Blog #10 – Research Initiatives Wool – Masland, Fabrica, Nature’s Carpet Wool is manufactured into yarn through the woolen or worsted processing system. It is then manufactured into knitted and woven wool textiles that are then used to produce clothing, upholstery, etc. Woolen yarn is used to create thick, heavyweight woven or knitted garments, which are popular during colder weather. The manufacturing process of wool starts with blending which combines wool from various bales to make sure the yarn is even and uniform. Then it is scoured which is the process that removes the bulk of contaminants like dirt, skin pieces, etc. This process involves washing the wool, rinsing the fibers, and then drying the wool. The wool then goes through carding which is where the wool fibers are separated, then the fiber is spun during the spinning process. The wool is then dyed either at the fiber, yarn, fabric, or garment stage. Carpet Tile – EF Contract, Mannington, Patcraft The construction p...
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Blog #8 – Research Initiatives Cotton Yarn - Two-ply commercial yarn that is m ade from large bails of raw cotton First Stage Yarn o Fibers are mixed with the stems from the cotton plant, so to remove them a machine goes over the top to remove 5mm of cotton o Sent through a duct system to a blending and cleaning machines that process 500kg of cotton per hour o Cotton comes out evenly blended, but isn’t fully clean so it goes through another cleaning machine o Then it goes through a carding machine that combs out the tangled fibers and lines them up in parallel rows – machines also discards any fibers that are too short to process o The coiler then takes the rows of fiber and loosely thickens them into a first stage yarn Second and Third Stage Yarn o They then go on to the drawing machine where it lines them out at 6 a...
Blog #7- Research Initiatives Polyester Resin Due to the fact that most resins were designed in a way that could only allow a person to pour them out in thin very thin layers, polyester resin was created with the intent to produce a thicker resin. Polyester, which is a set of molecules made up of ester linkages, can either be unsaturated or saturated. Unsaturated means that is has the potential to link other molecules together. Molecules start out as a liquid, however, if wanted to be a solid, a catalyst is added. This steals one of the electrons within the molecule causing it to freak out. This “freak out” grabs on its neighbor, causing them to freak out and grab onto their neighbor, and so on and so forth. This creates a very high-linked material that results in a clear and strong resin. Polyester Fiber to Yarn Polyester fibers is one of the most used commercial fibers in the world. Polyester starts out as chips, where they then get put through a silo. His moves the pieces in...
Blog #6 – Research Initiatives Cotton Testing - Bags of cottons brought in for conditioning - Samples are individually taken out and placed in trays - Air is conditioned so that the heat and humidity are similar to the air during testing o Done to create consistency among sample - Samples are then tested when they reach the right level (temperature) - Technician tests and pulls them into lab - Samples are tested in both small amounts and large amounts - Machine pulls out and combs the cotton and then is cut straight across, evenly - Then samples are checked again Technical Polyester - Polyester o Produ...