Introduction to Wool Fiber

Wool Fiber

     Wool belongs to protein fiber classification. Its an animal fiber extracted from the skin of Sheep and Goat. Compared to cotton fiber, raw wool fiber is of rough and hard in hand feel and has length of 5 to 6 inches and more depend on the variety of sheep and goat  grown and countries where the wool production taken as their economy generation.

     Wool fibers are of scales on its surface and crimp in character. It makes the fiber allow the air as well as give elasticity and flexibility to comfort with heat retention. It has a good moist absorption quality and not easily catches to fire like cotton fiber.

How wool fiber processed for ready to spun the yarn?

    The wool fibers on the sheep or goat are subjected to many mechanical and chemical processes to make them ready to convert into textile product. Below are the brief explanation given.

Shearing: Is a process of cutting the fleece of wool from the skin of sheep or goat. After extracting the wool hairs, are segregated into wool fleece, broken wool, stained, curled,non-usable,.etc..Wool fleece is the good one to take it for further process. This wool is called greasy wool also.

Scouring: Is the process of cleaning the raw wool which is contained with un wanted atmospheric waste materials, lanolin grease, vegetables, etc. It may be cleaned by detergents at small scale quantities and with special detergents with alkalis at industry for huge quantity. In industry most of the non-removable vegetables contents are subjected to process carbonization.

Types of Wool

    Wool types are classified into many based on the breeds and kinds of animals used, the region where the wool forming is done as well as length and fineness of yield . Below are some important kind of wool have place in the market.

Merino Wool: This kind of wool is now popular for its finest and very soft hand mainly produced in Australia. The merino wool fiber and its production dominating in Australia. The end product from merino wool is mainly have demand in the area of sports culture and yoga culture, where it can be blended with elastane and other fibers combination. This woll measures from 3 to 5 inches in length and 12 to 24 microns in diameter

Cashmere Wool: This is from goats in the northern region of South Asia mainly from present province named as ‘’Kashimir’’.Cashmere wool is a soft,fine and long goat hair strenger than wool taken from sheep.The average diameter around 19 microns .The wool from cashmere goat has double fleece mixed with coarse wool called as guard wool supports the fine wool.The fine cashmere wool is separated from coarse wool by the process called ‘’de-hairing’’and used for textile products manufacturing. The fine cashmere wool is in very demand because of its finer range extended to 30 microns and above. This has been produced in large now in Kashmir (India),Nepal, China and Mongolia.

Mohair: This is from goats of Angora of Turkey region. This is very lustrous, sheen and fine has good warm produce character in cold as well as cool conditioning character in summer. Mohair has 25-45 microns .This may be coarser as the goat old as grown. The fine yarn extracted from younger goat for the application in garments and coarser fibers from aged goats are used for carpet and other house hold application

 Angora Wool: This is from angora rabbits. It is a soft and warmth fiber mainly used in sweaters, suiting and knitted goods of good quality. It is differ from other mohair and cashmere wool. The main country harvest angora is China. The diameter of Angora is between 12 to 16 micro meters. Angora fiber extracted from skin of rabbit, the process by moulting or plucking.

Source:Based educational qualification and experience of the Author/Blogger.