Friday, September 13, 2013

All About Man-Made Fabrics, Now in Cartoon Form!

Welcome to another edition of Saturday School, except it's on a Friday! This week in textiles class we learned about the manufacture of man-made fabrics, both transitional (cellulose-based, but processed, e.g. rayon) and synthetic (the more stereotypical artificial fibers, like polyester and nylon). Maybe you already know about how they squirt dope (that's really what they call it!) through shower heads (that's not what they call them, but that's what they look like to me), but I bet you've never seen the properties of man-made fibers illustrated with the help of cats! Seriously, adding doodles to my notes is the only way I'm going to stay awake through a 3+ hour night class at the end of a long workday.


Man-made fibers get generic names from the Federal Trade Commission based on whether they exhibit significantly different chemical composition with specific performance characteristics. So spandex is the generic term (like tissue), but Lycra is the trade name (like Kleenex). Depending on whether the source is natural (cellulose-based, like rayon) or not (plastic-based, like polyester), the liquid solution, aka dope, is prepared indifferent ways (Step 1). The dope then gets pumped through the shower-head-thingy, or spinneret, into long filament fibers that can be thousands of meters long (Step 2). Lastly, the fibers are solidified (Step 3), and some will also be stretched so that the fibers are all lined up nicely (Step 4). 

Parent fibers, are like version 1.0...no mods to the chemical solution, generic round (and therefore hideously shiny and dirt magnifying) cross-section. Second generation fibers can have improvements (it's like when Squirtle evolves into Wartortle), whether through adding things to the chemical make-up (dyes, delusterants to get a more refined shine) or changing the extrusion rate or modding the fiber afterward. That's when polyesters moved away from the hideous stuff of the 70s and more toward the high-quality fabrics used now to make poly-taffeta that's nearly indistinguishable from real silk. The third generation fibers have even cooler mods (Blastoise!), such as when biconstituent fibers combine two different kinds of dope with different properties. For example, flame-retardant fabrics can contain a suspension of flame-retardant fibers in a matrix of softer, cottony-feeling fiber, thereby making a fabric that feels nice to wear, but won't go up in flames. Our prof likened it to chocolate chips suspended in Jello.


I think I might be the only one in the class who wants to protest each time the professor says "...but I won't go into more detail about the science of it." When going over the study guide for the midterm, I asked how much detail she wanted us to know about what causes wrinkling in cotton, and all she wants is for us to be able to say that cotton fibers don't have good resilience. The science teacher in me is all !?!A@?$& BUT THAT DOESN'T ACTUALLY EXPLAIN ANYTHING, but I have to keep reminding myself that this isn't a science class, and most people in the room aren't science-types...

Would anyone actually be interested in a little video blurb on wrinkling and fiber chemistry? I'm thinking of making one because I just think it's so cool!

Walnut demonstrates the stretching process...but I don't think he got any stronger as a result. 

24 comments:

  1. Thank you so much for posting about this! I'm an incredibly curious person whose mind isn't really fit for too much science, and your explanations are very clear!

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  2. your notes cracked me up! loved them. my fave is the blingy cat being "delustered" into a proper tie-wearing cat. haha. and i do want to know why cotton wrinkles! especially why some cotton wrinkles more than other...

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  3. It was Saturday here in NZ when you posted, so it DOES count as Saturday School!! Karen

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  4. I'm thinking of using this whole series the next time I teach a Boy Scout Merit Badge class on Textiles.
    http://meritbadge.org/wiki/index.php/Textile

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  5. I'm hoping you do the video. And please, if there is some way to remove those wrinkles other than getting a wonderful facial from my steam iron, let me know.

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  6. Video - yes, please! You make all the textbook stuff fun. =) Love the notes. They are like comics that teach.

    I like to say that rayon is the "bologna of fabric" - natural but processed, hehe.

    ~ Brooke

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  7. Those are some great cat notes! The mecha suit cat is a bit disturbing though.

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  8. Omg, I love Walnut in the top hat and monocle. I wish that I could have some cute kitties in my notes. Maybe I'll mail them to you for fun illustrations?

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  9. Please do a post on wrinkling! If it includes cat cartoons OMG how divine.

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  10. I love your notes - you should publish a book on the composition and characteristics of fibres. I'd buy it!

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  11. I love your illustrated notes. And as another science geek I would be there with you hassling the professor for more detail. I just don't get it when people are not interested in why things are the way they are.

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  12. While I am very familiar with textile manufacturing, your cat analogies put a new humorous twist on it fiber. Plus I love cats!

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  13. VERY interesting yet again! Great Saturday afternoon reading in the airport!

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  14. Loving these notes, one cartoon made me laugh out loud and I get what you are talking a out. I wish you had been my chemistry teacher I may have passed.

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  15. YES!! and WHY/HOW does steaming reduce wrinkles?? Making most things (vegetables/ bath skin) hot and/or soggy makes them softer/wrinklier, so why would so many fibers get straighter/tauter? PLEASE! I've wanted to know this for years, and everyone just shrugs. Gah!
    thanks! and I love your sense of humor/curiosity/and style.

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  16. I am DYING to know about wrinkles! I wouldn't say I'm a science type. I'm definitely a humanities type. But that involves wanting to know WHY and how that relates to other things. It's really a case of what prior knowledge I have rather than how my brain works. My youtube suggested videos are all 'how things are made' because... well, it's fascinating! Ravenclaw me up and tell me how things fit together!

    (That's a yes vote for the video, is what I'm trying to say.)

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  17. Hahaha, thank you so much for sharing your class with us. Please tell us more why cotton wrinkles so easily. I'm impatient to see your insights :)

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  18. LOL air dried/cooled kitteh is my favourite... kitties make EVERYTHING easier to understand - brilliant note taking idea!! :)

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  19. What textbook are you working out of? I'd absolutely love to take that class, I guess text would be the next best thing :)

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  20. Thanks for that! I`m a chemist working on cellulose based textile fibres but I follow your blog because I'm a home sewer. your notes cracked me up and I`ve book marked them to show to future summer students.

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  21. Your notes put a grin on my face and information in my brain, as well as inspire creativity - it just doesn't get better than that!

    And the WHY of wrinkles (why do some fibers iron out so beautifully and then wrinkle when you so much as LOOK at them?, etc.....) is something I would absolutely be interested in - go for it, please!

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  22. All About Man-Made Fabrics, Now with Cats!
    I love your cartoons. And while I'm not a scientist, I really like learning more. I like knowing WHY.

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