Textiles are important for everyone. It is used for covering body, for warmth or coolness, personality enhancement and sometimes to display one's status in the society. From the wholesale textile manufacturer and merchant to the retailer and the end- user, the customer, everyone consumes textile. Not only those who are in this direct trade are related to this product but there are certain industries which are indirectly associated with textile. Automobile industry is a good example of this type of industry which uses textile in various forms. Others who use textile in one or the other form may include designers, interior decorators, craftspersons, advertisers using hoardings and banners, painters etc.
Weaving is a major process of making fabric or cloth . In it, two distinct sets of yarns called the warp and the filling or weft are interlaced with each other to form a fabric. Yarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibers. The lengthwise yarns which run from the back to the front of the loom are called the warp. The crosswise yarns are the filling or weft. A loom is a device for holding the warp threads in place while the filling threads are woven through them. Yarns made from natural fibers like cotton, silk, and wool and synthetic fibers such as nylon and Orlon are commonly used for weaving textile. But other fibers can also be used for weaving. Yarn intended for the warp goes through operations such as spooling, warping and slashing to prepare them to withstand the strain of the weaving process.
Four major operations are involved in weaving- Shedding, Picking, Beating up (Battening) and Taking up and letting off.
Each alternate warp yarn is raised to insert the filling yarn into the warp to form a shed.
As the warp is raised, the filling yarn is inserted through the shed by a carrier device. Different types of looms are used for carrying the filling yarn through the shed- Shuttle loom, shuttle less looms, circular looms etc.
With each picking operation, the reed pushes or beats each filling yarn against the portion of the fabric that has already been formed. Reed is a comb like structure attached to the looms. It gives the fabric a firm, compact construction.
With each shedding,Picking, Battening operation, the new fabric must be wound on the cloth beam which is called 'taking up'. At the same time, the warp yarns must be released from the warp beam which is called l 'letting off'.
After weaving, the most prevalent method of fabric construction is knitting. Its popularity has grown tremendously over the recent years . Today, knitting is a very big industry which has two main divisions.
There are two major varieties of knitting: weft knitting and warp knitting. In weft knitting, one continuous yarn forms courses across the fabric. In warp knitting, a series of yarns form wales in the lengthwise direction of the fabric.
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