendering is a procecss in which the fabric is passed between heated rollers to generate smooth polished or embossed effects Shrinking sanforising Edit Main article Sanforization Sanforisation is a form of mechanical pre shrinking so that the fabric will shrink less upon laundering Dyeing Edit Main article 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 Edit Main article Textile 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 Edit Production of cotton requires arable land 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 5 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 3 Cotton acts as a carbon sink as it contains cellulose 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 CO2 than is stored in the form of cellulose 34 The growth of cotton is divided into two segments i e organic and genetically modified 3 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 5 Before mechanisation cotton was harvested manually by farmers in India and by African slaves in America In 2012 Uzbekistan 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 35 There was a 1 5 million tonne cotton deficit in 2018 due to adverse weather conditions limited water and pest issues 36 Processing of other vegetable fibres EditFlax Edit Main article Flax Flax is a bast fibre which means it comes in bundles under the bark of the Linum usitatissimum plant The plant flowers and is harvested Retting Breaking Scutching Hackling or combingIt is now treated like cotton 37 Jute Edit Main article Jute Jute is a bast fibre 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 38 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 39 Hemp Edit Main article Hemp Hemp is a bast fibre from the inner bark of Cannabis sativa It is difficult to bleach and is used for making cord and rope Retting Separating Pounding 40 Other bast fibres Edit This section does not cite any sources Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed August 2021 Learn how and when to remove this template message These bast fibres can also be used kenaf urena ramie nettle Other leaf fibres Edit This section does not cite any sources Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed August 2021 Learn how and when to remove this template message Sisal is the main leaf fibre used others are abaca and henequen Processing of wool and silk EditWool Edit Traditional spinner in her family s house in Old Bagan Myanmar 2019 Wool comes from domesticated sheep It is used to create two kinds of yarn woolens and worsteds 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 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 41 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 felted wool Extract is recovered chemically from mixed cotton wool fabrics The fleece is shorn 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 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 WorstedsCombing 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 dd Angora dd Silk Edit 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 42 Environmental consequences of wool and silk manufacture Edit Both wool and silk require farmland Whereas silkworms require mulberry leaves sheep eat grass clover forbs and other pasture plants Sheep like all ruminants emit CO2 via their digestive system 43 Also their pastures may sometimes be fertilised 44 which further increases emissions Synthetic fibres Edit Main article Synthetic fibre Synthetic fibres are the result of extensive development by scientists to improve upon the naturally occurring animal and plant fibres In general synthetic fibres are created by forcing or extruding fibre forming materials through holes called spinnerets into the air thus forming a thread Before synthetic fibres were developed cellulose fibres were made from natural cellulose which comes from plants The first artificial fibre known as art silk from 1799 onwards became known as viscose around 1894 and finally rayon in 1924 A similar product known as cellulose acetate 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 parachutes and other military uses citation needed 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 citation needed Unlike natural fibres produced by plants animals or insects synthetic fibres are made from fossil fuels and thus require no farmland 45 See also EditClothing technology Dref Friction Spinning Fashion design Glossary of textile manufacturing Textile from algae Textile design Timeline of clothing and textiles technology Wet processing engineeringReferences Edit Career Guide to Industries The Bureau 2006 Hollen Norma R Hollen Norma R Textiles 1988 Textiles Internet Archive New York Macmillan p 2 ISBN 978 0 02 367530 0 a b c Majeed A 19 January 2009 Cotton and textiles the challenges ahead Dawn the Internet edition retrieved 12 February 2009 Machine processes Spinning the Web Manchester City Council Libraries retrieved 29 January 2009 a b c Handicrafts India Craft Revival Trust retrieved 12 February 2009 Cultivating and Harvesting Spinning the Web Manchester City Council Libraries 2009 Planet Money Makes A T Shirt NPR org Retrieved 29 October 2021 Collier 1970 p 11 a b Collier 1970 p 13 Preparatory Processes Spinning the Web Manchester City Council Libraries retrieved 29 January 2009 Collier 1970 pp 66 67 Collier 1970 p 69 Collier 1970 pp 70 Collier 1970 pp 80 Collier 1970 pp 71 Saxonhouse Gary Technological Evolution in Cotton Spinning 1878 1933 PDF Stanford University archived from the original PDF on 16 July 2011 retrieved 26 January 2009 Spinning Spinning the Web Manchester City Council Libraries retrieved 29 January 2009 Curtis 1921 p 1 Collier 1970 p 74 Curtis 1921 p Cotton count Collier 1970 p 3 Weaving Spinning the Web Manchester City Council Libraries retrieved 29 January 2009 Kelsie Cruse 2016 Clothing amp Fashion Learning Press p 80 ISBN 978 1 280 29435 8 Fowler Alan 2003 Lancashire Cotton Operatives and Work 1900 1950 A Social History of Lancashire Cotton Operatives in the Twentieth Century Ashgate Publishing Ltd p 90 ISBN 978 0 7546 0116 6 retrieved 21 January 2009 Curtis 1921 p Shed Curtis 1921 p Ends Collier 1970 p 118 Principles of Textile Finishing Woodhead 29 April 2017 pp 1 10 ISBN 9780081006610 Finishing Spinning the Web Manchester City Council Libraries retrieved 29 January 2009 GREENHALGH DAVID 2005 Cotton finishing retrieved 12 February 2009 a b Collier 1970 p 155 Collier 1970 p 157 Collier 1970 p 159 Cutting cotton carbon emissions Findings from Warangal India PDF awsassets wwfindia org Retrieved 20 October 2022 Doctors and nurses forced to pick cotton 16 October 2012 Retrieved 20 October 2022 via www bbc co uk Voora Vivek Larrea Cristina Bermudez Steffany 2020 Global Market Report International Institute for Sustainable Development IISD Collier 1970 p 16 Collier 1970 p 17 Daily Star Magazine 1 October 2003 accessed 20 May 2010 Collier 1970 p 19 Lovick Elizabeth 2013 The magic of Shetland lace knitting ISBN 978 1 84448 935 0 OCLC 862210511 Silk manufacture Antiques Digest Lost Knowledge from the Past Old and Sold 1900 retrieved 4 July 2009 Whitelaw F G Brockway J M Reid R S 22 January 1972 Measurement of Carbon Dioxide Production in Sheep by Isotope Dilution Quarterly Journal of Experimental Physiology and Cognate Medical Sciences 57 1 37 55 doi 10 1113 expphysiol 1972 sp002136 PMID 4553559 Retrieved 20 October 2022 Use of nitrogen fertiliser to boost winter pasture growth Do Synthetic Fabrics Harm the Environment No www actforlibraries org Retrieved 20 October 2022 Bibliography EditBarfoot J R 1840 The Progress of Cotton Barfoot s series of coloured lithographs of 1840 depicting the cotton manufacturing process Spinning the Web Manchester Libraries Darton p 12 retrieved 11 February 2009 Collier Ann M 1970 A Handbook of Textiles Pergamon Press p 258 ISBN 978 0 08 018057 1 Curtis H P 1921 Glossary of Textile Terms Arthur Roberts Black Book Manchester Marsden amp Company Ltd 1921 archived from the original on 6 October 2011 retrieved 11 January 2009 Gurr Duncan Hunt Julian 1998 The Cotton Mills of Oldham Oldham Education amp Leisure ISBN 978 0 902809 46 8 Hills Richard Leslie 1993 Power from Steam A History of the Stationary Steam Engine Cambridge University Press p 244 ISBN 978 0 521 45834 4 retrieved 11 January 2009 Nasmith Joseph 1894 Recent Cotton Mill Construction and Engineering John Heywood Deansgate Manchester reprinted Elibron Classics ISBN 978 1 4021 4558 2 retrieved 11 January 2009 Roberts A S 1921 Arthur Robert s Engine List Arthur Roberts Black Book One guy from Barlick Book Transcription archived from the original on 23 July 2011 retrieved 11 January 2009External links Edit Media related to Textile manufacturing at Wikimedia Commons Cotton Year Book 1910 Textile Mercury Descriptions and calculations for purchasing all cotton processing machines 1921 John Hetherington amp Sons Catalogue Descriptions and illustrations of principal machines Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Textile manufacturing amp oldid 1152902650, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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