IEP 222 – Industrial Materials and Processes

GROUP 10: Textile Processes

Overview

Textiles are fabrics (cloth), and other materials made principally from combinations of
fibers. These fibers may be woven, knitted, braided, tufted, or made, by mechanical or
chemical bonding, into non-woven fabrics. Yarn, sheets, films, foam materials, furs
and leather may also be used in textile products. Garments, sheets, blankets, rugs,
and car- pets, upholstery, drapes and curtains, nets, and various industrial
components are important applications of textiles.
Objective:

The main goal of textile processes is to efficiently convert raw fibers into high-quality,
functional, and aesthetically appealing textile products that meet the specific
requirements of end-use applications such as apparel, home furnishings, and
industrial materials. This involves enhancing the physical and visual properties of
textiles through processes like spinning, weaving, or knitting, dyeing, printing, and
finishing, while also ensuring durability, comfort, and performance.

A. Textile Fibers

Fibers are long, hair-like, wire-like or thread- like materials whose lengths are 0.2 in
(0.5 cm) or more and are greater than 100 times their diameters. They come from
plant, animal, or mineral sources, or can be synthetic materials.

Natural fibers- are those derived from plant, animal, and mineral sources. The major
ones are cotton, linen, wool, and silk. Wool from sheep is the principal fiber produced
from animal hair, but camel, llama, alpaca, guanaco, vicuna, rabbit, reindeer, and goat
(angora and cashmere) hair are also used.
Manufactured and synthetic fibers - Manufactured fibers used in textile manufacture
come from both natural and man-made sources. Natural sources are either organic or
inorganic. Organic mate- rials include those from plant cellulose or rubber and those
from manufactured polymers.
B. Yarn Making (Spinning)

Yarn are continuous strands of fibers that can be woven or knitted into fabrics. The
term, “spinning” refers both to the final yarn-making operation that puts a twist in the
yam (B5 below), and to the entire sequence of operations that con vert raw fibers into
usable yarns. Yarn making from staple fibers involves picking (opening, sorting,
cleaning, blending), carding and combing separating and aligning.

Picking (including opening and blending) - includes the separation of the raw fibers
from unwanted material: leaves, twigs, dirt, any remaining seeds, and other foreign
items. The fibers are first blended with fibers from different lots or other sources to
provide uniformity.
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Carding- is a process like combing and brushing. It disentangles bunches, locks of

fibers, and arranges them in a parallel direction. It also further eliminates burs and
other foreign materials and fibers that are too short.

Combing- is an added fiber alignment operation performed on fine yarns intended for
finer fabrics. (Inexpensive and coarser fabrics are made from slivers processed
without this further refining.)

Drawing (re-blending) - After carding and, if performed, combing, several slivers are
combined into one strand that is drawn to be longer and thinner. Drawing frames have
several pairs of rollers through which the slivers pass. Each successive pair of rollers
runs at a higher speed than the preceding pair so that the sliver is pulled longer and
thinner as it moves through the drawing frame.

Spinning (twisting) - further draws out and twists fibers to join them together in a
continuous yarn or thread. The work is performed on a spinning frame after drawing.
The twist is important in providing sufficient strength to the yarn because twisting
causes the filaments to interlock further with one another.

Spinning synthetic - The term “spinning” is also used to refer to the extrusion process
of making synthetic fibers by forcing a liquid or semi-liquid polymer (or modified
polymer, e.g., rayon) through small holes in an extrusion die, called a spinneret, and
then cooling, drying or coagulating the resulting filaments.

C. Weaving

Weaving is the interlacing of yarn is a regular order to create a fabric. The operation
is performed in a machine called a loom. Two sets of yams are interlaced, always at
right angles to each other.
Jacquard loom weaving - Jacquard-type looms are-looms with an automatic,
selective method.

Automatic bobbin changing - Because of space and size limitations, the amount of
filling yarn that can be carried in a shuttle is also limited. Bobbins in shuttles must be
replaced when the yarn is exhausted. As noted above, this operation has been
automated.

Shuttle-less looms - Many current production looms do not use shuttles. In Some
looms, air or water streams propel the end of the filling yarn for each pick. In others,
dummy shuttles pull the filling yarn but do not carry a bobbin. The rapier method uses
an arm or tape-like machine element that grasps the filling yarn and pulls it across the
web of warp yarns.

Pile weaving - is usually a plain weave in which either the filler or the warp yarn is
drawn from the fabric to form loops between the intersecting yarns. The loops provide
a thickness to the cloth. Turkish towelling is made from pile weaves with the loops
uncut. Velvet is a pile fabric, but the loops are cut.
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D. Knitting

Knitting is fabric or garment making by form- ing a series of interlocking loops in a

continuous yarn or a set of yams. In production situations, the work is carried out
through the movement of hooked needles.

Weft or filling knitting - can be produced on either flat or circular knitting machines.
In weft knitting, one continuous yam runs crosswise in the fabric and makes up all the
loops in one course. The needles either act in succession or the yarn is fed in succes-
sion, so that loop formation and interlocking is not simultaneous.
Warp knitting - is usually carried out on flat machines but can also be tubular. Warp
knit- ting differs from weft knitting in that each needle has its own yam. The yams are
fed from a large reel or warp beam as in weaving with a loom. The yams, then, run
lengthwise in the fabric

E. Non-woven Fabrics

Non-woven fabrics are fabrics made by bonding or interlocking individual, randomly

oriented fibers together, rather than by interlacing continuous yarns. The fibers are
held together as the result of mechanical, chemical, thermal, or solvent methods or a
combination of them.

F. Finishing

Finishing processes include a variety of operations to make a textile fabric more

suitable for its application. Finishing operations can be chemical, mechanical, or a
combination of the two.

Preparations- for finishing operations includes the removal of impurities from the first
fibers and irregularities, foreign matter, and defects, from the weave or knit.
Bleaching - whitens the fabric by removing the natural colours of the fibers and any
stains from earlier operations. The process used varies with the fibers involved but is
usually a chemical process involving oxidation.

Finishing to improve appearance

Napping - is a brushing process that lifts the loose, short fibers, primarily from the weft
yams, into a down or nap. (The process is different from pile weaving which produces
loops during weaving to provide a third dimension to the fabric. In napping, the raised
fibers are only a surface effect.)

Shearing - is performed with rotary cutters, to trim a raised nap to a uniform height. It
is also carried out on pile fabrics, often by a machine with spiral blades mounted on a
cylinder.

Brushing- can be used to raise a nap on woven and knitted fabrics. It also is used to
remove loose fibers and short fiber ends from smooth fabrics.
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Beetling - involves the beating the linen or cotton fabric with wooden mallets as the
fabric is tightly wrapped over steel cylinders.

Decating - involves the application of heat and pressure to the surface of wool and
other fabrics to set the nap, even the grain, develop cluster and provide a softer hand.

Calendaring - is another process that applies heat and pressure to smooth the surface
of a fabric, making it flatter and glossier.

Creeping- Crepe is a fabric with a finely ridged or crinkled surface. The crepe effect
is most permanently produced by weaving with hard twisted yams but can also be
produced in a fabric by causing it to shrink in certain areas but not in others.

Embossing - is the same as the embossing operation applied to plastic or metal

sheets.

Optical brightening- is affected by a dyeing process. Optical brighteners (optical

bleaches) are dyes that hold colourless fluorescent materials.

Tentering - is a process that can be carried out at various stages of finishing but is
commonly a final operation.

Cabbing - is a process for wool that has an objective similar to that of entering.

Flockings- is the deposition of short fibers onto an adhesive-coated surface. One

method of applying flocking is to fling fiber dust mechanically onto an adhesive surface
that is made to vibrate.

G. Coloring

The natural colour of textile fibers is only infrequently acceptable as a colour for the
finished textile product. Colouring the fabric with one solid colour or with a decorative
pattern is the norm.
Dyeing - involves the immersion of the fiber, yam, cloth or finished product in a
solution, usually aqueous, having the dye.

Stock dyeing- is the dyeing of unseen fibers in a batch operation. A large vat is filled
with loose fibers and the heated liquid dye is circulated through the mass.

Top dywing- is the dyeing of the rope- like gathering of wool fibers that result from the
combing operation.

Yarn dyeing - is dyeing done after the fiber has been spun into yarn.

Piece dyeing- is the dyeing of a woven or knitted fabric.

Cross dyeing- is a combination process. Stock or yarn dyeing first takes place for
some of the yams that are used to make a fabric.

H. Manufacture of Clothing and Other Sewn Products (“Needle Trades”)

IEP 222 – Industrial Materials and Processes

Clothing is the largest category of sewn textile products, but footwear, leather
products, upholstery, curtains and draperies, towels, bedding, flags, para- chutes,
table linens, tents, industrial filters, and other industrial components made of fabric all
require the same basic sequence of operations when produced in quantity. These
products rely on stitching as the pre-dominant means of fastening pieces together to
make the finished product.

Spreading stacking - In production operations, the individual pieces making up the

items to be sewn are not cut individually from the fabric but are cut from a stack of
many layers of fabric.

Marking- The marker is an arrangement of outlines of all the individual pieces of the
garment or other product to be sewn.

Cutting (chopping or knifing) - Two basic approaches are used in cutting the stack
of fabric into pieces of suitable size and shape to be sewn into finished products.

Sewing - The basic sewing operation in the production of garments and other textile
products is the manually controlled sewing machine. “Its function is to form a chain of
interlocking loops (or links) of thread around small sections of fabric.”

Stitch-less joining (seam bonding) (heat sealing) - Some fabrics are joined without
using sewn stitches. Instead, the separate pieces are bonded together along a seam.

Pressing - provides smooth surfaces, pleats, creases, and other effects with a
combination of heat and pressure on the sewn product.

Folding wrapping/packing - The completion of garments and other sewn textile

products includes, in the final phases, these operations that allow the products to be
labeled, inventoried and protected, so they can be handled, shipped, and presented
to customers with proper identification and attractive appearance.

I. Rug and carpet making

rugs often mean floor coverings that do not cover the whole floor and are usually not
fastened to the floor; carpets are usually coverings of the entire floor of rooms and
may be fastened to the floor.) Handmade rugs are still produced in many parts of the
world.
Weaving rugs and carpets- Axminster carpets have a pile yam that is inserted
mechanically during weaving and bound but not knotted.

Tufting rugs - is a quite common manufacturing method for pile rugs. 90% of
American-made carpeting is tufted. The first step is the weaving of a fabric backing or
the use of a non-woven fabric as a backing.

Making knitted rugs - Knitted rugs are made with special machines that have three
sets of knit- ting needles.
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making needle-punch carpets - These carpets are unwoven except for a pre-woven
fabric core. A face of unwoven fibers is fastened to that core.

Making hooked rugs - Hooked rugs are hand made by cutting and twisting outworn
woollen or cot- ton cloth or other rags into thin strips and pulling them, with metal
hooks, through a woven backing cloth.

Making braided rugs - Colourful strips of out- worn piece goods are braided together
and wound in concentric flat spiral ovals or circles. The ovals are stitched together.

Making oriental rugs- Traditional oriental rugs are made by hand, usually on vertical
looms.

Making needlepoint rugs - is another hand- made approach. Each intersection of a

woven canvas backing cloth is covered with individual stitches of wool yarn.

References

1. The New Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th edition, 1989, vol. 21 - Industries, Textile.

2. Materials Handbook, 14th edition, G.S. Brady, H.R. Clauser, J.A. Vaccari, McGraw-
Hill, New York, 1997, ISBN 0-07-007084-9.

3. McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, 8th ed., McGraw-Hill, New

York,

1997.

4. Textiles:FibertoFabric,[Link],[Link],

McGraw-Hill, New York, 1967.

5. Encarta Encyclopedia, Microsoft, 2003.

6. Plastics Engineering Handbook of the Society

f o r the plastics Industry, 5th edition, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1991, ISBN
0- 442-3 1799-9.

7. Shreve’s Chemical Process Industries, 5th ed., G.T. Austin, McGraw-Hill, New York,
1984

8. Knitting Technology, David J. Spencer,

Pergamon Press, Oxford, England, 1983, ISBN

0-08-024762-8.

9. Grolier Encyclopedia, Grolier Electronic

Publishing, Inc., 2002, Danbury CT.