What is fiber | What is Textile fiber I Classification of Textile fibers I Natural fiber I Man made fiber

Fiber is the most required material for textile. Because, fiber is the raw material of yarn, the yarn is the raw material of the fabric, the fabric is the raw material of the garment. So, we called fiber is the most important material of textile.

Features of this article:

1. Definition of fiber.
2. Definition of textile fiber.
3. Classification of fiber.

Fiber: Fiber is a soft, flexible material that length will be thousands of time higher than its diameter. Generally, fibers are used as a raw material of yarn. Sometimes the fabric is directly produced from the fiber.

Textile fiber: The fiber which can be spun and processed into yarn or used to make textile such as a woven fabric, knit fabric, lace, non-woven, etc. by means of an appropriate interlacing or interloping method is called as a textile fiber.

For example Cotton, Silk, Polyester, Nylon, Acrylic Etc.

To be a textile fiber, the fiber should have ;

• Certain length: 5 mm.
• Certain strength: 6 CN/Tex ( 6 km breaking length )
• Certain fineness
• Crimp
• Spun ability

Classification of textile fiber:

1. Natural fiber: The fiber which finds in natural resources known as natural fiber.
2. Man-made fiber: The fiber which artificially regenerated or made by the man known as Man-made fiber.

1. Natural fiber: The fiber, which is obtained from renewable natural resources, is known as Natural fiber. Most of the natural fibers are cultivated and collected from different fiber plant. According to utilization, all the fiber producing plant classified into two types: primary plant and secondary plant.

Primary plant: The primary plant only cultivated for getting fibers. For example, jute, kapok, hemp, sisal, and cotton are the primary fiber plant.

Secondary plant: The secondary plant is cultivated for different purposes and fibers obtained as a by-product from them. For example, banana, pineapple, cereal, stalks, and coir are the secondary plant.

Most of the natural fiber is cellulosic fiber, but also contained lignin, pectin, and hemicellulose. Natural fiber not only used for textile production but also used as a composite material for different purposes. This type of composite material called bio-composites. Natural fiber has many advantages than synthetic fiber. They are environment-friendly and biodegradable. Garments that made from the natural fiber are more comfortable than manmade or synthetic fiber.

2. Manmade fiber: Manmade fiber is made from the regeneration of different natural fiber or fully artificially produced by chemically processing whither molecular structure of the manmade fiber is significantly modified by the chemical process. We can produce various length and width fiber as our requirement. The man has control of this fiber. It is unhygienic and uncomfortable to wear.

According to the source of manufacturing, manmade fiber classified into two types:

• Semi-synthetic fiber.
• Synthetic or fully manmade fiber.

Semi-synthetic fiber: The fiber that is made from the regeneration of natural sources is called as semi-synthetic fiber. For example viscose, rayon.

Synthetic or fully manmade fiber: The fiber that is made by artificially and the chemical process is called as synthetic or fully manmade fiber. For example Polyester, Polyamide, nylon, acrylic, spandex.

According to the length of manufacturing, manmade fiber also classified into three types:

• Filament.
• Staple.
• Filament tow.

Filament: Filament fiber is spun by spinneret and the number of holes of the spinneret will be 350 or less than 350. Filament also two types:

• Mono-filament.
• Multi-filament.

Staple: Staple fiber is spun by larger spinneret and the number of holes of the spinneret will be 3000. Staple fiber is comparatively sorted on length.

Filament tow: Filament tow is produced from 100 or more large spinneret. After that, all the filament fiber combined to make more width and length filament tow.

Manmade fiber has many advantages against natural fiber. It can be produced desired length and width. Its production rate is more than natural fiber and manufacturing cost also less than natural fiber.

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