Textile manufacturing processes

Basic yarn components along with conventional filaments/yarns constitute the feedstock of the weaving process. Selectively fed into a loom and manipulated through an advanced textile manufacturing process, this feedstock can be woven into a complex variety of designs that result in a structurally sound, environmentally compatible fabric that provides electrical and mechanical functionality. Electronic circuits can be formed from the selective interconnection of fibre components during the weaving process. 

Fiber Finishes. The natural fibers, of which cotton and wool are most important, are endowed by nature with a finish which affords textile processibility. The cotton fiber is coated by a layer of pectin and wax which supplements the natural hygroscopicity of the fiber with a lubricant which aids in the manifold drafting operations of the textile manufacturing process. Raw wool also occurs naturally with a coating of wool grease, but this is often removed by scouring the raw stock before textile processing,... 

Chemicals Used in Processing. Water is perhaps the most important chemical used in the textile manufacturing process. It is supplied primarily as high atmospheric humidity, often sprayed into the air to supplement the natural humidity. Water serves to plasticize the hydrophilic fibers and to minimize static electrical effects with the hydrophobic. Humidifying the air has made the expansion of the textile industry in the South possible, and now air conditioning has entirely removed geographical limitations on textile processing. 

Calculating carbon footprints of textile manufacturing processes... 

Figure 13 Carbon footprint results for each of the textile manufacturing processes for a single jacket consisting of mixed materials (PA = polyamide, PES = polyester).

In addition to the textile manufacturing processes described in the previous subsection, the full life cycle of textile products encompasses processes related to raw material... 

The remaining textile manufacturing processes had only one economically valuable output and, therefore, required no allocation. These processes included ... 

Large leaf is usually less objectionable because large particles are more easily removed by the textile manufacturing process. Leaf and other foreign matter in cotton must be removed... 

The major environmental threat involved in the textile manufacturing process is contributed by wet processing, which pollutes water (Correia et al., 1994). The toxic effluents that are harmful to aquatic lives as well as to humans are directly released into rivers. Due to the action of dissolved oxygen in water, the pollutants are broken down chemically and biologically. Hence the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water is reduced, creating difficulties for the survival of aquatic life. 

It is a common practice in the manufacture of synthetic fibers to add a small amount of lubricating material to the fiber to assist its performance and runnability in downstream textile manufacturing processes [41,47 9]. The lubricating material is often referred to as finish. The three primary functions of the finish are lubrication of the fiber surface, static protection, and filament cohesion. The thin layer of finish is an interface between the fiber and other surfaces. The finish acts as a lubricant to reduce frictional wear and damage when the fiber passes over other contact surfaces. 

LbL deposition is a process that could be used to potentially develop functional textiles for protective clothing and selective filtration applications. Using nanolayer films as a method of textile modification will allow increases in the functionality of a variety of textile products. It is also possible that ESA could be easily integrated into existing textile manufacturing processes. 

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