Types of textile fibers – list of textile fibers by its sources
In this article a comprehensive textile fiber names are listed, would answer your following questions. Type of Textile Fibers | Classification Textile Fibers | List of Textile Fibers | Textile Fiber Names | Textile Fiber Sources | Kind of Textile Fibers| Textile fibers and their properties | Fibres used for in textiles | Fibers considered as textile | Examples of fibers | Widely used textile fibers | What is textile fiber | Natural Fibers | Manmade Fibers | Artificial Fibers
Type of textile fibers can be broadly divided into natural fibers and man-made or chemical fibers. They can be further divided based on the source from where the fibers are obtained.
Fibers are commonly classified as follows (based on the source of the fibers):
Natural Fibers | Manmade Fibers | |||||
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Animal Fibers | Plant Fibers | Natural Polymers | Synthetic Polymers | |||
Hair | Secretion | Seed | Bast | Leaf | ||
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Natural Fibers
Natural Fibres are nonsynthetic hair-like materials of continuous filaments come from natural growing sources – both plants and animals. Demand for textile fibers such as flax, hemp, jute, kenaf, sisal, and Sugarcane bagasse has increased due to the possibilities of blending with reinforced polymer materials and easy availability of natural fibers.
Animal Fibers
Animal textile fibers commercially used today are generally obtained from the mammals such as Sheep, Goat, Angora Rabbit, Lama, Alpaca, Vicuna, Guanaco, Camel, Yak, Northern American Buffalo, and Musk Ox. The fibers extracted from these animals greatly differ in terms of biological, chemical and physical features. The silk fiber is the only fiber obtained from an insect (secretion) – silkworm.
Animal Hair/Wool Fibers
Sheep Wool
Sheep wool categorized by different breeds:- Fine Wool
- Long Wool
- Double coated
Common Sheep Breeds:- Border Leicester
- Cheviot
- Columbia
- Corriedale
- Debouillet
- Delaine-Merino
- Dorset
- Finnsheep
- Hampshire
- Lincoln
- Montadale
- Oxford
- Rambouillet
- Romney, Shropshire
Mohair Wool
Alpaca Wool
Major Alpaca fiber sourcing camelids:- The Huacaya
- The Suri
Angora Wool
Major breeds of Angora rabbits :- English
- French
- Giant
- Satin
Camel Hair
Major fiber sourcing camel varieties.- Arabian ña
- Guanaco
- South America camelid
Cashmere Wool
Llama Wool
Qiviut Wool
Musk oxen belong to Bovidae family which includes bison, buffalo, antelope as well as domesticated sheep, cattle and goats. Qiviut fiber is long with a diameter of 12 – 18 microns which makes it even softer than average cashmere. Much warmer than wool, it is worn as an insulating layer in clothing because it wicks moisture from the body and doesn’t shrink or felt.Chiengora Hair
Yak Wool
Yak varieties:- Arhangai
- Bayanhongor
- Zavhan
- Uvurhangai
Vicuña Wool
Animal Secretion Fibers
Silk Fiber
Silk is rightly called the queen of textiles for its luster, sensuousness, and glamour. The silk rival with the most advanced synthetic polymers, yet the production of silk does not require harsh processing conditions.
Plant/Vegetable/Cellulosic Fibers
Natural plant fibers are cell walls that occur in the stem, wood, and leaf parts and are comprised of cellulose, hemicelluloses, lignins and aromatics, waxes and other lipids, ash and water-soluble compounds attached in a specific way. Plant fibers are classified into two groups: soft fibers and hard fibers.
Plant Seed Fibers
Cotton Fiber
Classification is used to determine the quality of the cotton fiber in terms of length, uniformity, strength, micronaire, and color. Cotton classification (and quality) can also be affected by trash content, leaf grade, and the presence of extraneous matter.Coir Fiber
One distinction is based on whether they are recovered from ripe or immature coconut husks.- The husks of fully ripened coconuts yield brown coir. Strong and highly resistant to abrasion, its method of processing also protects it from the damaging ultraviolet component of sunlight. Dark brown in color, it is used primarily in brushes, floor mats, and upholstery padding.
- White coir comes from the husks of coconuts harvested shortly before they ripen. Light brown or white in color, this fiber is softer and less strong than brown coir. It is usually spun into yarn, which may be woven into mats or twisted into twine or rope.
Kapok Fiber
Pod Ceiba Safed Semal White Silk-cotton Tree Kapok Kapok fiber is a natural and environmental-friendly cellulosic fiber with a lightweight of volume units, hollow structure. Kapok fiber is soft silky cellulosic fiber but has a significantly homogeneous hollow tube shape.Kapok is considered unsuitable for textile purposes because the fiber is brittle, smooth and slippery. They are used in bedding, upholstery industries, in the production of life-saving equipment and in the construction of thermally insulated and soundproof covers and walls.
Plant Bast Fibers
Bast consists of a wood core surrounded by a stem. Within the stem, there are a number of fibers bundles, each containing individual fiber cells. The filaments are made up of cellulose and hemicelluloses, bonded together by lignin and pectin.
Jute Fiber
Jute is a natural biodegradable fiber with advantages such as high tensile strength, excellent thermal conductivity, coolness, ventilation function. Jute has high specific properties, low density, less abrasive behavior to the processing equipment, good dimensional stability, and harmlessness. Jute is multicelled with the cell wall of the fiber is made up of a number of layers.Flax/Linen Fiber
Flax is the plant that produces the bast fiber that is made into linen. Linen fiber is plant fiber collected from the phloem (the “inner bark”) or bast surrounding the stem of certain, mainly dicotyledons, plants. They support the conductive cells of the phloem and provide strength to the stem. Hemp fiber contains the phenolic substance, so it has anti-moldy and bacteriostatic properties.Hemp Fiber
Banana Fiber
Ramie Fiber
It is similar to flax in absorbency, density, and microscopic appearance. Because of its high molecular crystallinity, ramie is stiff and brittle and will break if folded repeatedly in the same place; it lacks resiliency and is low in elasticity and elongation potential.Kenaf Fiber
Sugarcane bagasse
Sugarcane is a plant which grows up to 6 meters high and has a diameter up to 6 cm, and the bagasse is the fibrous residue which is obtained from sugarcane processing after extraction of the juice from the cane stalk.
Plant Leaf Fibers
Piña Fiber
Pineapple Leaf Fiber exhibit excellent mechanical properties due to rich cellulose content of more than 70% which are potential to be used as reinforcement in polymer composites.Sisal Fiber
The sisal fibers obtained from the leaf of sisal plants are white/golden white in color. They can be twisted into yarns and ropes in wet conditions. Fiber thickness, length, and strength depend upon the age and location of the plant. The length varied from 0.5m to 1m and diameter is 43 between 0.21mm to 0.29mm. The density of the fiber was found to be around 1.51 g/ cm3.Raffia Fiber
Raffia is a plant that belongs to a palm genus that originated from Madagascar and grows in tropical rainforests, along river banks of the savannah, marshes, and swamps in the areas stretching from Madagascar, where it originated, to the Congo and Gabon of Central Africa, Cameroon, Nigeria, and Liberia alongside of the Gulf of Guinea.Abaca Fiber
Abaca fiber is extracted from the leaf sheath traditionally by stripping using either manual or mechanical process. Volcanic areas are suited for abaca cultivation the Philippines tropical climate. It has a lot of applications in the household as well as technical areas.
Mineral Fibers
Asbestos Fiber
Types of Asbestos:- Chrysotile/ white asbestos
- Amosite/ brown asbestos
- Crocidolite/ blue asbestos
Glass/Fiberglass Fiber
Manmade Fibers
Man-made fibers are fibers in which either the basic chemical units have been formed by chemical synthesis followed by fiber formation or the polymers from natural sources have been dissolved and regenerated after passage through a spinneret to form fibers. This fiber came to success when the researchers obtained a product by condensation of molecules presenting two reactive aminic groups with molecules characterized by two carboxylic reactive groups.
Fibers from Natural Polymers
Bamboo Fiber
Modal Fiber
Lyocell Fiber
Rayon Fiber
Purified cellulose for Rayon production usually comes from specially processed wood pulp and is called “dissolving cellulose” or “dissolving pulp” to distinguish it from lower grade wood pulps used for papermaking and other purposes.Acetate Fiber
Acetate is derived from cellulose by breaking down wood pulp (dissolving pulp) into purified cellulose. By reacting the purified cellulose with acetic acid and acetic anhydride, whilst using sulfuric acid as a catalyst, cellulose acetate dope is produced.
Fibers from Synthetic Polymers
Polyester Fiber
Nylon Fiber
Spandex Fiber
https://www.flickr.com/photos/81421369@N04/14448515208 Spandex is the generic name for synthetic fiber, whose fiber-forming substance is a long chain synthetic polymer. Spandex fibers exhibit superior stretch and elastic recovery ability, providing garments containing spandex fibers with good fitting and comfort characteristics.Acrylic Fiber
Acrylic fibers are synthetic fibers made from a polyacrylonitrile polymer. Acrylic fibers are the third largest class of synthetic fiber after polyester and nylons.Kevlar Fiber