Wool Fiber

Wool Fiber:

1. Source and Types of Wool Fiber:

• Source: Wool is primarily obtained from the fleece of sheep, but it can also come from other animals such as goats (cashmere and mohair), rabbits (angora), and certain camelids.
• Types: Common types of wool include Merino, Shetland, Lambswool, and Mohair.

2. Chemical Structure of Wool Fiber:

• Wool is composed of protein fibers, primarily keratin. The basic chemical structure is a complex protein polymer with amino acid chains.

3. Physical and Chemical Properties of Wool Fiber:

• Physical Properties: Soft, resilient, elastic, breathable, and excellent insulator.
• Chemical Properties: Reactive to acids, sensitive to alkalis, susceptible to moth damage.

4. Process from Wool Fiber to Wool Fabric:

• Shearing: Wool is sheared from animals.
• Sorting and Grading: Sorting by quality.
• Scouring: Cleaning to remove impurities.
• Carding: Aligning fibers for spinning.
• Spinning: Creating yarn.
• Weaving or Knitting: Formation of fabric.

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5. Process for Wool Bleaching:

• Scouring: Removes impurities.
• Bleaching: Uses chemicals to lighten color.
• Rinsing: Removes residual bleach.

6. Wool Dyeing:

• Skein Dyeing, Piece Dyeing, or Top Dyeing: Methods to apply color.
• Natural and Synthetic Dyes: Used to achieve desired shades.

7. Advantages of Wool Over Other Natural Fibers:

• Insulation: Excellent thermal properties.
• Absorbency: Can absorb moisture without feeling damp.
• Durability: Resilient and resistant to wrinkles.
• Renewability: Sustainable and biodegradable.

8. Final End Products Using Wool Fiber:

• Apparel: Sweaters, suits, scarves, socks.
• Home Textiles: Blankets, carpets, upholstery.
• Accessories: Hats, gloves, and more.

Wool's versatility makes it suitable for a wide range of products, blending comfort, warmth, and style.

Wool Fiber

The word wool was wull in Old English, wullo in Teutonic, and wlna in pre-Teutonic days. Wool is the fiber from the fleece of domesticated sheep. It is a natural, protein, multicellular, staple fiber. The fiber density of wool is 1.31 g/cm³, which tends to make wool a mecfiurn weight fiber.

The wool fiber is a crimped, fine to thick, regular fiber. Fine wools may have as many as 10 crimps per centimeter, whilst coarse wools have less than 4 crimps per 10 centimeters. As the diameter of wool fibers increases, the number of crimps per unit length increases. The number of crimps per unit length may be taken as an indication of wool fiber diameter or wool fiber fineness.

Wool fibers may vary from off-white to light cream in colour. This variation in colour is due to the disulphide bonds which seem to be able to act as chromophores. As a result the incident light may be modified to cause the reflected light to have a tinge of yellow, giving the wool fibers their off-white appearance. When the fiber is cream to dark cream in colour, this is due more to polymer degradation on the surface of the fiber. This can readily occur, as the wool polymer is chemically very sensitive to atmospheric oxygen and air pollutants.

Fibre length to breadth ratio can be critical with wool, since the short, coarse fibers spin into less attractive yarns than do those of fine wools. In general, fiber length to breadth ratio ranges from 2500:1 for the finer, shorter wools to about 7500:1 for the coarser, longer wools.

Carbonizing of wool

Raw wool contains seeds and other pieces of vegetable matter. Much of this may be removed in scouring and in combing. Combing is not used in woolen system and vegetable matter is only partially removed in carding. Even in some worsted processes, small amount of residual vegetable material is present in the fabric and in such cases carbonizing is essential to remove the residues.

The scoured wool fabric is padded, either in the rope form or in open width, with liquor containing dilute sulfuric acid (5 to 7 % by wt.) at approximately 65% wet pick up. And dried at 65 -90 C to concentrate the acid. Baking at 125 C for one minute chars the cellulosic material. The charred vegetable material is brittle and easily crushed on passing the rollers. it can be removed as dust during subsequent mechanical working. After carbonizing the wool fabric should rinsed and neutralized by washing. Such neutralization should be carried out immediately after baking, otherwise fabric damage will occur during storage of wool in such as acidic state. It is convenient to neutralize prior to dyeing but uneven neutralization leads to uneven dyeings.