An Overview of Textile Industry

An Overview of Textile Industry

Today we are having all the things related to textile from threads to fabric, from shirt to suit. But their is a long way behind all this applications. Their are many process in a long journey from fibres to garment.

Let’s take an overview of the Textile sector

1. Fibres 

Fibre is nothing but hair like structure which is very small in diameter with respect to their length. This fibres are used to make the yarn by spinning. This can be natural (cotton, wool, silk, etc.) or man-made (polyester, nylon, rayon, etc.). 

According to length, their are two categories

1. Staple fibres – Short length fibres (cotton, wool)

2. Filament fibres – Long length fibres (silk, nylon, polyester)

Natural fibres can be classified as – 

1. Vegetable – Cotton, flax, jute

2. Animal – Wool, silk

3. Mineral – Asbestos, basalt

2. Yarn (Spinning)

Yarn is made by strands of staple or filament fibres twisted together to form continuous strand. Further this yarns are woven to create a fabric. 

Their are two different methods to produce the yarn – 

1. Combed yarn

2. Carded yarn

Let’s see process of making combed yarn 

1. Ginning

Ginning is a process of removing seeds from cotton. Seedless cotton is then compress together to form a bale (usually weigh 150 Kg).

2. Blowroom 

The prepared bale is fed to the blowroom. Here bale is being opened to tuft by removing possible impurities like sand, dust, metal particles, etc. Here bale is converted into small tufts.

3. Carding

The output of blowroom is then fed to the carding where fibre to fibre separation takes place. Here remaining imour8from blowroom is removed. It includes 3 cylinders which having teeth on it used to separate fibres from each other. At the carding creates card lap which is in roll form.

4. Pre comber machine

Pre comber is fed with 8 to 14 card lap (as per requirement) where unwinding is done. After unwinding all the laps are combined together by drafting roller which maintains the weight per unit length and align the fibres in straight direction. Output of pre comber is unilap.

5. Comber

Output of pre comber i.e. unilap is fed to the comber where combing of lap is done. 6 to 8 unilap are fed or as per requirement. Combing process is useful to remove the short fibres from the lap and that’s why it is called comber. It also results in straightening of the fibres. By removing small fibres results in improved quality of yarn. After combing these laps are converted into single card sliver which is output of comber.

6. Draw frame

After combing is done, 6 to 8 carded slivers are fed to the draw frame where drawing of slivers is done. Using drafting rollers the carded slivers are combined together to create evenness in weight per unit length as required. Drawn sliver is the output of draw frame. Drafting rollers also cause aligning of fibres in the straight direction.

7. Speed frame

Drawn slivers are fed to the speed frame machine. Speed frame machine imparts a small false twist using flyers to make engagement of fibres together and crates roving yarns. Upto 24 to 28 drawn slivers can be fed to speed frame to get same number of roving yarns. 

8. Ring frame

Output from the speed frame is fed to the ring frame. Here the roving yarns gets the proper twist to gain the required strength and finally wound on the bobbins. Similar to the speed frame, ring frame can be fed with upto 24 to 28 roving yarns to get the similar number of finished yarn. These feeding is depends on the capacity of the machine. Here during spinning on ring frame another type of yarn like spandex can be twist together to get blended yarn.

9. Winding

Bobbins are very small in size and can adopt less amount of yarn. Thus in this process many bobbins are converted into a single cheese or cone by various winding methods. This cone or cheese is then use for the beam preparation.

Process for carded yarn

The process for carded yarn is same except the use of pre comber and comber machines. Thus this type of yarns do not have that much quality that combed yarn have. This is because carded yarn includes small fibres which affects the quality of the yarn.

1. Ginning

2. Blowroom

3. Carding

4. Draw frame

5. Speed frame

6. Ring frame

7. Winding

3. Beam preparation

For weaving, preparation of beam is mandatory. Many number of cheese packages are wound on the large beam. During this process a chemical size paste is applied to the yarns to increase their strength to bear the stress during weaving process. This will reduce the breakages of yarns during weaving.

4. Weaving

The fabric is made on the weaving loom. The process of making fabric is called as weaving. Their are many types of looms like handloom (manual) and automatic loom like air jet, water jet, rapier, projectile, etc. 

For weaving, beam preparation is mandatory. The beam is placed on the weaving loom and denting (yarn passing through the heald wires) is done. Then with the help of three primary motions fabric is made. Those primary motions are – 1) Shedding 2) Pick up 3) Beat up. These primary motions works in sequence with each other.

5. Knitting

Knitting process makes a two dimensional fabric structure by textile material with appropriate strength, elasticity, flexibility, etc., is used for various applications, especially clothing. Here in this process the continuous length of the yarn is converted into vertical intermeshed loop structure. According to the yarn insertion direction during loop construction, the knitting process can be divided as –

1. Weft knitting

2. Warp knitting

Out of the two types, weft knitting is widely used in the knitting industry. In warp knitting process flat fabric is can be produce. But with weft knitting flat fabric as well as tubular fabric can be manufactured.

6. Processing

A. Singeing

Singeing is process of cutting or burning the protruding threads from the fabric to remove unevenness. After this the fabric will have smooth hand.

B. Desizing

During preparation of beam a chemical size paste is applied to the yarns and thus to increase the strength of the yarns to reduce the breakages during weaving process. This size paste has to remove as it is added impurity and to make fabric free from chemical.

C. Scouring

Removing the natural and added impurities like oil, waxes, fats, pectin, etc. It also helps in removing natural colouring matter during bleach.

D. Bleaching

It is used to impart whiteness by removing natural colouring matter or creamish colour of grey fabric to get prominence during dying. It uses NaoCl and H2O to perform oxidising and reducing process.

E. Mercerization

This process is used to add cellulose for swelling of fibres cell for good absorption of dyes. It uses concentrated alkali, caustic soda, etc. for the process.

F. Dying

Their are various ways of dying like direct dyes, diapers dye, reactive dye, etc. for respective nature of fabric.

G. Printing

Similarly printing uses various ways of print as per fabric nature e.g. direct style, discharge style, resist style, etc.

H. Finishing

At the last finishing will be done to give required smoothness.

7. Garmenting 

After processing, the fabric is now ready to use in garment industry, home furnishings and other sectors. Here manufacturing of garments takes place. Their are various Departments in Garment Industry which performs various operations the material and make it ready to sell in the shops, showroom, etc.

Various departments in Apparel Industry are –

1. Merchandising

2. Sampling

3. CAD

4. Fabric and Trims Store

5. Spreading and Cutting

6. Sewing

7. Finishing and Packing

8. Warehouse