INTRODUCTION TO THE FIELD OF TEXTILES - CLASSIFICATION - GENERAL PROPERTIES - IDENTIFICATION - TYPES :--

 

INTRODUCTION TO THE FIELD OF TEXTILES

INTRODUCTION:

    Textiles have such an important bearing on our daily lives, which everyone needs to know

    something about them. From earliest time, people have used textiles of various types of covering, warmth, personal abdornment and even to display personal wealth.

    The textile are used in apparel, home furnishing and also used in wide range of other product like blood vessels, earth works, construction, industrial filters, etc..

The textile product industry is segmented into three large groups,

1. Apparel products

2. Home furnishing products

3. Industrial products

mostly the conception are 35% apparel products, 35% home furnishing products and 30% industrial products.

Fiber is the fundamental unit of textiles. A textile fiber has a commercial importance only when it posses certain desirable property like physical, chemical and microscopically properties. All the fibers posses certain basic characteristic. By knowing these properties it can be determinine if a fiber is suitable for use in a specific fabric.

DEFINITION OF TEXTILE FIBERS:

1. Textile fibers are the materials of natural or artificial origin, which can be converted into yarn to fabric from clothing and also for domestic and industrial purpose.

2. Fiber is defined as a fine stand of tissues of plants or animal or any synthetic material drawn out into very slender filament and subsequently cut into required length. These materials should have the sufficient length, strength and flexibility.

CLASSIFICATION OF TEXTILE FIBERS

All the textile fiber are classified into two main division depending on the sources and chemical nature of the fiber namely,

• Natural fibers

• Man-made fibers

GENERAL PROPERTIES OF TEXTILE FIBERS

• Natural fibers:

Natural fibers were the fibers that occurs in nature. It can be classified into,

1. Vegetable or cellulosic fibers

2. Animal / Protein fiber

3. Mineral fiber

4. Man-made fiber

1. Vegetable or cellulose fibers:

• The vegetable fibers are cotton, sisal, jute, linen, ramie, flax, aloe-vera, banana, kapok, etc.

• These fibers are found in all cell wall of the plant or cellulosic composition.

2. Animal or protein fibers:

• The animal fibers are wool, silk, camel, rabbit hair, horse, etc,

• Animal fibers are produced by animal hair or protein composition.

• The protein fibers are taken from corn and milk and processed by chemical. These fibers are very costly and commercially not successful.

3. Mineral fibers:

• The mineral fibers are glass, asbestos, metal, etc..

• It's taken from various of rocks.

4. Man-made fibers:

    Man-made fibers are derived from various sources. The natural material of cellulose has been taken from cotton linters and wood pulp, processed chemicals and changed and changed into fibers of various lengths. This type is called semi-synthetic fibers (I.e) the fibers made up of 50% of cellulosic are 50% chemical.

Man-made fibers from other sources:

1. Mineral fiber

2. Metallic fiber

3. Rubber fiber

1. MINERAL FIBER

The mineral fibers are glass-produced from combining of silica sand, lime stone, etc..

2. METALLIC FIBER

Metallic fibers are aluminum, silver and gold.

3. RUBBER FIBER

sap tapped from rubber tree.

IDENTIFICATION OF TEXTILE FIBER

• There are many methods available for identification of the structural, physical, and chemical properties of fibers.

• Various methods are used for fiber identification like microscopic methods, solubility, heating and burning method, density and staining etc.

• End-use property characterization methods often involve use of laboratory techniques which are adapted to simulate actual conditions of average wear on the textile or that can predict performance in end-use.

TYPES OF TEXTILE FIBEER TEST:

A) THE NON-TECHNICAL TESTS

BURNING TEST

• To recognize the composition of fabrics by the burning test, the sample of fiber, yarn of fabric should be moved slowly towards a small flame and the reaction to heat carefully observed.

• One end of the sample should be put directly into flame to determine its burning rate and characteristics.

• The burning odour should be noted and the characteristics of the ash such as amount, form, hardness and colors should be examined.

B) TECHNICAL TESTS

• There are certain technical tests performed for identifying various fibers.

• These tests require high technology laboratory equipment and are much more reliable than the non technical fibre tests.

• Technical tests require high skilled personnel and technical analysis of handling chemicals and their accurate analysis.

    These tests are very valuable for those fabrics that are a blend of different yarns and also have certain special properties including flame retardance etc.

b) MICROSCOPIC TEST

1. Microscopic test is a technical test that involves identifying the fabric with the help of a microscope with a magnification of minimum 100 powers.

2. The test can easily distinguish between fibers.

3. The test identifies the natural fibers more easily as compared to manmade ones.

4. Synthetic fibers are very similar in appearance and the increased in the number of varietiess, makes it a little tough to distinguish the fibers even under a microscope.