Shearing (textiles)

Last updated September 16, 2024

Shearing is a kind of mechanical finish in which the appearance of the fabric is enhanced by cutting the loops or raised surface to a uniform and even height. The machine may have a spiral blade similar to a reel lawn mower.^[1]^[2] A shearing machine can cut the loop or the pile to a desired level.^[3] Shearing was most commonly used to make woollens and worsted materials. It was a part of dry finishing of woollen and worsted goods. Previously, shearing was also a component of gigging or napping; when partially produced goods were exposed to shear in order to improve the impact of gigging or napping, the process was referred to as "cropping".^[4]^[2]^[5]

History

Most of the Medieval clothing and textiles were processed and finished manually. The finishing of English Woollens includes shearing. Shearmen were skilled artisans who used to shear the fabric by hand. Shearman's job was to nap the cloth manually, using teasels and shears to trim the pile. A silky and smooth feeling was produced by the gradual lowering of the nap. The process was referred to as "dry shearing". It was formerly an expensive and lengthy process compared to the "wet shearing" that was a rough process. During the early 17th century, two shearmen spent two weeks dry shearing three broadcloths.^[6]

Shearing machine

A shearing machine is a machine equipped with shearing cylinder, ledger blade, fluff exhaust, and joint seam sensors. The machine operates similarly to a lawn mower. Seam joint sensors prevent seams from being cut.^[7]^[8]^[9]

Advantages

Moleskin and velvet are shorn materials in which pile is cut to a certain level.^[10]^[11] Other than imparting an aesthetic finish, shearing was also used to cut certain deformations, unwanted surface defects such as protruding yarns.^[1] In the case of polyester blends, a shearing machine is also useful for removing surface beads or naps of dyed fibers.^[7]

Sculptured effect

Shearing can also create certain effects, sculpted effects are achieved by flattening sections of the pile with an engraved roller and then the remaining upright sections are shorn off. Flattened portions are then steamed and raised.^[12]

Embossed velvet and plush fabric are created by weaving the pile high and shearing it to various levels, or by pressing a portion of the pile flat.^[11]

Related Research Articles

Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have some properties similar to animal wool.

Velvet is a type of woven fabric with a dense, even pile that gives it a distinctive soft feel. By extension, the word velvety means "smooth like velvet". Historically, velvet was typically made from silk. Today, velvet can be made from silk, linen, cotton, wool, synthetic fibers, silk-cotton blends, or synthetic-natural fiber blends.

Worsted is a high-quality type of wool yarn, the fabric made from this yarn, and a yarn weight category. The name derives from Worstead, a village in the English county of Norfolk. That village, together with North Walsham and Aylsham, formed a manufacturing centre for yarn and cloth in the 12th century, when pasture enclosure and liming rendered the East Anglian soil too rich for the older agrarian sheep breeds. In the same period, many weavers from the County of Flanders moved to Norfolk. "Worsted" yarns/fabrics are distinct from woollens : the former is considered stronger, finer, smoother, and harder than the latter.

Woolen or woollen is a type of yarn made from carded wool. Woolen yarn is soft, light, stretchy, and full of air. It is thus a good insulator, and makes a good knitting yarn. Woolen yarn is in contrast to worsted yarn, in which the fibers are combed to lie parallel rather than carded, producing a hard, strong yarn.

Plush is a textile having a cut nap or pile the same as fustian or velvet. Its softness of feel gave rise to the adjective "plush" to describe something soft or luxurious, which was extended to describe luxury accommodation, or something rich and full. This has also been known to be described as früh, or middlefrüh in more affordable varieties.

Flannel is a soft woven fabric, of varying fineness. Flannel was originally made from carded wool or worsted yarn, but is now often made from either wool, cotton, or synthetic fiber. Flannel is commonly used to make tartan clothing, blankets, bed sheets, sleepwear, and several other uses.

Textile manufacturing or textile engineering is a major industry. It is largely based on the conversion of fibre into yarn, then yarn into fabric. These are then dyed or printed, fabricated into cloth which is then converted into useful goods such as clothing, household items, upholstery and various industrial products.

Tufting is a type of textile manufacturing in which a thread is inserted on a primary base. It is an ancient technique for making warm garments, especially mittens. After the knitting is done, short U-shaped loops of extra yarn are introduced through the fabric from the outside so that their ends point inwards.

The manufacture of textiles is one of the oldest of human technologies. To make textiles, the first requirement is a source of fiber from which a yarn can be made, primarily by spinning. The yarn is processed by knitting or weaving, which turns it into cloth. The machine used for weaving is the loom. For decoration, the process of colouring yarn or the finished material is dyeing. For more information of the various steps, see textile manufacturing.

A staple fiber is a textile fiber of discrete length. The opposite is a filament fiber, which comes in continuous lengths. Staple length is a characteristic fiber length of a sample of staple fibers. It is an essential criterion in yarn spinning, and aids in cohesion and twisting. Compared to synthetic fibers, natural fibers tend to have different and shorter lengths. The quality of natural fibers like cotton is categorized into staple length such as short, medium, long staple, and extra-long. Gossypium barbadense, one of several cotton species, produces extra-long staple fibers. The staple fibers may be obtained from natural and synthetic sources. In the case of synthetics and blends, the filament yarns are cut to a predetermined length.

Pile is the raised surface or nap of a fabric, consisting of upright loops or strands of yarn. Examples of pile textiles are carpets, corduroy, velvet, plush, and Turkish towels (terrycloth). The word is derived from Latin pilus for "hair".

Primarily, nap is the raised (fuzzy) surface on certain kinds of cloth, such as velvet or moleskin. Nap can refer additionally to other surfaces that look like the surface of a napped cloth, such as the surface of a felt or beaver hat.

In textile manufacturing, finishing refers to the processes that convert the woven or knitted cloth into a usable material and more specifically to any process performed after dyeing the yarn or fabric to improve the look, performance, or "hand" (feel) of the finish textile or clothing. The precise meaning depends on context.

Mockado is a woollen pile fabric made in imitation of silk velvet from the mid-sixteenth century. Mockado was usually constructed with a woollen pile on a linen or worsted wool warp and woollen weft, although the ground fabric could be any combination of wool, linen, and silk. Mockado was used for furnishings and carpeting, and also for clothing such as doublets, farthingales, and kirtles.

Sewing is the craft of fastening or attaching objects using stitches made with needle and thread. Sewing is one of the oldest of the textile arts, arising in the Paleolithic Era. Although usually associated with clothing and household linens, sewing is used in a variety of crafts and industries, including shoemaking, upholstery, sailmaking, bookbinding and the manufacturing of some kinds of sporting goods. Sewing is the fundamental process underlying a variety of textile arts and crafts, including embroidery, tapestry, quilting, appliqué and patchwork.

Wet Processing Engineering is one of the major streams in Textile Engineering or Textile manufacturing which refers to the engineering of textile chemical processes and associated applied science. The other three streams in textile engineering are yarn engineering, fabric engineering, and apparel engineering. The processes of this stream are involved or carried out in an aqueous stage. Hence, it is called a wet process which usually covers pre-treatment, dyeing, printing, and finishing.

Hand feel is the property of fabrics related to the touch that expresses sensory comfort. It refers to the way fabrics feel against the skin or in the hand and conveys information about the cloth's softness and smoothness. Hand feel is an estimated and subjective property of different fabrics, but nowadays, hand feel could be measured and assessed statistically.

A gig-mill was a type of raising machine that used teasels to produce a nap on cloth. Examples of the results of gigging are woolen fabrics such as chinchilla, beaver cloth, and melton. The process involved gradual teasing of the surface to raise the nap. Spelling in some localities is "Gigg".

Scouring is a preparatory treatment of certain textile materials. Scouring removes soluble and insoluble impurities found in textiles as natural, added and adventitious impurities: for example, oils, waxes, fats, vegetable matter, as well as dirt. Removing these contaminants through scouring prepares the textiles for subsequent processes such as bleaching and dyeing. Though a general term, "scouring" is most often used for wool. In cotton, it is synonymously called "boiling out", and in silk, and "boiling off.

The textile industry in Aachen has a history that dates back to the Middle Ages. The Imperial city of Aachen was the main woolen center of the Rhineland. Certain kind of woolens made there were illustrated as "Aachen fine cloth". These high-quality fine woolens have a plain weave structure using carded merino wool yarns, and a raised surface. The production of high-quality, fine cloth required fine foreign wool and skilled craftsmen and was reserved for town craftsmen. It involved regulated steps including sorting, combing, washing, spinning, fulling, dyeing, shearing, and pressing the wool. The finished products were inspected and authorized with a town trademark before being sold and exported. Fine cloth was a major export in the Middle Ages.

References

1 2 Elsasser, Virginia Hencken (2005). Textiles : concepts and principles. New York, NY: Fairchild Publications. p. 197. ISBN 978-1-56367-300-9.
1 2 Joseph, Marjory L. (1992). Joseph's introductory textile science. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers. p. 392. ISBN 978-0-03-050723-6.
↑ Purushothama, B. (2019-01-31). Handbook of Value Addition Processes for Fabrics. Woodhead Publishing India PVT. Limited. p. 243. ISBN 978-93-85059-92-6.
↑ American School of Correspondence; Timmermann, John F. (1909). Woolen and worsted finishing; a practical manual of instruction in the methods and machinery used in finishing woollen and worsted goods in general, and the processes involved in the special treatment of all types of standard fabrics. The Library of Congress. Chicago, American School of Correspondence. pp. 81, 82, 111.
↑ Cyclopedia of textile work : a general reference library on cotton, woolen and worsted yarn manufacture, weaving, designing, chemistry and dyeing, finishing, knitting, and allied subjects. Getty Research Institute. Chicago : American Technical Society. 1907. pp. 80, 81.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
↑ Medieval clothing and textiles. Vol. 3. Woodbridge, UK ; Rochester, NY: Boydell Press. 2007. pp. 98, 99. ISBN 978-1-84383-291-1.
1 2 Choudhury, A. K. Roy (2006-01-09). Textile Preparation and Dyeing. Science Publishers. p. 138. ISBN 978-1-57808-404-3.
↑ Clark, M. (2011-10-25). Handbook of Textile and Industrial Dyeing: Principles, Processes and Types of Dyes. Elsevier. p. 71. ISBN 978-0-85709-397-4.
↑ Karmakar, S. R. (1999-11-02). Chemical Technology in the Pre-Treatment Processes of Textiles. Elsevier. p. 54. ISBN 978-0-08-053947-8.
↑ Cooke, J. Herbert (1922). The velvet and corduroy industry; a brief account of the various processes connected with the manufacture of cotton pile goods. Smithsonian Libraries. London, New York [etc.] Sir I. Pitman & sons, ltd. pp. 86–90.
1 2 Denny, Grace G. (Grace Goldena) (1923). Fabrics and how to know them;definitions of fabrics, practical textile tests, classification of fabrics. The Library of Congress. Philadelphia, London, J.B. Lippincott company. pp. 103, 42.
↑ Hollen, Norma Rosamond (1979). Textiles. New York: Macmillan. p. 262. ISBN 978-0-02-356130-6.

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[:0-1] 1 2 Elsasser, Virginia Hencken (2005). Textiles : concepts and principles. New York, NY: Fairchild Publications. p. 197. ISBN 978-1-56367-300-9.

[:1-2] 1 2 Joseph, Marjory L. (1992). Joseph's introductory textile science. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers. p. 392. ISBN 978-0-03-050723-6.

[3] Purushothama, B. (2019-01-31). Handbook of Value Addition Processes for Fabrics. Woodhead Publishing India PVT. Limited. p. 243. ISBN 978-93-85059-92-6.

[4] American School of Correspondence; Timmermann, John F. (1909). Woolen and worsted finishing; a practical manual of instruction in the methods and machinery used in finishing woollen and worsted goods in general, and the processes involved in the special treatment of all types of standard fabrics. The Library of Congress. Chicago, American School of Correspondence. pp. 81, 82, 111.

[5] Cyclopedia of textile work : a general reference library on cotton, woolen and worsted yarn manufacture, weaving, designing, chemistry and dyeing, finishing, knitting, and allied subjects. Getty Research Institute. Chicago : American Technical Society. 1907. pp. 80, 81.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)

[6] Medieval clothing and textiles. Vol. 3. Woodbridge, UK ; Rochester, NY: Boydell Press. 2007. pp. 98, 99. ISBN 978-1-84383-291-1.

[:2-7] 1 2 Choudhury, A. K. Roy (2006-01-09). Textile Preparation and Dyeing. Science Publishers. p. 138. ISBN 978-1-57808-404-3.

[8] Clark, M. (2011-10-25). Handbook of Textile and Industrial Dyeing: Principles, Processes and Types of Dyes. Elsevier. p. 71. ISBN 978-0-85709-397-4.

[9] Karmakar, S. R. (1999-11-02). Chemical Technology in the Pre-Treatment Processes of Textiles. Elsevier. p. 54. ISBN 978-0-08-053947-8.

[10] Cooke, J. Herbert (1922). The velvet and corduroy industry; a brief account of the various processes connected with the manufacture of cotton pile goods. Smithsonian Libraries. London, New York [etc.] Sir I. Pitman & sons, ltd. pp. 86–90.

[:3-11] 1 2 Denny, Grace G. (Grace Goldena) (1923). Fabrics and how to know them;definitions of fabrics, practical textile tests, classification of fabrics. The Library of Congress. Philadelphia, London, J.B. Lippincott company. pp. 103, 42.

[12] Hollen, Norma Rosamond (1979). Textiles. New York: Macmillan. p. 262. ISBN 978-0-02-356130-6.

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