Explore the world of the textile industry, from raw materials to finished products. Learn about the challenges and opportunities facing this dynamic sector.

Textile Industry. It includes the activities dedicated to the manufacture and obtaining of fibres, spinning, weaving, dyeing, and finally the finishing and making of the different garments.

History

Originally, the term textile was applied only to woven fabrics, but with the evolution of this industry it is now extended to fabrics produced by methods other than weaving, such as those formed by mechanical bonding or chemical processes. It is also applied to various raw materials and materials obtained from them, such as filaments, synthetic threads, yarns, which are used in braided fabrics, embroidery, quilting, spinning, felting, etc.

These textile operations also include the preparation of fibres of natural origin ( vegetable or animal ), and in which processes such as bleaching, dyeing or mercerisation are carried out.

The production of textiles dates back to ancient times. Following the invention of mechanical looms, the textile industry began to develop in Great Britain , France , Belgium and the United States from the mid- 18th century . Machines were rapidly improved, making it possible to incorporate different types of fibres into the production process.

Wool , which was the most widely used natural fibre, began to be replaced by cotton , and although it did not completely displace it, it did become the most widely used natural fibre of plant origin.

In recent times, cotton began to lose its first place in terms of demand for the textile industry, and began to be largely replaced by new synthetic and artificial fibers, originating from hydrocarbons , cellulose, etc.

Manufacturing processes

Fabric making process

Cotton

Within the textile industry, the cotton sector is one of the most important and important in the world . The cotton sector is based on the cultivation, harvesting and processing of the cotton plant, belonging to the Gossipium genus, a family of mallows, of which there are a large number of varieties and which is preferably grown in warm areas. Specifically, the fibres obtained from the fruit capsule that surrounds the seeds in the form of hairs are processed.

Although the main product obtained from cotton is the fibre, the seed is also used, which when reduced to powder and pressed provides up to 13% of its weight in oil useful for industrial applications. The cakes obtained from the pressing process are used for livestock feed due to their high protein content.

Commercially, cotton is classified by the quality of the fibre and its length. These qualities vary greatly depending on the region from which they come. The cotton plant undergoes a series of industrial processes before becoming fabric: after harvesting, the cotton masses, once dried in the sun, are subjected to the action of rollers equipped with spikes on which the fibre is caught. Subsequently, the impurities are separated by a machine called a “diablo”.

The process is completed by means of openers, and the fibre is subjected to a jet of air to remove the last impurities, until the fibres with the appropriate thickness and twist are obtained, through the stretching process. After the wick is wound, it is spun in continuous ring machines; the outgoing thread is wound on spindles and is ready to obtain the fabric directly, or after passing through various finishes. When a shiny fabric is desired, the cotton is subjected to mercerization, which essentially consists of treating the woven threads with caustic soda.

Cotton is used to make all kinds of threads and fabrics, both coarse and rudimentary, as well as those suitable for making higher quality garments.

Linen

Linen is, together with cotton (as regards fibres of plant origin) and wool and silk (as regards fibres of animal origin), one of the oldest known textile plants, and is even considered the oldest by some authors. Some very old linen fibres, dating back to 5,000 BC, were found on the banks of the Nile in Egypt , as this plant was widely used by the Egyptians as the main raw material for making their clothes.

Flax is an annual plant of the Linaceae family “Linum usitatissimum”, with straight stems, single-veined leaves and bluish flowers. The fibres have always been used as a textile material in the preparation of a fabric that is more resistant than cotton, although less flexible and more rigid. This rigidity, together with the smooth and shiny surface of the fabrics, give them the characteristic fresh and slippery touch.

In the modern textile industry, the production of fabrics made from linen fibres is once again in vogue, although it is usually combined with other natural fibres, mainly cotton and rayon. 100% linen is generally used for decorative objects, as the rigidity of pure linen textiles has been surpassed by other fibres, even synthetic ones.

Flax seeds are used in medicine , and the oil is used in the preparation of paints. The main varieties are Russian or royal flax, Riga flax and Flemish flax .

Silk

The dress, one of the garments derived from the textile industry.

The use of fibres from silkworm cocoons to make threads and fabrics is one of the sectors of the textile industry with the longest tradition.

Silk production begins with the breeding of the silkworm or sericulture, from which cocoons are obtained which, when stirred in hot water, lose part of the sericin and allow for elementary spinning, called “milling”, which gives rise to raw silk.

Purging baths remove the remaining gummy substance to obtain degummed silk, which then acquires its classic feel. The thread that forms each cocoon is more than 1,000 metres long and 8 to 15 microns in diameter. The actual spinning process consists of gathering several prepared cocoons in a container of hot water, joining their ends and passing them through a porcelain spinneret and then winding them. The filaments thus stick together and form a thread that is smoothed by friction with itself or with another thread.

Textile machinery

The textile industry employs a wide variety of machines, in addition to the loom, in which specific operations are carried out that are generally applied to most fibres or are characteristic of the manufacture of certain fabrics.

Once the raw material has been produced, harvested and, depending on the case, undergone some processing prior to transport, it is normally stored in bales. Some materials require specific pre- or post-processing.

Of the machinery used in the textile industry, the following stand out:

The “bale opener”: It is a machine used to open the layers of cotton from pressed bales, by fluffing and shredding the fibers. The “opener”: It consists of a machine used to separate the cotton fiber from the impurities that accompany it. The “softener”: It is a machine used to soften hemp or jute threads; it consists of cylindrical rollers with helical grooves, which cause continuous bending of the threads. The “shrubberizers”: They are machines used to prepare fabrics; they consist of an imbibition tank, guide cylinders and a calender for squeezing. The “beater”: It is a machine provided with a winder or blade with which the textile fibers are opened and softened and they are freed from impurities. The “rame”: It is a machine used in the finishing of fabrics, to widen them and correct the distortions of the weft. The “roller-gin”: is a machine used to shell cotton bolls; also known as a “cylinder machine”, consisting of a leather-lined cylinder with grooves. In its turning movement, the cylinder drags the textile fibers, which get caught in the grooves, and guides them in front of a blade with a vertical reciprocating motion, which causes the seeds that were attached to the fibers to come loose.

The loom

The loom is the weaving machine, an operation that consists of making fabrics by interlacing two sets of threads: the warp and the weft.

The loom has a long history. Initially it required all human power to operate, and it was not until the end of 1700 that the first mechanical loom appeared, initially with animal traction and later with steam power. It became popular from 1820 onwards, and the textile industry became widespread since then. There are different types of looms that are distinguished according to the organs that compose them and the foundations of their operation. A shuttle loom consists of: the beam, consisting of a drum where the warp threads are wound and from which they emerge parallel; the thread guide, which properly tightens the warp threads; the crossbar, which is a mechanism consisting of two rods that divide the threads into two groups to prepare the shed; the lizaroles or viaderas, frames with alternating vertical movement, in which steel threads or heddles take the warp threads and form the shed, a position in which some threads go up and others go down. The looms also have: a reed, whose back-and-forth movement pushes each pass of the weft thread; the button, consisting of a board on which the shuttle slides in its back-and-forth movement; and the beam, which is a cylinder on which the fabric is wound. There are also looms without a shuttle, which allow wider fabrics than the common ones to be obtained.

Industrial importance

Different fabrics, final products of the Textile Industry

The textile industry is the leading economic sector in many developing countries. Its importance and development in these countries is determined by its autonomy, which does not require foreign investments or technology, expensive raw materials, or a highly specialized workforce.

Curiosities

• Silk thread is used to make a wide variety of fabrics which, due to their softness, strength, ease of washing and attractiveness, have made silk considered the best of textile fibersfor centuries .
• Cottonfibers are also used in the manufacture of explosives , guncotton , batting, lint, wicks, twists, insulators and in the manufacture of dressings for medicine and surgery .