Textile Manufacturing

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How are textiles manufactured?

What is fashion design about?

Wool fibres are obtained from animal hair, and cotton fibres are separated from seeds at the cotton gin. Man-made fibres are produced from chemicals, which are mixed to make a liquid polymer. The polymer is then extruded through thousands of tiny holes in a spinneret to produce the fibre filaments.

Fibres are converted into yarn through a variety of processes, which typically involve a cleaning stage to remove any impurities (natural fibres usually require more pre-cleaning than man-made fibres), followed by spinning or twisting of the fibres. The fibres are processed either in their natural form or blended with synthetic fibres to produce a yarn according to the desired characteristics.

The yarn is knitted or woven into a fabric, and finished according to the specific design through a selection of processes that can include dyeing, printing and finishing. Other sectors of the industry include carpet manufacturing, non-woven fabrics and braiding. Non-woven and technical textiles use natural and man-made fibres to produce specialized fabrics for industrial and technical purposes.

Throughout all these processes, textile testing techniques and laboratory work are conducted to ensure that the specific characteristics and quality of the final product are maintained. Figure 12 provides a summary of the typical processes for converting raw materials (whether natural or synthetic) into textiles.

These high volume processes use a range of sophisticated machinery, and you could become one of the Operators, Supervisors and Specialist Mechanicians who run, maintain or manage them. As you can see, textile production involves numerous activities providing opportunities for specialisation in your chosen field. This could lead you into higher levels of employment, and you could become a Production Manager, Quality Assurance Specialist, Research and Development Officer, Training Practitioner, and Marketing or Sales Executive. Various opportunities also exist for Textile Technologists to specialize in technical textiles, product design and innovation, technical consulting, commercial testing of fabrics, and specialized textile technology applications within a variety of industries (the retail, automotive, medical and chemical industries are just some examples).

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