06-2. Fabric / natural fibers recycled fibers

In the last post, we looked into the materials of fabric, types of fibers, and history.

Among them, we looked at natural fibers.

 

Today, let's take time to learn about recycled fiber!

First of all, recycled fiber is literally the use of recycled fiber.

To go deeper, recycled fibers are fibers made by melting

and processing natural fibers in a chemical way.

 

The nature of natural fibers does not change, only its physical form. In that respect,

it is different from synthetic fibers.

Regenerated fibers include Rayon, Acetate, and Lyocell.

 

Artificial silk, Rayon

 

Rayon is made by extracting cellulose from cotton or wood pulp, which is difficult to make a thread of an appropriate thickness because of its short length, and dissolving it with a chemical solution and pulling it out with a very fine nozzle.

 

There are many types of rayon, but most of us mean 'viscose rayon'.

Here, viscose is a transparent, yellow-red, highly viscous colloidal solution.

It is called artificial silk or artificial silk because of its smooth and soft gloss.

The advantage is that it has excellent hygroscopicity and dyes well.

In addition, it generates less static electricity, so it is often used for interior decoration.

For example, there might be a tablecloth.

 

However, the disadvantage is that harmful substances are generated

during the production process and the strength is low.

In order to reinforce the latter point, we developed a strong rayon with improved strength by making the fabric structure similar to cotton, and an eco-friendly rayon modal that is resistant to water was also developed.

 

 

Acetate

 

Acetate is made by chemically reacting wood pulp

to dissolve the transformed material in acetone and then extract it.

In fact, unlike rayon, which only changes its physical form,

acetate changes the composition of chemical elements,

so it is closer to the appearance and characteristics of synthetic fibers

than to the appearance of natural fibers.

 

Therefore, acetate is sometimes classified as a semi-synthetic fiber.

The advantage is that it has a strong gloss, so it has better elasticity and less wrinkles than rayon.

It is also used in clothing because it is soft to the touch.

However, the downside is that it has low strength and is weak against heat and friction.

And because it has low absorption properties, it doesn't eat well, and even if you dye it well,

the color changes well, so you need to keep it well.

 

Eco-friendly textile, Lyocell

 

Eco-friendly textile, Lyocell 2

 

Lyocell is an eco-friendly fiber manufactured by changing

the aforementioned manufacturing process of viscose rayon.

 

In other words, unlike when rayon is manufactured, it does not generate harmful substances.

This is because the material used when dissolving is harmless,

and the used solvent can be reused over 99%.

 

It is an excellent fiber that maintains the strengths of rayon and compensates for its weaknesses,

and has the moisture absorption, comfort, strength of polyester, silk touch and gloss throughout.

 

It is also durable and has almost no wrinkles.

Among the lyocell textile brands, there is a famous 'Tencel',

which is said to be a brand produced by British textile company Courtaulds.

Thanks to its soft and pleasant touch, it is often used as a material for clothing that touches the body, such as underwear and T-shirts.

 

 

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I really like the last lyocell I introduced :) I think it's an attractive fiber that can't find any shortcomings. Next time, let's take a moment to learn about synthetic fibers!

 

 

Photo source

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Kenresearch.com

  Tencel.com