TEXTILE FIBER IDENTIFICATION

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Identification of fiber is a process to determine the composition
of a textile materials.

It is very important in textile sector for dyeing, printing,

finishing and caring the textile materials.

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 Fiber identification method

Non-technical method Technical method

Feeling test Chemical

Burn test Microscope 3
test test 2/10/2017
 FEELING TEST

It is based on the handling properties and do not

give accurate result because handling properties
can be changed due to applying finishing
chemical.

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As example cotton gives cooling feel
in touch where wool fiber gives warm
feel.

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 BURN TEST

Different fiber shows different

burning behavior. But it is difficult to
identify fiber when it is blended yarn
or fabric.

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 BURNING BEHAVIOR OF SOME NATURAL
FIBER
Fiber Name Approaching In Flame Removed Odor Residue/Ash
flame From Flame

Cotton Scorches, Burns quickly Continues to Burning Light, soft,

Ignites with yellow burn rapidly. paper. grey in color.
readily. flame. Black ash
for
mercerized
cotton.
Linen Scorches, Burns with Continues to Burning Feathery grey
Ignites readily yellow flame burn paper. ash.
and slower slowly. 7
burning rate 2/10/2017

than cotton.
 BURNING BEHAVIOR OF SOME
NATURAL FIBER
Fiber Name Approaching In Flame Removed Odor Residue/Ash
flame From Flame

Wool Melts and Burns slowly. Self Burning hair. Easily

curls away extinguishing. crushable
from flame. dark ash.
Silk Melts and Burns and Self Burning hair. Easily
curls away melts slowly, extinguishing. crushable,
from flame. sputters. round,
sh8iny black
a sh .
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 BURNING BEHAVIOR OF SOME
SYNTHETIC FIBER
Fiber Approaching In Flame Removed Odor Residue/Ash
flame From Flame
Name
Polyester Fuses and Burns slowly Burns with Slightly Hard, round,
shrinks away with difficulty. sweetish. brittle black
from flame. melting. bead.
Nylon Fuses and Burns slowly Self- Amine Hard, round,
shrinks away with extinguishing. tough, grey bead.
from flame. melting.
Glass No effect Not burn. Become No Hardens to glass.
harder.
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 BURNING BEHAVIOR OF SOME
Fiber Name SYNTHETIC
Approaching In Flame FIBER Odor
Removed Residue/Ash
flame From Flame

Acrylic Fuses and Burns rapidly Continues to Slightly like Brittle, hard,
shrinks away without flame, burn and melt. burning meat. irregular black
from flame. sputtering, bead.
melts.
Acetate Fuses away Burns quickly. Continues to Vinegar or Hard,
from flame burn and melt. acetic acid. irregular black
and turn back. ash.

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 MICROSCOPE TEST

Microscope test is
mostly effective for
natural fiber but not
for synthetic fiber
cause the cross-
section of synthetic
fiber is not fixed
and depend on the
shape of spinneret. 11
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 MICROSCOPIC APPEARANCE OF COTTON

Longitudinal Cross-
view sectional
view
Collapsed, Normally kidney-
spirally bean shape.
twisted tube Mercerized cotton
with rough round shape.
surface.
Cross-sectional Longitudinal view 12
view 2/10/2017
 MICROSCOPIC APPEARANCE OF WOOL
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Longitudinal view Cross-
sectional
view
Irregular, Oval
roughly to
cylindrical multi-cellular circular
shape
structure. Outer layer with
variation
consists of scales in diameter.
pointing towards the tip
of the fibers.
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 MICROSCOPIC APPEARANCE OF SILK14

Longitudinal Cross-
view sectional
view
Irregular elliptical Triangular
ribbons and rod with rounded
like structure. corners.

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MICROSCOPIC APPEARANCE OF JUTE
Longitudinal Cross-
view sectional
view
Crosswise A small central
marks known canal similar to the
as nodes or lumen in cotton and
joints.
polygonal with
rounded edges.
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 16
MICROSCOPIC APPEARANCE OF LINEN
Longitudinal Cross-
view sectional
view
Looks like Multiple
sided
bamboo stick cylindrical
having joints in filaments with
interval. fine
Cross-sectional view Longitudinal view
pointed
edges. 2/10/2017
 17
MICROSCOPIC APPEARANCE OF RAYON
Longitudinal Cross-
view sectional
view
Uniform Differ in
diameter cross-
with striations sectional
view
running parallel to according
to
the fiber axis. manufacturing 2/10/2017
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MICROSCOPIC APPEARANCE OF ACETATE
Longitudinal Cross-
view sectional
view
Striation and no Like clover leaf.
cross markings in
length direction.

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CHEMICAL TEST

Chemical test gives the most accurate result than

other identification method.
Chemical test is divided into two class:-
1. Stain method
2. Solvent method

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 STAIN METHOD 20

Stain method is applicable for those fiber which

shows special behavior in acid and alkali.

As example, Acetate fiber changes to light green and

orange color when acetic acid and sodium
carbonate is used respectively.

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 SOLVENT METHOD
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Different solvents
are in
method
used this
and be distinguished
can fiber
for their different
behavior in different
solvent.

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 SOLVENT METHOD
Fiber type Solvent Identification of fiber
Vegetable Acid Vegetable fiber destroyed
+ Alkali Animal fiber destroyed
Animal
Cotton Sulfuric acid and weak Cotton dissolved and
+ ammonia. linen unaffected.
Linen Iodine and zinc chloride. Cotton stained reddish
purple and linen stained
blue to purple.
Caustic Soda (NaOH) Cotton remains white and
linen turns to yellowis2h2.
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 SOLVENT METHOD (CONTINUE)

Fiber type Solvent Identification of fiber

Silk Concentrated Silk will dissolved in the
+ cold solvent
Wool hydrochloric Wool fiber become swell.
(HCl) acid.
Viscos Sulfuric acid Dark-blue color
e and equal indicates viscose rayon.
Rayon amount iodine. Yellow color indicates
+
Acetate acetate. 23
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 SOLVENT METHOD (CONTINUE)
Fiber type Solvent Identification of fiber
Di-acetate 80 % Acetone Di-acetate will dissolve.
+ Tri-acetate / Modacrylic will not
Tri-acetate / dissolve.
Modacrylic
Nylon Acetone Acetate will dissolve.
+
Acetate Nylon will not dissolve.

Nylon Boiling Wool will dissolve.

+ solution of 24
Nylon will not dissolve.
Wool NaOH
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 SOLVENT METHOD (CONTINUE)
Fiber type Solvent Identification of fiber
Polyester Hot metacresol / Polyester, acetate, nylon soluble
+ Acetone / Formic in hot metacresol.
Other fiber acid Acetate soluble in acetone
but not polyester.
Nylon soluble in formic acid
but not polyester.
Acrylic 70 % solution Acrylic will dissolve but cotton,
+ of Ammonium wool, silk, rayon, acetate, nylon,
Other fiber thiocyanate. polyester will not dissolve. 25
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Textile testing
 Types of Quality Control QC is not a function of any single department or a person. It is the primary
responsibility of any supervisor to turn out work of acceptable quality. Quality control can be
divided into three main sub-areas, those are:
 1. Off-line quality control,
 2. Statistical process control, and
 3. Acceptance sampling plans.

 1. Off-line quality control: Its procedure deal with measures to select and choose controllable
product and process parameters in such a way that the deviation between the product or process
output and the standard will be minimized. Much of this task is accomplished through product and
process design. Example: Taguchi method, principles of experimental design etc.
 2. Statistical process control: SPC involves comparing the output of a process or a service with a
standard and taking remedial actions in case of a discrepancy between the two. It also involves
determining whether a process can produce a product that meets desired specification or
requirements. On-line SPC means that information is gathered about the product, process, or service
while it is functional. The corrective action is taken in that operational phase. This is real-time basis.
 3. Acceptance sampling plans: A plan that determines the number of items to sample and the
acceptance criteria of the lot, based on meeting certain stipulated conditions (such as the risk of
rejecting a good lot or accepting a bad lot) is known as an acceptance sampling plan
 Objectives of Quality Control Following are the objectives of quality control:
 1. To improve the companies income by making the production more acceptable
to the customers, i.e., by providing long life, greater usefulness, maintainability
etc.
 2. To reduce companies cost through reduction of losses due to defects.
 3. To achieve interchangeability of manufacture in large scale production.
 4. To produce optimal quality at reduced price.
 5. To ensure satisfaction of customers with productions or services or high
quality level, to build customer goodwill, confidence and reputation of
manufacturer.
 6. To make inspection prompt to ensure quality control.
 7. To check the variation during manufacturing. The broad areas of application of
quality control are incoming material control, process control and product control
 Fabric Testing

Fiber Content Test: The test is required to know the content or ingredient of provided fabric. Following info
is required during this test method.
•Single Fiber (A fiber contains one ingredient only)
•Blended Fiber (A fiber consists of more than one ingredient)

2. Fabric Weight Test: It’s required to figure out the weight of fabric. We use different weight method for
different fabrics.
•GSM (We usually count GSM for knitted fabrics; it means Grams per Square Meter).

 3.Yarn Count (Used to determine the fineness of yarn, to express weather the yarn is thick or thin)

4. Threads per unit length (Used to identify the knitting way)

5. Defects (Mostly used 4-point system to identify visual defects of fabric, it’s called fabric inspection)

6.Dimensional Stability (DS):

1.DS to Washing (shrinkage) (needs for checking measurements of garment after washing)
2.DS to Dry Cleaning (needs to check measurements of garment after dry cleaning)
C. Color Fastness (CF):
Color Fastness Test is undertaken to measure the level of fading or bleeding that occurs on garments
with factors like washing, ironing, lights, rubbing etc. Below are the main ones that are standardized.
The light fastness of textile dye is categorized from one to eight and the wash fastness from one to five.
Please note, the higher the number the better fastness is obtained.

1.Color Fastness to Washing (used to measure color bleeding or fading after wash)

2.Color Fastness to Dry Cleaning (used to measure color bleeding or fading after dry cleaning)

3.Color Fastness to Ironing (used to measure color bleeding or fading after ironing)

4.Color Fastness to Water (used to measure color bleeding or fading into water)

5.Color Fastness to Rubbing (used to measure color bleeding or fading after rubbing)

6.Color Fastness to Perspiration (used to measure color bleeding or fading into perspiration)

7.Color Fastness to Light (used to measure color bleeding or fading into light)

8.Color Fastness to Chlorine Bleach (used to measure color bleeding or fading while chlorine
bleaching)
Physical Characteristics:
It’s a qualitative or quantitative procedure that consists of determination of one or more characteristics of
a fabric, process or service according to a specified procedure. It’s obviously a major part of fabric
experiment. Following topics are done during Fabric’s Physical Characteristics Test:

1.Tensile strength (used to realize the tensility of fabric)

2.Tearing strength (used to realize the tearing strength of fabric)
3.Bursting Strength (used to realize the bursting strength of fabric)
4.Pilling resistance (used to realize the pilling resistance of fabric)
5.Abrasion resistance (used to realize the abrasion resistance of fabric)

6.Seam Slippage (In this case, 75 mm wide fabric specimens are held in screw grips and the force is
measured when the seam separates by a defined distance. The force-travel diagrams of a seamed and a
seamless reference test specimen of the same material are then compared).

7.Recovery Test (It refers the power of fabric to come its original form or shape after stretched)
8.Water Repellency (To observe the level of water repellency of water proof finished goods)

9.pH Value (pH is a measure of the acidity or basically of an aqueous solution. The pH scale measures how
acidic or basic a substance is. The pH scale ranges from 0 to 14. A pH of 7 is neutral. The pH less than 7 is
acidic. The pH greater than 7 is basic).

10.Pile Loss (This test method covers the determination of the abrasion of pile fabrics when the loss of pile
stuffs occurs, sometimes called pile retention or pile pull out)