WOOL FIBER (CON.
Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and other animals, including
cashmere and mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, angora from
rabbits, and other types of wool from camelids. Wool mainly consists of
protein together with a few percent lipids.Wool protein is called keratin.
A peptide bond is a chemical bond formed between two
molecules when the carboxyl group of one molecule reacts
with the amino group of the other molecule, releasing a
molecule of water (H2O).
FEATURE BUF
• Warmth T
• Damaged by both acid
and alkali Resiliency
• Felting
Producing Countries:
MANUFACTURING
PROCESS
MANUFACTURING
PROCESS
Sheep
Wool comes from sheep. They grow a
wool coat and once a year this wool coat
is sheared off the animal. This is
frequently done in the early spring shortly
before they have their lambs. A shorn
ewe will be more likely to stay out of the
wind and bad weather and protect her
new-born lamb if she does not have a
thick wool coat on her.
MANUFACTURING
PROCESS
Fleece
The shorn wool coat is called a fleece. It
is also called "grease wool" because of
all the oil and lanolin in the wool. This
fleece must be cleaned before it can be
processed into wool yarn. There is
much vegetable matter, manure and
natural oil that must be removed.
Sometimes as much as 50% of the
weight of the fleece is not wool.
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MANUFACTURING
PROCESS
Skirting a fleece
The wool from the back end of the sheep, their legs and
sometimes their belly is too full of manure to use. These
are referred to as "tags". These are removed first before
washing the fleece; this process is called skirting, as all
the edges of the wool coat are removed.
Sorting:
The fleeces are also sorted into the various types by
skill worker according to fine from coarse, short from
long and black and white.
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MANUFACTURING PROCESS
Cleaning and Scouring
Wool taken directly from the
sheep is called "raw" or
"grease wool". It contains
sand, dirt, grease and dried
sweat (called suint). The
weight of contaminants
accounts for about 30 to 70
percent of the fleece's total
weight. To remove these
contaminants, the wool is
scoured in a series of
alkaline baths containing
water, soap and soda ash
or a similar alkali. Rollers in
the scouring machines
squeeze excess water from
the fleece, but fleece is not
allowed to dry completely.
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MANUFACTURING PROCESS
Carbonizing
Carbonizing is done to remove the
cellulosic impurities from wool by
treatment with acid or acid producing
salts. Carbonizing may be carried out
in loose wool or on piece goods after
scouring. The process begins by
immersing the wool in a solution of
sulfuric acid (H2SO4) that reacts with
the cellulose impurities in the wool.
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MANUFACTURING PROCESS
Drying
After scouring and carbonizing of wool, it is necessary to
dry it before passing it to the next manufacturing
process.
MANUFACTURING PROCESS
Blending
Blending refers to the process of combining small
amounts of the same fiber taken from different lots to
achieve a uniform result. Blending of wool is done to
combine fibers of different origins, length, thickness or
color to make yarn.
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MANUFACTURING PROCESS
Carding
The wool fibers are then put through a series
of combing steps called carding. It is done
with machine driven drums covered with
"card cloth" which combs the wool many
times by transferring it back and forth from
one drum to the other as it is passed down
the series of drums. We have "woolen" cards
which produce a wool web with the fibers
coming off in random alignment. This is in
contrast to "worsted" combing that lines up
all the fibers.
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MANUFACTURING PROCESS
Roving
The final step in the carding
process divides the web into
small strips called pencil roving.
These are collected on large
spools on the end of the card.
These spools of pencil roving will
be placed on the spinning frame
to make yarn.
The roving as it comes off the card
has no twist. It is held together by
the oil and natural hooks that exist
on the surface of the wool fibers.
The spinning frame will put the
actual twist on the roving and turn
it into yarn. This is collected on
wooden bobbins.
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MANUFACTURING PROCESS
Wind and/or Skeining
When the wooden bobbins
are full of yarn, they are
placed on a cone winder and
the yarn is transferred to
paper cones for use in
weaving and knitting
machines. It could also be put
into skeins of yarn which are
the form that knitters like to
use.
Weaving
The wool yarn is woven into fabric. Wool manufacturers use two basic weaves: the plain weave and the
twill. Woolen yarns are made into fabric using a plain weave (rarely a twill), which produces a fabric of a
somewhat looser weave and a soft surface (due to napping) with little or no luster. The napping often
conceals flaws in construction.
Worsted
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yarns can create fine fabrics with exquisite patterns using a twill weave. The result is a more
tightly woven, smooth fabric. Better constructed, worsteds are more durable than woolens and
therefore more costly.
MANUFACTURING PROCESS OFWOOL
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FELTING OF WOOL
Felting bonds and compresses animal fiber to make a
dense, flat, warm fabric, using heat, moisture and
agitation (and in some industries, chemicals such as
acid). Felt can be shaped, made thicker, cut, and
sewn. It lasts for a long time, resists water absorption,
and is incredibly versatile.
Basically, it is the process of turning loose wool locks
or wool roving into a piece of fabric by connecting
the individual fibers.
• A simplified representation of the wool felting
Felting of Wool (con.)
At step 1, the fiber is in its original position. At steps 2-6, the fiber
curls at the root end, drawing up the tip end. Note that the fiber
does not move much outside of its distance.
Courtesy of reference.
Felting of wool is significantly enhanced by heat, acid or alkali. Heat
will make the wet fiber more elastic and plastic, easier and more
likely to move, and to distort and entangle itself with other fibers.
Heat will also cause the fiber to swell more and this effect is
enhanced in acidic or alkali conditions. Increased swelling results in
more inter-fiber contact and increased inter- fiber friction.
POLYMER
SYSTEM:
The wool polymer is linear
keratin polymer with very short
side group and it normally has a
Fig. hydrogen bonding between polymer chains in a protein fiber
helical configuration. A wool
wool.
polymer is about 140 nm long
and 1 nm thick , 25-30 %
crystalline . It has peptide bond
(-CO-NH-),H-bond , cystine
linkage (Disulphide bond).
CONT.
The fiber structure is made of several
layers of different types of keratin
cells. There is an outer layer with
three subdivisions, the cortex with its
cortical cells, and the medulla or
core. The outer layer, containing
overlapping scales, gives wool its
remarkable fibrous surface
appearance. This scaly outer layer is
composed of keratin, whereas keratin
C contains tyrosine and exists mostly
in the interior of the fiber. The
polypeptides comprising wool fiber
are long peptide chains which are
bridged by cysteine and salt linkage,
the chemical structure of wool can
generally be presented as fig.
where R5 = groups linking other chains,
R6 = alkyl, amino or side chain groups such as found in
proline and tyrosine,
and
R7 = short chain linkage groups
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
Carbon------- 50.3-52.5%
Keratin---------- 33%
Hydrogen ----- 6.4-7.3%
Dust------------- 26%
Nitrogen-------- 16.2-17.7%
Suit-------------- 28%
Oxygen---------- 20.7-%
Fat--------------- 12%
Sulpher ---------- 1%
Mineral matter---- 1%
AMINO ACID IN WOOL KERATIN
Glycine 6.5%
Alamine 4.4 %
Valine 4.7 %
Luecone 11.2 %
Serine 7.5 %
Cystine 13.1 %
Phebylalanine 4.0 %
Tyrosine 4.5 %
Aspartic acid 7.8 %
CLASSIFICATION OF WOOL
•Different Types of Wool : Classification of wool by sheep:
•Fine wool •Marino wool ( First Class
•Medium Wool. wool )
•Long breeds •Class two wool
wool •Class three wool
•Cross breeds •Class four Wool Classification of Wool By length :
wool
•Carpet woo Type Breds Length(inch)
Classification of Wool By flees : Fine American merino 1.5– 2
1.Normal wool.--------------- ( 6 to 8 years of sheep ) Ram Bouillet 2.5—3.5
2.Hagget wool ----------------( 12 to 14 years of sheep) Australia Merino 3--5
3.Pulled wool -----------------( 15-16 years of sheep)
Medium England down 2-4
4.Cotty wool ------------------( very low quality sheep) Corriedale 3-7
5.Tag lock wool --------------( Discolor sheep )
Coarse Romny 5-6
6.Dead wool ----------------- ( Nearly dead sheep)
Blackface high land 6-8
7.Weather wool --------------( Collecting after one Cots world 10-11 23BUFT
collection)
PHYSICALPROPERTIES:
• Strength:
1. Wool is the weakest of the natural textile fibers.
2. Wool fiber is strengthened by the used of ply yarns.
3. A hard twisted two ply yarn may be regarded as an assurance of durability.
4. Tightly twisted single yarns also make a strong fabric.
• Elasticity:
1.Depending upon the quality of wool, the fiber may be stretched from 25-30
percent of its natural length.
2. This characteristic reduces the danger of tearing under tension.
3. This characteristic contributes to the free body movements.
4. The chemical treatment also gives better shape retention.
CONT.
• Resilience:
1. Wool fiber has a high degree of resilience.
2. Good quality wool is soft & resilient
3. Poor quality wool gives a harsh feeling.
4. Due to the high degree of resiliency, wool fabric wrinkles less than some
others.
• Effect of Heat:
1. Wool becomes harsh at 100˚C & begins to decompose at slightly higher temperature.
2. It has plastic quality which helps to have shape at melting temperature.
CONT.
CHEMICAL PROPERTIES:
Wool is a protein fiber and it has some chemical properties. Chemical Properties of the wool
fiber is given below:
• Effects of Acids:
Wool is attacked by hot concentrated sulphuric acid and decomposes
completely. It is in general resistant to mineral acids of all strength
even at high temperature though nitric acids tend to cause damage by oxidation.
• Effects of Alkalis:
The chemical nature of wool keratin is such that it is particularly sensitive to alkaline
substances. Wool will dissolve in caustic soda solutions that would have little effects on
cotton. Strong alkaline affect on wool fiber but weak alkaline does not affect wool.
CONT
.
• Effects of Organic Solvent: Wool does not affect in
organic solvents.
• Effects of Insects: Wool affected by insects.
• Effects of Micro Organism: It affected by mildew if it
remains wet for long time.
• Dyeing ability: Wool fiber could be dyed by basic dye,
direct dye and acid dye.
Impurities Present in Raw Wool
The proportions of the different components of unwashed or greasy
wool are:
Moisture = 4 – 24 %
Yolk = 12 – 22 %
Dirt = 3 – 9 %
Wool Fibers = 60 – 70 %
Raw wool contains three mainimpurities
Wool grease
Suint
Dirt
These combined make up some 30-40% of the fleece weight. A typical
figure of the grease content of crossbred wool is about 6%.
Wool Grease
This is a very complex mixture, consisting mostly of esters of various long-chain
fatty acids with long-chain alcohols and sterols. Technically it is a wax, rather
than a fat, because glycerol esters are not present.
Suint
Suint is the sweat of the sheep and is a complex mixture of water-soluble
salts. The predominant cat-ion is potassium; the an-ions include
carbonate, bicarbonate, various low molecular weight mono- and di-
carboxylic acids (succinic, glycolic, glutaric etc.) and smaller amounts of
long chain fatty acid anions which may originate from wool grease.
Peptides and other nitrogenous substances are minor components.
Impurities are
removed by Dirt
scouring and Dirt consists of all the ill-defined solid fleece contaminants. It includes
Carbonization
mineral soil, windblown dust, vegetable matter, faecal matter (dags),
skin flakes, discarded cuticle cells, and fragments of fiber broken
from brittle photo- oxidized tips. In many respects, in terms of wool
properties, it is the very fine mineral material, largely associated with
exposed fiber tips, that is the most
Wool is a protein fiber which is identified with different test.
• Physical test: The flame is steady but more difficult to keep burning. The smell of
burning wool is like burning of hair.
• Chemical test: Wool fiber dissolves in concentrated sodium hydro-oxide and
sodium hypo-chloride and slowly dissolves in Nitric acid 70%.
• Distinguishing wool from silk:
The use of concentrated cold hydrochloric acid and sodium hydro-oxide solution
will dissolve the silk but the wool fiber swells.
Identification
of wool fiber:
Woolen Products
CLOTHES
CARPETS
Wool is very resilient and its texture
allows it to very quickly recover from
crushing or indenting caused by
footsteps or furniture.
This keeps the rug looking new and
fresh for longer periods of time.
Wool has a natural ability to resist
staining and soiling, a 30% higher rate
of stain resistance than even the best
synthetic fibers.
This is because of the natural light
lanolin that coats the surface of the
wool. This coating helps stop dirt and
stains from actually penetrating the wool
leaving any soiling on or near the
surface. That’s why spills on wool is very
easy to clean.
INSULATING
PRODUCTS
Woolen covers are made
for appliances, because
of the durability, water
and flame resistance.
