A textile is a cloth, which is either woven by hand
or machine."Textile" has traditionally meant, "a woven
fabric".The term comes from the Latin word texere, meaning to weave.
Fibers are the raw materials for all fabrics.Some
fibers occur in nature as fine strands that can be twisted into yarns.These
natural fibers come from plants, animals, and minerals.
For most of history,
people had only natural fibers to use in making cloth.But modern science has
learned how to produce fibers by chemical and technical means. Today, these
manufactured fibers account for more than two-thirds of the fibers processed by
U.S. textile mills.
Plants provide more textile fibers than do animals
or minerals.Cotton fibers produce soft, absorbent fabrics that are widely used
for clothing, sheets, and towels. Fibers of the flax plant are made into linen.
The strength and beauty of linen have made it a popular fabric for fine
tablecloths, napkins and handkerchiefs.
The main animal fiber used for textiles is
wool.Another animal fiber,silk,produces one of the most luxurious fabrics.Sheep
supply most of the wool,but members of the camel family and some goats also
furnish wool.Wool provides warm, comfortable fabrics for dresses, suits, and
sweaters.Silk comes from cocoons spun by silkworms.Workers unwind the cocoons
to obtain long, natural filaments.Fabrics made from silk fibers have great
luster and softness and can be dyed brilliant colors.Silk is especially popular
for scarfs and neckties.
Most manufactured fibers are made from wood pulp,
cotton linters, or petrochemicals. Petrochemicals are chemicals made from crude
oil and natural gas.The chief fibers manufactured from petrochemicals include
nylon,polyester,acrylic and olefin.Nylon has exceptional strength, wears well,
and is easy to launder. It is popular for hosiery and other clothing and for
carpeting and upholstery. Such products as conveyor belts and fire hoses are
also made of nylon.
Most textiles are produced by twisting fibers into
yarns and then knitting or weaving the yarns into a fabric. This method of
making cloth has been used for thousands of years. But throughout most of that
time, workers did the twisting, knitting, or weaving largely by hand. With
today's modern machinery,textile mills can manufacture as much fabric in a few
seconds as it once took workers weeks to produce by hand.
Woven fabrics are made of two sets of yarns a
lengthwise set called the warp and a crosswise set called the filling or
weft.
The warp yarns are threaded into a loom through a series of frames called
harnesses.During the cloth-making process, the harnesses raise some warp yarns
and lower others.This action creates a space, or shed, between the yarns.A
device called a shuttle carries the filling through the shed and so forms the
crosswiseyarns of the fabric.The pattern in which the harnesses are raised and
lowered for each pass of the shuttle determines the kind of weave.
Knitted fabrics are made from a single yarn or a set
of yarns. In making cloth a knitting machine forms loops in the yarn and links
them to one another by means of needles.The finished fabric consists of
crosswise rows of loops, called courses, and lengthwise rows of loops, called
wales. This looped structure makes knitted fabrics more elastic than woven
cloth.Garment manufacturers use knitted fabrics in producing
comfortable,lightweight clothing that resists wrinkling.
Other fabrics include tufted fabrics, nets and
laces, braids, and felt.None of these fabrics is woven or knitted.However,the
textile industry produces another class of fabrics specifically called nonwoven
fabrics.
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