This is collected on wooden bobbins. The frame we have is small but it can spin up to 90 threads at one time. This only spins one ply yarn single stranded , which is not as sturdy as most prefer. In order to make two or more ply yarn the strands are twisted together on the plyer, from several cones onto fewer spools. Finishing There are many ways of finishing the yarn. It is sometimes necessary to remove the lubricant by washing, which also "sets the twist" which allows the fibers to open up, fluff out and make a loftier yarn.
Sometimes the wool is woven or knitted directly from the cone and is washed and blocked in its final form as cloth, socks, sweaters, etc. Please direct comments or questions to: Anne blackberry-ridge. The wool fibers are then put through a series of combing steps called carding. This can be done with small hand cards that look much like brushes you would use on a dog.
It can also be done on a larger scale with machine driven drums covered with "card cloth" which combs the wool many times by transfering it back and forth from one drum to the other as it is passed down the series of drums. This term is often misunderstood to mean higher quality, which is not necessarily the case. These wools and others can be used in the production of two categories of woolen fabrics: woolens and worsteds.
Woolens are made up of short, curly fibers that tend to be uneven and weak. They are loosely woven in plain or indistinct patterns. Usually woolens have a low thread count and are not as durable as worsteds.
They do, however, make soft, fuzzy, and thick fabrics that are generally warmer than their counterparts. The deep wrinkles on imported A-type Merino ewes left and rams right contributed to increased wool yields per sheep for American wool producers. The mechanization of the woolen cloth industry provides a heady example of the extent of nineteenth-century industrial change. Every step of the process, except shearing the sheep and sorting the wool into different grades, was mechanized between and Only the organic aspects of shearing live animals and the value judgments required of human sorters resisted mechanical replication until the twentieth century.
Growth of the American woolen trade was based on more than mechanical change, however. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, American sheep provided wool that was quite satisfactory for "homespun," the rough, durable cloth woven by hand on looms owned by professional weavers who set up shop or moved from town to town with their looms.
But domestic cloth was overshadowed in quality by imported material. Several varieties of sheep bred in England and Europe produced wool vastly superior in quality to American-produced wool. The importation of breeds such as the English Southdowns and Spanish Merinos improved domestic quality and allowed the American woolen industry to compete with the best imports.
The Merino sheep, in particular, with their deeply wrinkled folds producing large quantities of wool, caused a stir among American farmers in the early part of the century. A few "gentlemen farmers" avoided Spanish export restrictions and imported some Merinos. As wool prices rose during the embargo of , a "Merino craze" occurred that pushed the price of fine wool and purebred animals to record levels.
Then, in , an American diplomat arranged the importation of 20, purebred Merinos, and the woolen industry from Vermont to Pennsylvania to Ohio was changed forever. Worsted fabrics are made of long, straight fibers with considerable tensile strength.
They are usually woven in twill patterns and have a high thread count. The finish tends to be hard, rough, and flat. Also, the insulation Wool manufacture begins with shearing the sheep.
After grading and sorting, the fleece is scoured in a series of alkaline baths containing water, soap, and soda ash or a similar alkali. This process removes sand, dirt, grease, and dried sweat from the fleece. Next, the fleece is carded—passed through a series of metal teeth that straighten and blend the threads into slivers. Carding also removes residual dirt and other matter left in the fibers. Worsted fabrics also tend to be more expensive than woolens. The major steps necessary to process wool from the sheep to the fabric are: shearing, cleaning and scouring, grading and sorting, carding, spinning, weaving, and finishing.
Worsted yarns can create fine fabrics with exquisite patterns using a twill weave. Gilling is a process of aligning the wool fibres so they are parallel to one another. This is done using a coarse comb. At this stage, the sliver still contains particles of vegetable matter as well as short fibres.
They still may be in the wool, and of course they are a no-no for the yarn, so combing removes those. It also removes the short fibres, because short fibres are hard to control in the yarn. Dr Errol Wood AgResearch The strand of fibres has to come from a fairly thick strand down to a very fine one, so there are steps that enable that to happen. We call them drafting. The drafting process enables the fibres to slip apart and become finer. Dr Errol Wood AgResearch : The last step in producing yarn is what we call spinning, and the ring-spinning frame does that very efficiently.
And so you end up with what is called a singles yarn. And there you have your yarn. It may be a coarse yarn going off to make into carpets. It could be a finer yarn going into upholstery or a really fine yarn going into high-quality apparel, which may be woven or knitted.
And so we reach the end of the process with one of those fabrics being formed, either a tufted carpet, a woven carpet, a woven fabric or a knitted fabric. Yarns from both the woollen and worsted systems can be woven into apparel, carpets and upholstery. The physical and chemical properties of wool vary greatly between breeds, the environment in which the wools are grown and the diet and health of the sheep.
The physical properties vary in terms of fibre diameter, length and crimp whereas the chemical properties exhibit variety in terms of amino acid content. In addition, wools also vary in their base colour and have differences between the tip and root that affect both the dyestuff diffusion rate and mechanical properties.
It is common to blend wools with different physical and chemical properties, and these blends may display markedly different dyeing properties. Therefore, careful selection of dyestuffs and auxiliary dyeing chemicals is important if the desired, stable colour is to be achieved on completion of the dyeing process. The objective of wool fabric finishing is to develop the desired properties in woollen and worsted fabrics that meet the specified end use requirements of consumers. Finishing is a sequence of dry and wet processes that is carried out in a logical order.
This lecture provides an overview of the principles of wool fabric finishing. The topic of wool fabric finishing is a very extensive one, and therefore can only be dealt with quite briefly here. This topic describes the effect of fibre properties on performance in the conversion of greasy wool through to top, and into worsted yarn. The potential performance in spinning and the yarn properties are determined or limited by the fibre properties and so it is possible to predict expected performance and establish a firm basis for the relative importance of fibre properties.
Toggle navigation. Wool Processing. Accessing These Resources The University of New England is licenced by the Trust to deliver this module as part of its formal curriculum. Topic 1: Overview of Early Stage Processing This topic provides an overview of the steps involved in the early stage processing of wool ESP , ie, the conversion of greasy wool into yarn.
On completion of this topic you should be able to: outline the main wool processing systems, from greasy wool through to finished yarn; describe the essential features of the worsted, woollen and semiworsted processing routes, using an appropriate flow diagram; explain the similarities and differences between these routes with respect to a the raw material requirements, b complexity of each route, and c the properties and uses of the yarn produced by each; and describe the essential differences between a woollen and worsted card.
Topic 2: Wool Scouring Principles and Methods This topic covers the wool scouring process, presenting the principal objectives and functions of the modern industry.
On completion of this topic you should be able to: describe the nature of the main contaminants of raw wool; list the objectives of wool scouring; describe sequence of operations in a scouring plant; explain how a detergent removes grease from wool fibres; list the factors that affect the quality of scouring; explain the following: preparations of wool for scouring ie, opening, blending, and cleaning operations ; the parts of a minibowl and their role — How the various contaminants are removed in aqueous scouring post-scouring operations drying, cleaning, packaging ; how scouring effluent is treated to minimise waste and extract wool grease; and explain the different requirements in the scouring of fine and coarse wools, and the scouring lines used for each type.
Topic 3: Scoured Wool Quality and Testing This topic looks at the full range of certificated tests that are routinely carried out on scoured wool consignments in Australia and New Zealand.
On completion of this topic you should be able to: explain why testing is important to the wool industry; describe the sampling techniques appropriate to scoured wool testing; outline the yield test procedures, in particular the determination of wool base, ash content, vegetable matter content and solvent i.
Topic 4: Wool Carbonising This topic looks at Carbonising, the chemical process used to remove vegetable matter VM from wool. On completion of this topic you should be able to: explain why certain wools need to be carbonised; outline the basic principles involved in the carbonising process; describe the parameters to be controlled during the process; and discuss the problems which can be encountered in carbonising and the adverse effects they can have on the final product.
Topic 5: Principles of Wool Carding Irrespective of which of the three routes woollen, worsted or semiworsted is used to process wool into yarn, the card or carding machine plays an essential part.
On completion of this topic you should be able to: identify the key rollers in a card, explain their functions and compare their speeds; describe the various card roller interactions and their purposes; explain how fibres gain a hooked configuration in card sliver, and how these hooks are subsequently removed; describe the process of fibre breakage on a card and the factors that influence the level of breakage; explain the terms collecting fraction and delay factor, and their relevance to the mixing ability of a card; describe, with the use of a suitable diagram, the effect on carding production of a rapid change in feed rate; and describe a nep, and outline the factors that contribute to nep formation in carding.
Topic 6: Drafting and Gilling of Fibrous Assemblies In wool yarn manufacture, an integrated series of operations is required to convert disorganised tufts of staple fibres into an organized twisted strand.
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