What is
Fiber?
Fiber is defined as one of the delicate, hair portions of the tissues of a plant or animal or other substances that are very small in diameter in relation to their length.
What is
Textile fiber?
All fiber is not textile fiber. The term “textile fiber” means a unit of matter
which is capable of being spun into a yarn or made into a fabric by bonding or
by interlacing in a variety of methods
including weaving, knitting, braiding,
felting, twisting, or webbing, and which is the basic structural element of
textile products.
Many fibrous materials are not suitable to
make into fabrics, e.g., corn silk or wood slivers. Textile fibers must have
certain properties:
·
Flexible,
thin (but not too thin),
·
Long
(enough),
·
Cohesive,
·
Strong (enough).
Textile fibers must be flexible. Wood fibers
(unless processed, as into pulp) do not bend easily—you cannot make fabrics
from slivers! Textile fibers are also very thin—long in relation to diameter.
To be mechanically spun into yarn—drawn out and twisted—staple fibers must have
sufficient length, strength, and cohesiveness (fiber-to-fiber friction).
Textile fibers may be staple or filament. Staple fibers are relatively short,
measured in millimeters or inches. Filament fibers are relatively long, measured
in meters or yards. Most natural fibers are staple; the only natural filament
fiber is reeled or cultivated silk. On the other hand, all Man-made fibers can
be staple or filament; they begin as filament, and in this form can give silky
or (reeled) silk-like fabrics. They can also be cut or broken into staple to
give fabrics that look and feel more like wool, cotton, or linen.
CLASSIFICATION OF FIBERS:
Fibers are the
fundamental units used in fabrication of textile yarns and fabrics. It is an
individual, fine, hair like substance. Fibers usually are grouped and twisted
together into a continuous stand called yarns. Fibers may be from natural
sources or they may be man-made. The details of these fibers are discussed in
the following chapters.
Types
of Textile Fiber:
Textile fibers are normally broken down
into two main classes:
1. Natural Fiber
2. Man-made Fiber
Natural
Fiber:
All fibers which come from natural sources (animals, mineral, plants, etc.) and
do not require fiber formation or reformation are classed as natural fibers.
Natural fibers include the protein fibers such as wool and silk, the cellulose
fibers such as cotton and linen, and the mineral fiber asbestos.
Man-made
Fiber:
Man-made fibers are fibers in which either the basic chemical units have been
formed by chemical synthesis followed by fiber formation or the polymers from
natural sources have been dissolved and regenerated after passage through a
spinneret to form fibers. Those fibers made by chemical synthesis are often
called synthetic fibers, while fibers regenerated from natural polymer sources
are called regenerated fibers or natural polymer fibers. In other words, all
synthetic fibers and reenter acted fibers are man-made fibers, since man is
involved in the actual fiber formation process. The synthetic man-made
fibers include the polyamides (nylon), polyesters, acrylics, polyolefin,
vinyls, and elastomeric fibers, while the regenerated fibers include rayon, the
cellulose acetates, the regenerated proteins, glass and rubber fibers.
CLASSIFICATION
OF NATURAL & MAN-MADE FIBERS:
