WOOL
PRODUCTION
By: Pavitra Khandelwal
[Link]. Fabric and Apparel Science, Previous Year
Introduction
• Wool is a fibre found as delicate, soft, curly, or wavy hair
forming the body coat of a sheep, goat, or other similar
animals. These hair is known as fleece.
• Out of many variety of animal hair, fleece of is widely used
• Australia is largest producer of the wool in the world
• India's woollen industry is still small and therefore
dependent on imported raw material.
• India also produces small quantity of specialty fibres from
Cashmere goat, Pashmina goat and Angora Rabbit
Animals that Yeild Wool
and Other Spcecialty Fibres
Wool fibre is obtained from sheep and certain other animals,
including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, angora from
rabbits, and other types of wool from camel.
The most valuable wool is produced by Merino variety of
sheeps. It is fine strong and elastic though the fibres are
relatively short, ranging from 1-5inches. Merino sheeps
are adapted to live in semi - arid conditions.
TABLE CONSISTING EXAMPLES OF VARIETIES OF ANIMALS THAT YIELD WOOL OR OTHER SPECIALTY FIBRES
WOOL YIELDING ANIMALS BREED NAME WOOL QUALITY AND USES
Merino, Rambouillet, Debouillet, Lohi Small and fine wool
Sheep Targhee, Suffolk and Cheviot Medium quality wool
Lincoln, Nali, Marwari, and Romney Coarse wool
Angora goat Mohair (Lustrous fibre used for making shawls)
Goat
Cashmere goat Cashmere (Most luxurious wool fibre)
Llamas Coarse wool (Ropes, rugs)
Lamas
Alapcas Lightweight, silky (Fine yarns)
Camel Bactrian Camel Soft & warm coarse fibres (carpets, tents,etc)
Angora Rabbit Very Soft (Sweaters, shawls, scarves)
Rabbit
Jersey Wooly Slightly shorter & softer fur than Angora rabbits
Musk Ox Ovibos moschatus Qiviut (Very warm & soft used for woollen fabrics)
Merino Marwari Llamas Alpacas
Cashmere Angora Rabbit Bactrian Camel Ovibos moschatus
Processing: From Fleece to Woollen Yarn
SHEEP
Shearing
FLEECE
Sorting and Grading 2
GRADED WOOL
Scouring
WASHED WOOL
Carbonising
CARBONISED WOOL
Carding
CARDED WOOL
Spinning
WOOLLEN YARN
Shearing
The process of removing the woollen coat or fleece from an animal is
called shearing. It is done once a year after the winter season, in the
middle or late spring.
Done with either a huge pair of scissors or blade or electric clippers.
Chemical shearing maybe done where the animals are fed a chemical;
which leads to hair loss in about two weeks time.
The fleece recovered from a sheep can weigh between 6 and 18 pounds
(2.7 and 8.1 kilograms).
Annual shearing benefits both the sheep as well as us humans. Shearing
in the spring allows the sheep to begin growing their wool in time to
have a full coat by winter. Without shearing, the animal may potentially
suffer from excessive wool growth.
Grading and Sorting
Wool fleeces differ in many measurable characteristic like fineness, yield,
length, strength, color and vegetable matter contamination. When fleeces
are grouped according to any or all of these characteristics, the process is
called grading.
This is determined either by the experienced Graders or by the prospective
buyers. Its grade determines the price of the wool. The fine wool is
expensive.
In sorting, the wool is broken up into sections of different quality fibers,
from different parts of the body.
The best quality of wool comes from the shoulders and sides of the sheep
and is used for clothing. The lesser quality comes from the lower legs and is
used to make rugs.
Scouring
Raw wool is dirty and contaminated with natural substances
that must be removed before processing can be carried out.
Often as much as 30 % - 70% of the weight of raw wool consists
of impurities. In addition to dust and dirt, the wool is mixed with
natural grease and with dried perspiration.
So, the fleece is treated with a warm, alkaline, soapy solution to
remove the grease, perspiration and impurities. This process is
known scouring.
The raw wool is propelled through a tank, then squeezed
between rollers and passed to other four or more tanks and then
it is rinsed with clean water.
*The removed grease is recovered as Lanolin which is widely
used in cosmectic industry to manufacture creams, soaps, etc.
Scouring of Wool: [Link]
Carbonsing
Carbonising is unique to the woollen system and breaks down any remaining
impurities after scouring specially vegetable matters (VM) like seeds, burs and grass.
Carbonising occurs if the greasy wool contains a high percentage of vegetable
matter, typically in excess of 2% to 3%.
Most of the VM contained in wool is cellulosic in nature, which is broken down into
carbon, by firstly immersing in a strong solution (6% to 7% weight for volume) of dil.
Sulphuric acid (H2SO4) then followed by baking in a dryer set.
After the VM has been turned into carbon, the wool is passed through a series of
heavy metal fluted rollers which crush the carbonised burs into dust.
The wool is then passed through a de-dusting unit (rotary shaker) where the dust
is separated from the wool by mechanical action.
Carding
Till the stage of carbonising, fibres get entangled and placed
haphazardly, requiring to be straightened up before spinning.
So, the fibers are passed through a series of rollers with metal
teeth that straighten and blend them into slivers.
Carding also removes residual dirt and other matter left in the
fibers. Carded wool intended for worsted yarn is put through
gilling and combing, two procedures that remove short fibers
and place the longer fibers parallel to each other.
From there, the slivers are compacted and thinned through a
process called drawing. Carded wool to be used for woollen yarn
is sent directly for spinning
Spinning
The fibres after drying are oiled, straightened, combed, washed, twisted
and spun into yarn. The fibres are straightened by keeping them under
rollers to stretch them and twisted into yarns.
Wool is spun into two types of yarn, woolen and worsted, and the
treatment of fiber after scouring varying accordingly.
Fabrics made from worsted yarn are more smoother, lighter, more
lustrous and more expensive too compared to fabrics made from
woollen yarn.
Refrences
Rastogi, D., & Chopra, S. (Eds.). (2017). Textile Science. Orient Blackswan Private Limited.
Sekhri, S. (2021). Textbook of Fabric Science (3rd ed.). PHI Publisher.
The Woolmark Company. (n.d.). Discover wool processing. Awi-Woolmark2017-Ui.
[Link]
Rahman, M. R. (2018, February 20). Wool Fibre | Manufacturing Process of Wool Fibre | Part 02.
Textile Study Center. [Link]
Kaveripakam, S. (2021, August 16). From Fibres to Wool: Meaning, Process, and Properties.
Embibe Exams. [Link]
Sahay, A. (2021, December 8). Animals that Yield Wool: Meaning, Features, Process - Embibe.
Embibe Exams. [Link]
A. (2021, March 22). General Data Protection Regulation(GDPR) Guidelines BYJU’S. BYJUS.
[Link]
Imtiaz, S. (2015, August 11). WOOL FIBRE. Academia.
[Link]
0SHAN%20IMTIAZ%20-%[Link]
Thank You