Structural Textile Design

Interlacing and Interlooping

Yasir Nawab, Syed Talha Ali Hamdani, Khubab Shaker, Yasir Nawab, Syed Talha Ali Hamdani, Khubab Shaker

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9781498779432
• eBook ISBN:
  9781315390383
• Topic: Tecnología e ingeniería
• Subtopic: Ciencias de los materiales

The properties of woven and knitted fabrics differ largely due to the path yarn follows in the fabric structure. This path determines the fabric's physical properties, mechanical properties, and appearance. A slight variation to the design may result in entirely different properties for the fabric. Structural Textile Design provides detailed insight on different types of designs used for the production of woven and knitted fabrics, highlighting the effect design has on a fabric's properties and applications. With focus on the techniques used to draw designs and produce them on weaving and knitting machines, this book will be of great interest to textile engineers, professionals and graduate students in textile technology and manufacturing.

1

Textile Fabrics

Madeha Jabbar

Contents

1.1What Is a Textile Fabric?

1.2Classification

1.3Fabric Structure and Design

1.4Application Areas

1.4.1Apparels

1.4.2Home Textiles

1.4.3Industrial/Technical Textiles

1.5Global Textile Trade and Trends

References

1.1What Is a Textile Fabric?

The term “textile” originated from the Latin word textilis and the French word texere, which means “to weave,” and the term was initially used only for woven fabrics. The advent of new developments has also broadened the scope of this term, covering filament, fiber, and yarn which are capable of being converted into fabric, and the subsequent material itself. Textile, therefore, includes threads, cords, ropes, braids, lace, embroidery, nets, and fabrics produced by weaving, knitting, bonding, felting, or tufting. To be useful in textiles, fibers must have some desirable properties such as strength, abrasion resistance, flexibility, and moisture absorption.

Studies on the history of fabric production are based on archeological findings, pictorial representations, frescoes, stone monuments, archival documents, etc. Perhaps the earliest fabrics were produced by felting, that is, condensing and pressing the fibers (mostly cotton or wool) together in the form of sheet. The cultivation of flax is documented as early as 6000 bc (Kvavadze et al. 2009), and the evidence exists for production of linen cloth in Egypt around 5500 bc. The Egyptians used linen fabrics, woven in narrow width, in the burial custom of mummification. Evidence report silk production in China between 3000 bc and 5000 bc. Scraps of silk were found in China dating back to 2700 bc. Hundreds of years before the Christian era, cotton textiles were woven in India with matchless skill, and their use spread to the Mediterranean countries. In the first century, the Arab traders brought fine muslin and calico fabrics to Italy and Spain. The Moors introduced the cultivation of cotton into Spain in the ninth century. Fustians and dimities were woven there and in the fourteenth century in Venice and Milan, at first with a linen warp. Little cotton cloth was imported to England before the fifteenth century, although small amounts were obtained chiefly for candlewicks (Balter 2009). By the seventeenth century, the East India Company was bringing rare fabrics from India.

1.2Classification

There exist numerous techniques for fabric formation, and these techniques are the most usual parameter to classify the textile fabric into woven, knitted, nonwoven, and braided, as shown in Figure 1.1. The conventional fabrics (woven, knitted, and braided) are produced in such a way that the fibers are first converted into yarn and subsequently into fabric. However, fabrics are also produced directly from the fibers, without being converted into yarn. Such fabrics are termed as nonwoven fabrics.

Figure 1.1

Classification of textile fabrics with reference to fabric formation techniques.

Woven fabrics are produced by interlacement of two sets of yarns perpendicular to each other, that is, warp and weft forming a stable structure, while knitted fabrics are made up of interconnected loops of yarn. The bent yarn in a loop provides stretch, comfort, and shape retention properties to knitted fabric. However, the knitted fabrics are generally less durable than the woven fabric. Such properties help to determine the end use of a specific fabric. The chemical and/or mechanical bonding or interlocking of fibers produces a fabric structure known as the nonwoven fabric. The process of fabrics formation also determines the name of fabric produced, for example, felt, lace, double-knit, and tricot.

The selection of method for fabric formation is largely a function of the properties desired in the fabric. In contrast, the cost of fabrication process is determined by the number of steps involved and the speed of production. The fewer the steps and the faster the process, the cheaper the fabric. Recent automations in the fabric formation techniques have resulted in improved quality, improved response to consumer demand, and made production more flexible. A more detailed overview of the two fabric formation techniques, weaving and knitting, is given in the subsequent chapters.

Another way to classify the textile fabrics is based on the raw materials used, as shown in Figure 1.2. The natural fibers are provided by Nature in ready-made form and need only to be extracted, wherea...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Editors
• Contributors
• 1. Textile Fabrics
• 2. CAD for Textile Fabrics
• Section I: Woven Fabric Structures
• Section II: Knitted Fabric Structures
• Index