FIBERS
An Introduction
Dr. Parul Bhatnagar
Assistant professor
Faculty of arts
Dayalbagh Educational Institute
(Deemed University)
Agra-282005, India
Fibers An Introduction
© Dr. Parul Bhatnagar 2012
Smashwords Edition
ISBN: 978-1-4659-2103-1
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Fibers An Introduction
PREFACE
How often is the consumer confronted with the question: “What shall I buy? On what basis should I select?” She knows that if the merchandise performs satisfactorily, then the purchase will have been a wise one. Similarly, if the article provides her and her family lasting satisfaction, she will have proved herself an economically efficient individual.
Consumer buying of textile fabrics entails continual decision-making. Scarcely a day goes by that some sort of decision on selection, use, and care of clothing or household textiles is not made.
All of us are both present and potential consumers. We have needs and wants, and we are motivated by emotions and reasons.
Merchandise knowledge can be acquired from experience in buying, using, and caring for textile articles. It can be learned from reading informative advertising and labels on merchandise, from well-informed salespeople, from knowledgeable friends and associates, and from formal classroom study.
Thirty-three years of experience in teaching textiles have proved that, of all methods, formal classroom instruction can most quickly and accurately organize and present product information. They have also revealed that an emphasis on selling points of fabrics will aid the retail salesman in helping the consumer make a wise selection.
But a mere presentation of facts is insufficient. The student or salesman must assimilate the facts and apply them through careful study and experimentation.
Fibers have been divided into three chapters, not including the introduction to textile Fibers. Chapter 1 covers the intrinsic classification of the fabrics, along with the physical analysis of fabric composed of different fibers. This information is based on a systematic of grouping of fibers into the type, and source or composition, with a review table of classification of fibers.
Chapter II tells the students the properties of the fibers along with the visual examination of the fibers, estimation of its probable performance, and to determining the care required in order to get maximum performance.
Chapter III emphasizes the importance of identifying and testing fibers through different means, there by selecting of appropriate fabrics for specific uses in apparel and home furnishings. Students familiarize themselves with names and specifications for the most important fabrics.
Each chapter is followed with its summary, practical experiments for the students to practice and to wind it, test your-self so as to let the students see the grasp they have had on the chapter.
The plan for use of this book is flexible. It can provide for a year’s course in textiles. The text can also be used for various separate courses in “Fashion Fabrics in Apparel,” “Home Furnishings Fabrics,” Fashion designing, Textile Designing and Interior Designing. Since one course should not be a prerequisite for the other, students in all the courses must familiarize themselves with the terminology from the beginning.
I am indebted to my students for information that they have brought to classes; to manufacturers who have arranged market trips; and to many buyers and sales representatives in retail stores for their help in discussing new merchandise, styles, and assortments.
February: 2012 Dr. Parul Bhatnagar
CONTENTS
Chapter-1
Classification Of Fibers: Physical Analysis of Fabrics, The Natural Fibers, Vegetable Fibers, Cotton, Jute, Animal Fibers, Wool, The artificial fibers, Cellulosic Fibers, Non-cellulosic Polymer Fibers, Nylon, Polyester, Acrylic, Spandex, Protein Fibers, Rubber Fibers, Metallic Fibers, Mineral Fibers, Summary, Practical Exercise, Test yourself.
Chapter-2
The Properties Of Fibers: Relating to appearance, Colour, Luster, Shape, Surface Contour, Length, Diameter, Relating to performance, Strength/Tenacity, Specific Gravity, Flexibility, Elongation, Elasticity, Absorbency, Abrasion Resistance, Electrical Conductivity, Dimensional, stability, Flammability, Effect of Heat, Relating to Maintenance, Effect of biological organisms, Chemical conditions, Environmental conditions, Summary, Practical Exercise, Test Yourself
Chapter-3
Importance Of Identifying Fibers: Burning Test, Microscope Test, Microscope Test for the Natural Fibers, Microscope Test For the, Artificial Fibers, Chemical Test- Stain Method
The solvent method-Chemical Tests for Natural Fibers, Chemical Tests Artificial Fibers, Practical Experiments, Project, Test Yourself, Trade Names With Their End Uses
About the Author
Introduction of Fiber, Yarn and Fabric
Textiles have such an important bearing on our daily lives that everyone needs to know something about them. From earliest times, people have used textiles of various types for covering, warmth, personal adornment, and even to display personal wealth. Today, textiles are still used for these purposes and everyone is an ultimate consumer. You use textiles in some form even if you are not the direct purchaser. Included among consumers are merchandisers of many types, from the wholesale textile manufacturer and merchant to the sales force in any retail store. Many industries, such as the automobile industry, are important consumers of textiles in various forms. Some other consumers are homemakers, dressmakers, interior decorators, and retail-store customers, as well as students who are studying for these and various other occupations and professions in which knowledge of textiles is of major importance.
The merchant, particularly, and all those engaged in the purchase and/or sale of goods must be thoroughly familiar with the merchandise they are handling if they wish to be successful. Only thorough knowledge will prevent the mistakes that are too often made in buying and selling.
A study of textiles will show, for example, why certain fabrics are more durable and therefore more serviceable for specific purposes. It will explain why certain fabrics make cool wearing apparel as well as give an impression of coolness when used as decoration. The matter of cleanliness and maintenance must also be estimated before buying, when that is an important factor.
Complete knowledge of textiles will facilitate an intelligent appraisal of standards and brands of merchandise and will develop the ability to distinguish quality in fabrics and, in turn, to appreciate the proper uses for the different qualities. As a result, both the consumer merchant and consumer customer will know how to buy and what to buy, and salespeople will know how to render good service to those consumers who have not had the advantage of a formal course in textiles.
Great strides have been made in the textile industry, and have markedly influenced our general economic growth. The prosperity and growth of related industries, such as petroleum and chemistry, and dependent industries, such as retail apparel stores, have produced broader employment opportunities. Competition for the consumer's dollar has fostered the creation of new textile fibers with specific qualities to compete with well-established fibers. New fiber blends have been created to combine many of these qualities into new types of yarns with new trademarks. There are also new names for the fabrics made of these new fibers and yarns. New finishes have been developed to add new and interesting characteristics to fibers, yarns, and fabrics.
This welter of creativity and the myriad of trademarks present a challenge to the consumer, who is sometimes knowledgeable but frequently confused. Yet one need not be. Without being overly technical, this information can be easily understood and consequently very useful to the consumer in business and personal life. All of this information can be adopted for such utilitarian benefits as economy, durability, serviceability, and comfort, as well as for such aesthetic values as hand (or feel), texture, design, and color.
In the study of textiles, the students' initial interest will become an absorbing interest when they discover the natural fascination of fabrics and their cultural associations, particularly when factual study is supplemented by actual handling of the textile materials. The subject will seem worthwhile as they become familiar with illustrative specimens and fabrics and begin to handle and learn to compare the raw materials of which fabrics are made as well as the finished consumers' goods.
The textile industry is very complex. At this point, only an introduction can be given so as to provide a brief overview for some insight. It begins in agriculture with fiber production of cotton, flax, and other fibrous plants; in husbandry of sheep, other animals, and silkworms; in mining of metals and minerals; in forestry for wood; in chemical research and production of synthetics. These fibers are processed into yarns and/or fabrics. The yarns are made into fabrics for industrial and consumer uses by various means, such as weaving and knitting. The fabrics are converted into finished cloths, which provide particular appearances and performances. These fabrics are made into end-use products, including apparel, home furnishings, and various industrial applications. These products are then merchandised and sold. Every one of these aspects of the textile industry is a field in itself, and there is interdependency with multiplying effects on other industries.
As one learns about the various aspects of the production of textiles and textile products, it becomes apparent that these activities play a major role in the economy. The industry has so many facets that it is possible that the student's interests may develop in the pursuit of a career in one of them. For example, consumers require the services of teachers of textiles, home economics, and interior decoration. The latter fields provide stimulating career opportunities in themselves. The retailer who serves them requires salespeople, buyers, merchandise managers, and related personnel who deal with textile products. The manufacturers of these products need fabric buyers, designers, production managers, salespersons, etc. The fabric manufacturers, yarn producers, and fabric finishers need knowledgeable people. The chemical industry requires skilled personnel in a variety of areas. All of these fields utilize marketing and advertising specialists to promote textiles and textile-related products.
Classification Of Fibers
The first clothes were most probably made from animal skins but the availability of such clothing depended upon the availability of the right animals. Quite often, substitute materials would have been useful and eventually Man found them in the shape of leaves and plant stems.
These it seems he interlaced to make clothing of a kind but it could not have been very effective for comfort, protection or fit. But these unknown and primitive technologists of prehistory were experimenting in other directions. At some point, they discovered that bundles of long grass could be twisted together to make rope. The ropes could be made of varying thickness and from there it was a relatively short step to the weaving of crude cloth.
The small fibers contained in the structure of plants were the most suitable materials for such uses and it is upon fibers that the twenty-first-century textile industry depends. Now, however, it is not only plant fibers that are involved, but animal and man-made fibers as well.
In the early days of textile production, the people involved were craftsmen rather than scientists or technologists. The producer knew that he could obtain certain effects by handling the fibers in certain ways but he often did not know why he got such results.
Since then science has lent a hand by elucidating the physical and chemical nature of the fibers. Such basic research was important in discovering new and improved manufacturing techniques and also in the quest for man-made fibers.
Systems of classification have been in use for hundreds of years. Man, as a scientist, learned in the early stages of scientific development that placing like items together made for increased ease of understanding these items. In the early stages of textile fiber study a simple type of fiber classification was used. This was based on a systematic arrangement of grouping fibers into the categories of vegetable, animal, and mineral matter.
With the development of man-made fibers this early classification was made obsolete, and new systems had to be devised. It was apparent to those studying textiles that the day would come when trying to remember all the properties and characteristics of each individual fiber used by man would be practically impossible. Thus, the scientist reasoned that if fibers could be arranged or classified into like groups, man could become acquainted with general properties of each group and then only the additional knowledge concerning special properties of individual fibers would be required for intelligent selection, use, and care of textile products.