Animal hair fibers

As will be shown, it should be theoretically possible to make any of the common manufactured fibers in bicomponent forms. However, acrylics have received the most attention for quite good reasons. Their general characteristics have tended to make them competitive with wool. This means that they should be processible on machinery developed for handling wool, as well as capable of being accepted into markets previously dominated by an animal hair fiber. It follows that because the natural fiber possesses crimp which produces the cohesion that determines its behavior in processing and in part its appearance and hand in usage, a similar crimp was desired for acrylics. 

On the other hand, the loose feathers identified from Etowah No. 1156 could have been spun at one time, but they come from a mat of fiberlike material on which no yam structures currently are evident. Their juxtaposition with the re-plied yam (perhaps of animal hair) presents an anomaly because descriptions (8,12) of other feather yarns do not include a re-plied yam without a bast core. The yam appears to be alike in all its parts. Its color, texture, and surface smoothness suggest an animal-hair fiber. 

Animal hair fibers consist of a protein known as keratin, It has a composition similar to human hair. Keratin proteins are actually crystalline copolymers of nylon, where the repeating units are amino acids. The fibrous proteins form crystals. They also crosslink through disulfide bonds present in the cystine amino acid. 

Microscopic examination All fibers have distinguishing features that allow either outright identification or classification into a narrower grouping for specialized analysis. Animal hair fibers, for example, have a characteristic scaled surface. In addition, many textile yarns are blends of two or more fiber types. A simple examination with a normal light microscope can establish this and allow the components of the yam to be separated for more detailed evaluation. The major identifying characteristics are ... 

Cavaco-Paulo, A., Silva, C.J.S.M., 2003. Treatment of animal hair fibers with modified proteases. World Patent WO03097927. 

Natural fibers were used long before the discovery of the synthetics in the twentieth century. Natural fibers are usually composed of either cellulose or protein, as shown in Table 6.11. Animal hair fibers belong to a class of proteins known as keratin, which serve as the protective outer layer of the higher vertebrates. The silks are partly crystalline protein fibers. The crystalline por-... 

Saito T and Kawase M, Method for modifying animal hair fiber structure , Jpn. Kokai Tokkyo Koho, 4pp, IP 04174778 A2 920622 Heisei. 

Hunter, L.,Mohair, Cashmere and other Animal Hair Fibers, raHandbook of Natural Fibers, R. M. Kozlowski, Editor. 2012, Woodhead Pubhshing. p. 196-290. 

The high sulfur content is the characteristic distinguishing wool and other animal hair fibers from the protein fibers, silk and casein. The components of the amino acids are organized into five groups ... 

Natural protein fibers can be classified into two basics groups, animal hair fibers and extmded protein fibers. Animal hair fibers include but are not limited to wool... 

Natural protein fibers include animal hair fibers and extmded protein fibers. This section discusses the formation of two most important natural protein fibers wool (by sheep) and silk (by silkworm). 

Fibers (see Fibers, survey) used in textile production can have a wide variety of origins plants, ie, ceUulosic fibers (see Fibers, cellulose esters) animals, ie, protein fibers (see Wool) and, in the twentieth century, synthetic polymers. Depending on the part of the plant, the ceUulosic fibers can be classified as seed fibers, eg, cotton (qv), kapok bast fibers, eg, linen from flax, hemp, jute and leaf fibers, eg, agave. Protein fibers include wool and hair fibers from a large variety of mammals, eg, sheep, goats, camels, rabbits, etc, and the cocoon material of insect larvae (sUk). Real sUk is derived from the cocoon of the silkworm, Bombjx mori and for a long time was only produced in China, from which it was traded widely as a highly valuable material. 

In general, natural fibers are subdivided as to their origin, coming from plants, animals, or minerals (Fig. 2). Plant fibers usually are used as reinforcement in plastics. The plant fibers may be hairs, fiber sheafs of dicotylic plants, or vessel sheafs of monocotylic plants (bast and hard fibers). 

Animal Hair, wool Staple fibers Keratin, a protein... 

The hair fibers derived from furry mammals are mainly made up (over 80%) of the structural protein keratin. The distinction between wool and hair is not compositional, but related to size wool fibers are generally fine and short, whereas those of hair are usually thicker and longer. The molecule of keratin consists essentially of a combination of amino acids about 18 amino acids make up the keratin molecule (see Textbox 67). The nature of the amino acids, their relative amounts, and their sequence and arrangement within the molecule of keratin vary from one animal species to another but are characteristic of any variety of wool or hair (Asquith 1977) (see Table 89). 

The major textiles before the 1920s were wool (animal hair), cotton (a seed pod), and silk (a protein used for making cocoons). The silk spider also had a clever device in its abdomen for expelling a gel in a sac through a spinneret where reactions with air made a solid fiber with a uniform cross section. DuPont took this idea in spinning hydrolyzed cellulose into rayon fibers and scaling-the process up far beyond the needs of spiders. 

Animal Fibers. Animal hair composed of protein is a common biological fiber. Numerous types of hair have been used commercially for weaving, production of ropes, padding, and insulation. 

Wool fibers are made of animal hair, principally from sheep. Each hair is a complex structure made up of layers of protein molecules. Cloth made from wool has excellent insulating properties and resists wrinkling. Wool fibers can be stretched, dyed, and woven. 

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