Introduction to Textiles What is Textile?

Flowchart of Textile Processing:


Fiber:
It is defined as one of the delicate, hair portions of the tissues of a plant or animal or other substances that are very small in diameter in relation to there length. A fiber is a material which is several hundred times as long as its thick.
Textile Fiber:
Textile fiber has some characteristics which differ between fiber to Textile fiber. Textile fiber can be spun into a yarn or made into a fabric by various methods including weaving, knitting, braiding, felting, and twisting. The essential requirements for fibers to be spun into yarn include a length of at least 5 millimeters, flexibility, cohesiveness, and sufficient strength. Other important properties include elasticity, fineness, uniformity, durability, and luster.
Banana fiber is one kind of fiber but it is not a textile fiber. Because it can not fill up the above properties. So we can say that all fiber are not textile fiber.
Classification of textile fibers by origin:

Natural fibers are fibers that are produced by plants, animals and geological processes.

II . Manmade Fibers: 
Man-made fibres are those fibres whose chemical composition,structure, and properties are significantly modified during the manufacturing process
1 . Natural Polymer Fibers: The most common natural polymer fibre is viscose, which is made from the polymer cellulose obtained mostly from farmed trees. Other cellulose-based fibres are Lyocell, Modal, Acetate and Triacetate. Less common natural polymer fibres are made from rubber, alginic acid and regenerated protein.
2 . Synthetic Polymer Fibers: There are very many synthetic fibres i.e. organic fibres based on petrochemicals. The most common are polyester, polyamide (often called nylon), acrylic and modacrylic, polypropylene, the segmented polyurethanes which are elastic fibres known as elastanes (or spandex in the USA), and speciality high-tenacity fibres such as the high performance aramids and UHMwPE (Ultra High Molecular weight PolyEthylene).