[Biology Class Notes] on Fibre to Fabric Pdf for EXAM

Along with food and shelter, clothing is also a basic need of our lives. Clothes protect us from external factors like heat, cold, and rain. We usually wear clothes based on climates, occasions, and also according to the present fashion trends. All these clothes are prepared from the Fibres.

What are Fibres?

Fibres are thin, long, flexible and hair or thread-like structures. The fibres are usually obtained from two main sources- Plants and Animals. These fibres called the Natural Fibres. Cotton, wool, silk are examples of Natural Fibres.

Apart from the natural Fibres, there are Synthetic Fibres which are artificially synthesized by humans with the help of machines and technologies in the textile industries. These fibres are also called the manmade fibres. Rayon Nylon and polyesters are examples of Synthetic Fibres.

Types of Natural Fibres

The natural fibres are of two types:

• Plant Fibres

• Animal Fibres

Plant Fibres are obtained from plant sources such as cotton, jute, coconut fibre, etc.

Animal Fibres are obtained from animals for eg., wool from sheep and silk from the silkworm.

What are Fabrics?

Fabrics are defined as the clothing material, which is made by weaving or knitting threads and is obtained from the yarn. They are made from tiny thread-like fibres. These fibres are twisted to make a yarn.

The quality of a fabric depends upon the type of fibre used for the treatment used on it. Rayon, satin, denim, cotton voile are some of the different types of fabrics. 

Processing of a Fibre into Fabric

The whole procedure through which Fabrics is made from fibres includes:

Extraction of fibres either from the plant or animal source.

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A group of filament or staple fibres extracted are twisted together to form a yarn.

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These yarn are twisted tightly and allowed to rotate on the different types of the rollers, weaved and knitted by passing a different number of yarns together to produce Fabrics. 

Finally, the fabrics are produced. These fabrics are treated with chemicals in the textile industries to make different types of clothing materials like cotton fabrics, woollen fabrics, silk fabrics, polyester fabrics etc. Later these fabrics are processed for bleaching to give a smooth, shiny look, colour dying to add colours to the fabric materials and screen printings to design the fabrics.

 Process of Making Cotton Fabric

Cotton is picked up from the fields. The seeds are separated by combing. This process is known as ginning.

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Ginned cotton is compressed to form bales. These bales are sent to the spinning mills.

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The cotton bales are loosened and cleaned. This process is known as carding.

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The cotton fibres are then converted into rope-like loose strands. The strands are twisted to make yarns. This process is known as the spinning of cotton yarns.

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The yarns are then used to make fabrics by weaving and knitting.