Let’s take a quick look at each and figure out an effective way to organize and understand these materials.
The easiest way to understand this is going from smallest to largest. It is quite simple: with fibers you make strands, with strands you make yarns and with yarns you make fabrics. Easy, right?
Let’s start at the beginning then. What is a fiber? We are not talking about Metamucil here, that is between you and your doctor. The fiber we are discussing is any substance, natural or synthetic (human-caused) that can be processed into a fabric.
There are several types of fibers and ways of classifying them. One way to classify them is the one I already mentioned: natural and synthetic fibers, and there are several subgroups within them:
Another way to classify is by their physical properties, particularly length. The two main groups based on the length are: Staple and Filament.
Any fiber having an unlimited or infinite length is called a Filament Fiber. Filament fibers are continuously long and are measured in yards or meters. All synthetic fibers are made in a filament form and silk is the only natural fiber that is a filament fiber.
So how are they made? Well, spiders, silkworms, Tobey Maquire’s Spiderman, and other insects, naturally have what are called spinnerets, which are organs to produce silk. Unfortunately, we do not have those skills, so to make synthetic fibers, we have a very elaborate process.
Any fiber with a limited or finite length is called a Staple Fiber. The length of the fiber can be different even coming from the same source, but they are usually measured in inches or centimeters because they are short. All natural fibers are staple except silk. Staple fibers must be twisted or spun together to make a long continuous single thin length of yarn. They can also be used in their staple form to produce non-woven or felt fabrics. Staple fibers are widely used in various textile applications, including spinning into yarns, blending with other fibers, and processing into non-woven fabrics for applications such as clothing, home textiles, medical textiles, and industrial applications.
If you were wondering, synthetic filaments can be cut into smaller pieces to be used as staple fibers. That is some pig!
Now that we know the different types of fibers, we can use strands of those fibers alone or we can group several strands together, to form yarns.
Yarns can also be classified in different ways. One is by the number of strands of fiber used, so you can have a single yarn, double (2 strands) or cabled/cord yarn, which is made by twisting together several double strands.
Another important classification of the yarns is by the size of the fibers.
Using staple fibers (the short ones), we lay them parallel and alternately and then pull and twist to make a single yarn.
Filament yarns use filament fibers (long ones) instead of staple ones. There are two main types of yarns made with filament fibers:
A single thicker continuous strand of a synthetic fiber. It is stiffer and less flexible than a multi-filament. Like fishing line.
Several filament fibers are grouped together. They can be grouped together by twisting, or they can use a bonding agent, so they are flat and untwisted.
Now we get to the fun part! Weaving those yarns into fabrics. Woven fabric manufacturing is a process of interlacing two sets of yarn or thread, the warp and weft, to create a fabric. The warp threads run vertically on a loom and the weft threads are woven horizontally through the warp to create the fabric. The pattern of interlacing determines the type of weave, such as plain, twill, or satin, which affects the fabric’s appearance, texture, and durability.
We know that this was just a quick introduction to the topic, but at least now you can answer the age-old question, “What came first? The Fiber or the Yarn?” Understanding the structure of fabrics is a foundational step in understanding conveyor belting, and we hope this article has unraveled some of those twisted up fibers for you!