fibre to fabric manufacturing process of wool

8/18/2019 Fibre to Fabric Manufacturing Process of Wool

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Home / Knowledge / Article / Fibre to fabric manufacturing process of wool

Fibre to fabric manufacturing process of

wool

Written by: Prof. R. N. Narkhedkar and Parag Bali

Prof. R. N. Narkhedkar and Parag Bali share the details on wool, a natural, animal hair fibre.

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Wool is a natural fibre composed of proteins, as it comes from the fleece of sheep. Each sheep has variousgrades of fleece found in their coat with the highest grade fibers being found on the sides, shoulders, and

back, while the lowest grade are found on the lower legs.

Wool could be sourced from the fleece of sheep and other animals. These include cashmere from goats,mohair from rabbits and other tpes of wool from camellias, musk o!, "ngora rabbit, vicuna, guanaco,pashmina and alpaca. Wool has some special #ualities which distinguish it from hair or fur. The best#ualit wool comes from merino sheep, found in "ustralia.

Properties of wool

$ %u!urious fibre with e!cellent feel and touch

$ &oft and natural

$ Wrinkle$resistant

$ %ight weight and durable

$ 'groscopic (moisture breathable)

$ 'ighl fle!ible and durable

$ *ood drape and fall

$ 'igh + protection

$ Biodegradable

$ -nsulating properties

$ 'igh ignition threshold (good resistance to fire)

$ ulti$climatic fibre


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Physical appearance of wool

icroscopic view of cuticle cells of wool fibre

The staple structure of wool contains high amount of crimps. Wool/s uni#ue cellular structure gives it anumber of desirable properties. Wool fibres have a uni#ue surface structure of overlapping scales calledcuticle cells. These cuticle cells anchor the fibre to a sheep/s skin. 0uticle cells point towards the tip of thelock, similar to the arrangement of fish scales.

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The surface scales of the fibres are also responsible for the uni#ue felting and shrinking properties of wet wool. The scales also cause water to form beads and roll off. This helps wool fabric to repel moderate rainand spills.

Fibre to fabric process flow chart:-

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To source wool, sheep are sheared of their woollen fleece b a shearer. Tpicall, each adult sheep is shornor sheared once each ear. The annual shearing often occurs in a shearing shed, a facilit designed toprocess hundreds and sometimes more than 1,222 sheep per da. The fleece can be removed usingscissors or mechanical fleece removers (see pic).

Sorting: "fter shearing, the wool is sorted. Wool from ewes, rams, and lambs must be sorted from eachother and kept separatel. 3ifferent #ualit of wool is used for wefts, warps, and piles. Therefore, whilesorting wool, factors such as the length of fibres and wool/s abilit of absorbing des should be considered.

Wool which is going to be the source of the arns for pile should be supple, resilient, and soft. The #ualit of wool varies not onl due to the different tpe of breeds, but it also depends on the geographic locationof animals, climatic conditions of the region, the season of shearing, the #ualit, and composition of fodder.

Wool scouring: - The main purpose of scouring is to remove the impurities in wool like dust, dirt,perspiration, and natural oil matter. Without this, further processes are impossible. The process of se#uence is carried out in a large machine called the scouring train. This process is carried out in different

was.


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4. Emulsion scouring

5. &olvent scouring (normall uses petroleum ether or carbon tetrachloride)


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Wool &couring

Drying6 While using heav weight s#uee7e rollers for final deliver of wash bowls, the wool has 82 percent moisture, which must be removed before further processing. Wool must have onl 48 per cent

moisture before heading to ne!t process.

Wool dring burr $picking

Burr picking6 The primar ob9ect of burr picking is to remove all the burrs and vegetable matterpossible before the stock is passed to the carding machine. +nder the head of burrs, particles of vegetablematter that become attached to the fleece during the life of sheep are included, although a burr is reall a

vegetable seed or husk covered with sharp spines, or prickles. -f the burrs are not removed from the wool,the are broken into innumerable small particles during the operation of carding.

Carbonising: 0arbonising removes cellulosic impurities from the wool b treating it with acid or acid$

producing salts. 0arbonising ma be carried out in loose wool or on piece goods after scouring. 'owever,it is common practice to carbonise worsted piece goods as well as woollens. The process begins b immersing wool in a solution of sulphuric acid ('5&:;) that reacts with the cellulose impurities in the

wool.

Neutralising: "fter carbonising, wool is dropped into a cold water rinse bowl and is passed through apair of s#uee7ing rollers. Then it passes into a soda bath of 422 o< followed b an ionic wash. "fter that, itis put into a bowl of cold water of ph$=.8. -t takes 45 minutes to neutralise. Then, the wool passes into the

drer and is dried at appro!imatel 4;2 o


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alwas carded in the un$ded or dope$ded state. -f the ultimate fabric is to be coloured, then deing can be done after combing, spinning or weaving.

Backwashing: "fter carding, the wool, in sliver form, is given additional scour or >backwashing.> This

removes surface dirt picked up during the mechanical operation of carding and finall cleans the fibres.

Backwashing 0ombing

illing6 This makes fibres straight, uniform, and unidirectional and ultimatel makes the sliver finer b reducing weight per unit length.

Drawing: The drawing out of fibre tops into the thickness of one, to thoroughl blend the wool andensure evenness or regularit of the resulting roving material. 3rawing involves passing the top throughrollers and reducing slivers to a suitable thickness read for spinning. The process is repeated several

times to ensure regularit or evenness in the finishing, the final stage of the drawing process. " smallamount of twist is also added to the sliver at this stage to increase strength. This reduced sliver is called a/roving./ 3rawing simpl blends and reduces the wool to a suitable thickness for spinning.

Spinning: This involves drawing the thick rove and making it thinner with sufficient twist, to impartstrength. The process ensures a uniform arn of desired thickness, twist, strength, surface handle andappearance. -t is wound on convenient packages such as bobbins, spooks or cops to be used for knitting


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and weaving. The ob9ective of spinning is to produce arn with specific linear densit, of good #ualit atreduced cost.


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&pinning "utoWinding

!uto winding: Winding is the most important process in the spinning sstem. The main ob9ective of winding is to remove ob9ectionable faults from single arn, to prepare fault$free arn with the help of electronic arn clearers, and to transfer arn from small packages to bigger packages.

Stea"ing:-

&teaming is done to set the twist which is imparted in the ring frame and to eliminate snarling. "fter the arn is steamed lot$wise, single ring arn doffs are stored for at least eight hours to cool and condition.Then, it is to be taken for winding. The time between steaming and winding is important so that arn canretain moisture and get stabilised so that it can be suitable for winding.

#F$: Twisting of parallel wound double arn can be done b the method of inserting two twists for onerevolution of the spindle. -t is done to give twist as per re#uirement of direction for imparting strength todouble arns.


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Wea%ing:-

The main ob9ective of the weaving department is to weave fault$free fabric of re#uired length b keepingre#uired production rate and ma!imum level of efficienc. The fabric is woven as per #ualit,specifications, weave, design effect etc. specified b the customer. "fter weaving, the fabric is ded as perre#uirements. 3uring the whole manufacturing process, the fabric ac#uires stains and stress. Therefore, itis essential to give the fabric a finishing effect.


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&eferences:-

4. Proc. &eminar. &pecification of "ustralian wool and its -mplications for marketing and processing,0&-R: 3ivision of Wool Technolog and -nternational Wool &ecretariat (No. 4??;), &dne, "ustralia.

5. 3.&tevens, 'andle6 &pecification and effects, in Proceedings of the Wool spec ?;, &eminar/&pecification of "ustralian Wool and its -mplication for arketing and Processing/, 0&-R: 3ivision of

Wool Technolog and -nternational Wool &ecretariat, &dne, "ustralia, November 4??;, pp. '4$'42.

1. @.A.Whitel and 3.0harlton, Proc. :b9. eas. Wool "ust. Paper No. ?, 4?1.

;. R.". :/0onnel and '.P.%undgren, Te!t. Res.A.5; () (4?8;) pp. =$=C8. D?1C R..W. &umner and.P. +p dell, Wool Technol. &heep Breed. ;?(4) (5224) pp. 5?$;4.

8. P.*. &wan,

fibre to fabric manufacturing process of wool

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