Fabric Manufacturing Technology. What is Fabric? How it is made? How many types of Fabric in the world? If you want to answer the following questions, then read our post about Fabric Manufacturing Technology. Here we try to include every tropic about Fabric Manufacturing Technology.
Fabric Manufacturing Technology
Fabric: Fabric is a textile surface that is made from yarn or directly form fibers. Fabrics can be made by weaving or knitting of yarn, or by bonding the fibers together. The word fabric is commonly used in the textile assembly trades, such as tailoring and dressmaking, as a synonym for cloth. Fabric or cloth is a flexible artificial material that is made by a network of natural or artificial fibers.
Classification of Fabric: Based on the manufacturing processes, fabrics are classified into three groups.
- Woven Fabrics: Made from yarn by the process known as weaving.
- Knitted Fabrics: Made from yarn by the process known as knitting.
- Non-woven Fabrics: Neither woven nor knitted, rather made directly from fiber.
From Consumer viewpoints, fabrics are classified earlier as;
- Apparel.
- Household.
- Industrial.
Weaving Technology and Woven Fabrics
Weaving: A major method of fabric construction is weaving is done from two sets of yarns known as warp (end) and weft (filling).
Warp is the yarn lying at the lengthwise direction of the fabric. Weft or filling is the yarn lying at width wise direction of the fabric.
Weaving Process: In any type of weaving, four operations are fundamental. They are
- Shedding.
- Picking.
- Beating up.
- Taking up and letting off.
Classification of weaves: Three basic weaves are-
- Plain.
- Twill.
- Satin.
Plain Fabric
The plain weave is the simplest of the weaves and the most common. It consists of interlacing warp & weft yarn in a pattern of over one & under one. Plain weave is obtained by raising all even-numbered warp ends at one pick & raising all the odd numbered ones at the other pick. It means threads interlacing in alternative order.
Features of Plain Fabric:
- Threads interlacing in alternative order.
- The repeat contains two ends & two picks.
- Both sides of the weave are identical.
- Each thread gives maximum amount of support to the adjacent threads.
- Made from all kind of textile raw materials & yarns, industrial engineer. Cotton, linen, jute, man-made fibers, both spun & continuous filaments yarns.
- It comprises a high production of the total output of woven fabric.
- Two healed shafts are sufficient to produce plain weave.
Twill Fabric
The second basic weave pattern used in manufacturing fabrics is the twill weave. The weave is characterized by diagonal lines or ribs (twill lines) on the face, and often on the back, of the fabric. The face diagonal can vary from reclining twill, with a low 14-degree angle, to steep twill, with a 75-degree angle. A twill angle of 45 degrees is considered to be medium diagonal or regular twill; it is the most common.
Twill lines are formed on both sides of cloth. The lines are formed on both sides of cloth. The direction of diagonal lines on the face side of cloth is opposite to that on the wrong side, coinciding respectively with the weft and warp floats on the other side. Thus, if warp floats predominate on one side of the cloth, weft floats will predominate in the same proportion on the other side.
Satin Weave
The satin weave is distinguished by its lustrous, or silky, appearance. Satin describes the way the threads are combined, and the yarn used may be silk or polyester, among others, giving different fabrics.
The satin weave is characterized by four or more cool fill or weft yarns floating over a warp yarn or vice versa, four warp yarns floating over a single weft yarn. This explains the even sheen, as unlike in other weaves, the light reflecting is not scattered as much by the fibers.
Fabric Manufacturing Technology
Fabric manufacturing by many processes. They are different by quality and properties. If you think that fabric produced by fiber, and it follows some properties, then you are wrong. Here we included Fabric Manufacturing Technology and how to produce fiber to fabric. Fabric Manufacturing Technology if you read, then you learn how many kinds of fabrics now in a world. Fabric Manufacturing Technology is an industrial engineering subject, but nowadays, many training organizations learn some tropic of Fabric Manufacturing Technology for better productivity.
Common woven fabrics available in the market
Sheeting: It is a plain weave fabric having in general the same number of warp and weft yarn per inch. The yarn count used for sheeting ranges from 10s to 30s. Example: 60*60/20*20.
Poplin: Poplin is also a plain weave fabric having high number of warp and less number of weft yarns.
Example: 133*70/30*30, 144*110/50*50 etc.
Gingham: Gingham is a woven fabric characterized by a block or check effect produced by dyed yarns at fixed intervals in both the warp and weft.
Chiffon: A transparent fabric in a plain weave of fine, highly twisted fabrics. Extremely light weight and has a soft finish.
Crêpe: A lightweight fabric characterized by a crinkled surface obtained by crêpe yarns, chemical treatment, embossing or by special loom setting. Normally plain weave.
Georgette: Seer, lightweight fabrics with crinkled surface made of high twisted synthetic yarns. Normally less strength than chiffon due to very lose weave structure.
Taffeta: It is plain weave fabric made of silk or man made fibers. It has a very smooth surface.
Denim: It is twill fabric, usually made from rotor spun yarn.
Knitting Technology and Knit Fabrics
Knitting: Knitting is one of the most common processes of fabric manufacturing. Knitted fabrics are described as structures produced inter looping of yarns. In actual construction of fabric, loops are formed; the new loops are drawn through those previously formed. The continuing addition of new loops creates the knitted fabrics.
General Properties of Knit Fabrics
- Stretchable.
- Give warmth because of the isolated air pockets.
- Very absorbent, light in weight and wrinkle resistant.
- Disadvantage: If one of the loops breaks, a hole is made, which starts a run.
Some Important Tropic of Fabric Manufacturing Technology
Courses: A course is a horizontal row of needle loops produced by adjacent needles during the same knitting cycle.
Wales: A wale is a vertical column of inter-meshed needle loops, generally produced by the same needle knitting at successive knitting cycles. Number of needles=number of wales.
Stitch: The smallest dimensional stable unit of all knitted fabric.
Density of Stitch: Total no of needle loops in a given area, such as square inch.
Length of Stitch: Difference between two feet of a knitting stitch. It is some time called loop length.
S.L=Course length/No of needles knitting in the machine.
Course Length: The length of fabric of a course.
Gauge: No of needle in per inch. Machine Gauge can be calculated by the total no of needles into the length of the needle bed. It is denoted by “G”.
Needle: the Needle is the principal knitting element of a knitting machine. It is a thin metal bar. During yarn feeding, the hook is opened to release the retained old loop and to receive the new loop, which is then enclosed in the hook.
GSM and Width: GSM is the grams per square meter of a fabric.
If the stitch length of a fabric is lower than the GSM of that fabric will be higher and as the stitch length is higher than the GSM of that fabric is lower. When stitch length is lower than the width of the fabric will be higher and vice versa.
Basic Weft Knitted Fabrics:
- Jersey Knit fabrics.
- Rib knit fabrics.
- Interlock knit fabrics.
Jersey Knit fabrics and properties:
- Simple, most common, economical.
- The amount of elasticity varies according to the yarn used and the length of yarn per stitch.
- Single jersey fabric can be enrobed or pulled out freely from either end.
- When cut, the fabric tends to curl towards the front at the ends and towards the back at the sides.
- Face and back side are not same. Face side wale prominent and back side course prominent.
- It is knitted with one set of needle.
Rib Fabric and Properties:
- The simplest rib fabric is 1*1 ribs.
- It is knitted with two sets of latch needle.
- It lies flat without curl when cut.
- Rib cannot be enrobed from either end.
- Face and back are same. Both side, wale prominent.
- It is heavier structure.
- 1*1 rib is balanced by alternate wales of face loops on both sides.
- Loops are side by side.
Interlock Fabric and Properties:
- It has the technical face of plain fabric on both sides.
- Cannot be enrobed from either end.
- It has a balanced, smooth, stable structure.
- It lies flat without curl when cut.
- Productivity is half of equivalent rib knitting.
- Face and back are same. Both side, wale prominent.
- The needles in two beds being exactly opposite to each other so that only one of the two can knit at one feeder.
Comparison Among S/J, Rib and Interlock
S/J | Rib | Interlock | |
Appearance | Front: V
Back: |
Front: V
Back: V |
Front: V
Back: V |
GSM | Less/Low | Medium | High |
Curling/Rolling | Happened
Loop tension low/Unbalanced fabric |
No
Loop tension high/Balanced fabric |
No
Loop tension high/Balanced fabric |
Application | Body fabric. | Collar, caff and body fabric. | Sportswear and body fabric. |
Loop density | Low | Medium | High |
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