I.

TEXTILE RAW MATERIALS

Fibres are the mess of threads, used to make clothes. Textile raw materials can be devided into two
main groups, natural and man-made fibres.
Natural fibres:
All the natural fibres used in industry are organic by origin, with the exception of asbestos, the only
inorganic natural fibre to be used in the textile industry.
Organic natural fibres can be either plant (cellulose) or animal (protein).
Among plant fibres the most widely used are seed fibres (cotton and kapok).
Bast fibres are flax and hemp. They are also called long vegetable fibres.
The main member of the hard fibre is raffia. Hard fibres are coarse fibres from the leaves of some
plants. Fruit fibres are also coarse fibres used for restricted purposes. The example is coconut.
Animal or protein fibres are wool or other animal hair and silk.
Organic man-made fibres:
They can be also organic or inorganic.
Organic man-made fibres can be manufactured from natural or synthetic polymers.
Natural polymers used in manufacturing man-made fibres can be of:
1. plant origin (viscose, acetate)
2. made from latex
3. proteins
4. can be animal origin
Synthetic polymers are organic by nature and can roughly be devided into the groups:
1. Polyester fibres
2. Polyamide fibres
3. Acrylic fibres
4. Elastane fibres





II. FIBRE PROPERTIES

Key properties:
1. Length
2. Fineness
3. Breaking strength
4. Elasticity
5. Resistance to the impact of various forces
6. Density
7. Hygroscopicity
8. Thermal, electric and chemical properties
9. Resistance to the various biological influences
Most important properties:
1. Fibre fineness
2. Maximum breaking strength (dry and wet)
3. Elongation
4. Hydrophilicity
5. Dyeability
6. Resistance to wear and fatigue (especially for technical textiles)
7. Resistance to high temperature
8. Light fastness
9. Resistance to weathering
10. Resistance to various chemicals
11. Fibre density
12. Creasing behaviour
13. Pilling behaviour
14. Durability
15. Lustre
Degradation is a negative change in fibre properties, where fibre quality is reduced due to chemical
or some other outer influence.
Fibres can be degraded in:
1. processing
2. finishing or use
3. throughthe activity of acids, alkalis, oxidants or other chemicals
4. high temperature
5. UV light,
6. micro-organismsor insects


Fibre properties inherent to fibres are curlyness, dullness and hydrophilicity.
Fibres can be straight or curly. Wool and other protein fibres are inherently curly, while cotton is
twisted. Man-made fibres are generally straight , although curliness in them can be achieved in the
process of texturing. Curly fibres are easier to spin, the yarn made from them is bulkier and the
fabrics warmer.
The lustre or dullness of the fabric surface depends generaly upon the surface structure of the fibres
used.
Hydrophilicity is the ability of a fibre to absorb and transport moisture.
Some fibre properties are inherent to particular fibres, while some are artificially obtained through
various processes, whether in fibre manugacture, in spinning or in finishing fabrics or garments.
Fibres can be analysed quantitatively and qualitatively.
Quantitative methods include flammability tests, swelling ability tests, microscopy, microchemical
reactions, defininf meltingpoint, defining variousphysical properties.
Qualitative methods can be microscopic or microchemical and are used to define the content of a
fibreblend, as well as the raw material content of textiles.















III. COTTON
Cotton fibre is a seed cellulose fibre, obtained from a wide range of some 39 different sorts of the
Gossypium plant.
Only four of them are used in the produstion of usable fibres:
1. Gossypium barbadense
2. Gossypium hirsutum
3. Gossypium herbaceum
4. Gossypium arboreum
Gossypium hirsutum sort counts for more than 90% of the global production of global fibres. It is
resistant to detrimental influences and yields crops of medium quality. The biggest producers of
cotton are USA and China. American cottons are mostly used because they are longer, stronger and
of higher quality than Upland cotton. Others are i some countries of the former Soviet Union, India,
Iran, Pakistan, Syria, Turkey, Argentina, Brazil, Columbia, Paraguay, Peru, Egypt, Mexico, the Sudan,
Zimbabwe, Greece, Spain and Australia.
The cotton plant needs at least 200 warm and sunny days a year, with abundant moisture, and is
most often grown in the valley of big rivers, where irrigation is cheep (the Nile, the Mississippi). The
plant grows between 1 and 2 meters tall. It has about 20 white flowers. When the petals drop off, a
boll of walnut size remains, containing seeds and fibres growing from them . When it is ripe, it opens
up to the size of a billiard ball, revealing 20-40 seeds, with up to 20.000 fibres per boll.The prime
advantageof cotton is that its fibre is almost immediately ready for processing. Ginning is the process
of separating fibres from seed and impurities. That is the only preparatory process. Longer fibres are
first separated and pressed in bales. Than they are transported to spinning mills.
Content of cotton fibre: It contains from 88% to 96% cellulose-
Description: Cotton fibre is a very fine and even, unicellular fibre with a pronounced twist as a result
of fibre drying after its stops growing. They are 10-65 mm long and they belong to the group of the
fine fibres.
Colour: The fibres are light yellowish and are not especially lustrous.
Resistance: Cotton is not resistant to acid, but it is moth-resistant.
Strength: Strength is medium, the elasticity is low, so thats why its characteristic is to crease. Cotton
is highly versatile. Because of such great supply in the market, it is relatively cheap. Its properties
make it the best raw material to be used directly on human skin.
Purpose: Great number of purposes and cant be compered to any other fibres.
Types of cotton fabrics: denim and corduroy
Blends: Cotton is used in various blends with man-made fibres, in order to improve its properties. It is
still the most widely used textile fibre (constituting 43% of all the fibres used).
Weakness: elasticity and strength.
IV. WOOL
Wool is a natural protein (animal) fibre, obtained from various breeds od sheep, goats and some
other animals.
History: People started using wool in prehistoric times, when sheep were first tamed in what is today
northern Iraq in the ninth millennium BC, and in some other parts of the Middle East two thousand
years later. Sheep were bred for wool by the Sumerians , and the export of wool from Babylon was
regulated by Hamurabi. Wool was used in ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, as well sa in Europe in
the Middle Ages. In 1788. the first 29 merino sheep were transported from Spain to Australia and
from them more than 200 million sheep were bred in two centuries. Australia supplies more than
half of the worlds wool today.
Shearing: Wool is a hair covering of sheep, growing as fleece. Once a year, and twice in extremely
warm climates, sheeps are sheared, by hand or power clippers. As the fibres from various parts of
the body of an individual sheepare not of the same quality, wool is separated and sorted.
Wool obtained by shearing is also called fleece wool or virgin wool.
Lambs wool is the wool obtained from a sheep younger than a year, from the first or second
shearing.
The machine for scouring wool is called a leviathan. Plant impurities present in wool are removed by
carding and combing, and also by carbonising, a process where wool is exposed to diluted sulphuric
acid to carbonise plant remains and keep the fibres undamaged.
Apart from shearing wool can be obtained by pulling. Wool thus obtained is called dead wool.
Wool is sorted on the basis of the following:
1. Age and gender of the sheep
2. Fibre fineness
3. Manner and degree of scouring
4. Manner of obtaining
5. Part of the fleece
6. Plant impurities
7. Usability
8. Errors
9. Sales
Sensitivity: Structurally, wool is quite a heterogeneous and complex material, highly sensitive to
chemicals, water and heat.
Surface: Wool fibres have a scaly surface. The cellular part is situated below the scales, while some
coarser fibres can have a medulla, too.
Wool fibres are 5 to 35 cm long, with coarser breeds exceeding 20 cm.
Curliness: Curliness also depends upon the breed. Merino wool is curly to a high degree, while coarse
wools have fewer curls. Wool fabrics are warm due to fibre curliness, since the curls retain air as an
excelent insulator.
Colour: Wool fibres are yellowish to white in colour, but some wools are also black or brown. Of all
the fibres wool has the lowest strength, and the strength is further reduced in wet state. However,
since wool yarns are generally rather thick, wool is not considered a weak material.
Resisrance: Wool fabrics are crease-resistant, but are prone to permanent deformation under
repeated strain and longer wear. Wool is highly sensitive to alkalisand much more resistantto acids. It
is also resistant to organic solvents and can be dry-cleaned.
Felting: Wool is also prone to felting- unrecoverable length-wise and width-wise shrinkage with fabric
thickening. Felting is characteristic of all types of hairs in washing. Wool is damaged at temperatures
above 50C.
Wool is used in the manufacture of warm clothes, but is also processed into various woven and
knitten fabrics, and non-woven textiles. Carded woollen yarns are manufactured from coarser wools
and are processed into bulky, hairy and soft fabrics for coats and costumes, thick pullovers, blankets,
carpets and rugs. Combed yarn is manufactured from finer and curly fibres; yarns are usually
compact and smooth and constitute thin and strong fabrics used for suits and similar articles of
clothing.