Chapter 5: FABRICS

  Introduction

   Fabrics like cotton, silk are made of yarns and yarns are made of fibers.

Types of Fibers:

Natural Fibers: Cotton, jute [plant], silk [cocoon of silkworm], wool [sheep, goats, rabbits, yak, camels hair] are made of fibers of plants and animals.

Cotton:

Cotton is a polymer of cellulose, which is made up of large number of glucose units.

Wool:

Angora wool is obtained from angora goats of J&K. Wool of Kashmiri goat is used to make pashmina shawls. Llama and alpaca of South America also yield wool.

Silk:

Sericulture – Rearing of silkworms to obtain silk.

Properties of Natural fibers:

      1. Cotton: Obtained from fruits [bolls] of the plant. Grown in black soil and warm places.

 2. Jute:

•  Obtained from stem.
• Harvested during flowering stage.
• Grown during rainy season.
• Stem are immersed in water and they rot. Then fibers are separated.

3. Flax: A natural fiber from plants.

Artificial Fibers: Synthetic fibers burn easily and stick to the body of person. Synthetic fibers are all made from petrochemicals.

Rayon:

Rayon is artificial silk it’s made by chemical treatment of wood pulp.

Nylon:

Nylon is a fully synthetic fiber made up of coal, water and air. A string of nylon is stronger than string of steel so it’s used in making parachutes and ropes.

Polyester:

Polyester is used for wrinkle free clothes.

Terelyne:

Terelyne is polyester. PET is polyester used for making bottles, utensils, wires etc

Acrylic:

Acrylic is artificial wool.

Plastics

Plastics are Polymers. Some bend on heating and are called thermoplastics [PVC, Polythene]. Some molded once don’t change their shape called thermosetting plastics. [Bakelite, melamine]

Teflon is used in non stick cookware. Melamine is used on coat of firemen so it makes them flame resistant.

Rubber

Rubber – is manufactured from rubber latex which is a colloidal dispersion of rubber in water. It’s a linear polymer of isoprene called cis 1, 4 isoprene. Since natural rubber is brittle at low temperatures and soft at high temperatures it is treated with Sulfur in a process called Vulcanization.

                                                     Table 1: Sheep breeds of India

Note: Anthrax is a blood disease common among wool sorters.

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