How does cotton turn into textiles?

Answer 1

How Silk is MadeSilk - the most beautiful of all textile fibers is acclaimed as the queen of textiles. It comes from the cocoon of the silk worm and requires a great deal of handling and processing, which makes it one of the most expensive fibers also. Today China is the leading silk producer of the world. Other major silk producing countries include Japan, India and Italy. Production of Silk

Characteristics of Silk

Identifying of Silk

Four Varieties of Natural Silk

The Silk Worm

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.

----

Characteristics of Silk

Silk is very strong in terms of tensile strength, meaning it can withstand a lot of pulling type pressure without breaking. This should not, however, be confused with wear ability or abrasion resistance. Silk will not stand up to the heavy wear that other fibers will. Silk can take on many different appearances. A raw silk fabric may fool you into thinking that it is cotton or synthetic. The more refined the silk and the smaller the yarn, the more it resembles the look and feel that we know as silky. Silk is a protein fiber like wool. This gives it many of its characteristics. It is sensitive to a range of chemical situations and cannot withstand prolonged exposure to either high alkalinity or to acid or oily soils. It will become brittle with age and exposure to sunlight.

----

Identifying Silk

The burn test is the best way to be sure. Burning silk will leave a powdery ash and will extinguish itself when the flame is removed, just like wool. The easy way to tell silk and wool apart in the burn test is the smell. Where wool will have the smell of burning hair, the silk will have a much more disagreeable smell. ----

Answer 2

long process

here it is

Cotton Harvesting

Cotton plants usually begin to grow several weeks after sowing. After about a month, flowers begin to form on the plant and soon disappear. Next, a boll forms, which is the pod where the cotton fibers grow. Once the boll has reached about the size of a chestnut, it will split open. Usually at this point, the cotton plant is about two months old. The leaves surrounding the cotton plant are usually removed by machine. In nature, the leaves will eventually fall off during colder temperatures.

1. Cotton Manufacturing

   • The mature bolls are then placed in a machine that blows the bolls away from the cotton, leaving just the fibers, which resemble puffy cotton balls. In order for the cotton to be cleaned and de-seeded, it is placed in a cotton gin and formed into clean cotton bales. The bales are then shipped to a company that spin the bales into thin cotton yarn. In earlier centuries, cotton was spun on a spinning wheel, which was operated using a foot pedal. Now it is spun mechanically using electrical power. Before the cotton can be placed on the loom, the yarn must be carded, where it is stretched across a drum and brushed so any small fibers or impurities are taken off of the thread and it can lay flat on the loom.

   Cotton Fabric

   • Once the cotton has been stretched, spun and carded into very thin yarn, it is shipped to another factory where it is assembled on a loom. The threads running vertically across the loom, which are called "warp," weave through the threads running horizontally, which are called "filling." Although looms are mostly mechanical, they still require an individual to keep the machine running and thread the looms during the fabric-making process. Once the cotton yarn has been weaved into fabric, it is called "grey goods." The grey goods are then shipped to another factory where they are bleached and dyed. This factory will then send the finished cotton fabric to clothing companies in order to make T-shirts and other apparel.

Answer 3

The cotton spinning process is generally used for cotton and man-made fibres. Cotton fibres are first submitted to opening and cleaning operations. The following steps, which are the same for cotton and man-made fibres, are: · carding · combing · drawing · roving · spinning · twisting (if required) · winding.

Answer 4

Cotton is grown in fields that are usually a long way from the processing plant. The cotton is first picked, and the strands are separated from the stems and other debris, then packed into large bales. The bales are trucked to the plant where they are spun into thread, and the thread is taken to a different processing plant where it is woven into cloth.

A large amount of the cotton grown in the US is sold overseas, mainly to countries in Asia.

Answer 5

well you get a cotton plant, make it go through a process stuff it into pillows or whatever your making and sew.

Answer 6

The individual strands of cotton are separated and strung into a reel of cotton, then the cotton can be weaved, just as you would wool or any other natural fabric.

Answer 7

There are five processes such as Ginning, Carding, Combing, Spinning & Weaving

Answer 8

The loose cotton is made into threads and then woven into bolts of cloth. A long and complicated process.