What are the basic raw materials to produce a felt fabric?

Tag : Felt Fabric

Felt is a fabric which is produced by "Matting" or "Felting"together fibrous materials like wool, hair, fur etc. Most fibresused for the manufacture of textile fabrics has got matting quality to some extent, but wool, fur and somehairs are the fibres that have satisfactory felting property.Probably, it is because of waviness and scaly structure of thesefibres. Whenever non-felting fibres have to be integrated into feltcloths, wool must be used to carry these non-felting fibres.
There are two distinct types of felt. One is called woven or"thread structure" felt and other is called true or "fibre" felt.
In the manufacture of thread structure felt, wools of high feltingquality are selected. They are then scoured carefully so that itsfelting property is not reduced much. It is then spun into woolenyarn with necessary fibre arrangement and twist and then woven intocloth with such character that shrinking or felting is possible todo thereafter. Finally, it is scoured, milled in the stocks ofmachine, dyed and finished like any other woven fabric. Lighterstyle woven felts may be made out of single cloth. But, for heavierstyles, two or more clothes are woven, each one above the otherone, at the same time. At the time of weaving the clothes arestitched together.
Fibre felts are again of three types: ordinary felt, hat felt andimpregnated felt. But, all these felts are ultimately made usingordinary felt. Wool fibres used to manufacture felt are obtainedfrom East Indian, German or mid-European, New Zeeland crossbreeds,and Australian, Cape and Buenos Aires merinos. Vegetable fibres andsilk can also be used but good felting wool is to be used to carrythese fibres so that it can carry the weight of vegetable fibreslike cotton and hemp. Hairs and furs are generally used to make hatfelts. Generally, the loss of wool from the raw state to finishedfelt is about forty to fifty per cent.
The manufacturing process follows the order of mixing, willowing,teasing, scribbling and carding. It is not a practice to scour thefelting wool. Even if wool is not very clean, scouring is not donebecause it affects the felting property of wool. From the cards,wool is delivered as flimsy film fifty to sixty inches wide on toan endless sheet 30 to 60 yards long on which film upon film up tothe desired thickness of the felt. To provide proper strength tothis fabric, it is ironed by passing through steam heated rollerswhich are given both rotatory and vibratory motion. This processcould also be done using huge vibrating flat iron to which thecloth is automatically fed then held in position under the iron,then wound up after the process is over to draw the next length ofthe fabric. Thereafter, finishing operation is carried includingdying and printing if required producing a strong firm fabric.However, the strength of the fabric is greater lengthwise ratherthan along its breadth because of the production process involved.Finally, the fabric is felted by perpetually hammering with fullingagents like soap, fuller's earth etc.
Therefore, basic raw material of felt fabric is wool, vegetable fibres and silk.
Article Source: http://www.orbitaloc.com/

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