How is silk made into fabrics?

Answer 1

Production of Silk from Cocoon to Factory

Sericulture: The production of cocoon for their filament is called sericulture. The species Bombyx mori is usually cultivated and is raised under controlled condition of environment and nutrition. The life cycle of silk worm encircle in the four stages. The egg, the silk worm, the pupa and the moth. The silk worm which feeds on mulberry leaves forms a covering around it by secreting a protein like substance through its head. This stage is called cocoon, the desirable stage for the silk producers.

Filature operations: The cocoons raised by the farmer are delivered to the factory, called a filature, where the silk is unwound from the cocoons and the strands are collected into skeins. Some cocoons are scientifically bred in such factories. The filature operations consist of the following stages.

a) Sorting cocoons :

The cocoons are sorted according to the color, size, shape and texture as these affect the final quality of the silk. Cocoons may range from white and yellow to grayish.

b) Softening the Sericin : Silk filament is a double strand of fibroin, which is held together by a gummy substance called sericin or silk gum. After the cocoon has been sorted, they are put through a series of hot and cold immersions, as the sericin must be softened to permit the unwinding of the filament as one continuous thread.

c) Reeling the filament : Reeling is the process of unwinding the silk filaments from the cocoon and combining them together to make a thread of raw silk. As the filament of the cocoon is too fine for commercial use, three to ten strands are usually reeled at a time to produce the desired diameter of raw silk which is known as "reeled silk". The useable length of reeled filament is 300 to 600 m.

d) Bailing : The silk filament is reeled into skeins, which are packed in a small bundles called books, weighting 2 to 4.5 kg. These books are put into bales weighing about 60 kg. In this form raw silk is shipped to silk mills all over the world.

Answer 2

1. Silk cocoons are soaked in hot water to soften the silk gum so that the silk filaments may be safely unwound to prevent breakage of the filaments.

2. Fibres from several cocoons are unwound and twisted together to form a thicker and stronger thread.

3. The silk threads are soaked in hot soapy water to remove the gum. Various numbers of filaments may be twisted together to form yarns of different thicknesses as required.

4. These yarns are dyed and woven or knitted into fabric

Answer 3

Silk worm silk is first wound into strands and the weaved into silk fabric by using a loom. click on this link to view pictures of a loom in damascus ,syria. I took these pictures a couple of days ago on my trip. This silk fabric is called silk brocade

Answer 4

Silk can be woven into textiles in some forms. The best type of silk is obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm. Silks are produced by several other insects, but only the silk of moth caterpillars has been used for textile manufacturing. Silk production is especially common in bees, wasps, and ants, and is sometimes used in nest construction. Other types of arthropod produce silk, most notably various arachnids such as Spiders.

Answer 5

Real silk is made from the silk threads that the catepillar of the silk moth spins into a cocoon.

Answer 6

by boiling the cacoon