Chapter 6 - Fiber characterization

Abstract

The identification of textile fibres is an essential task for textile converters at different processing stages. The identification of fibres forms a formal base to decide various process parameters and processing strategies to process any textile fibre. In the beginning, fibre identification was performed by experiences hand based on their rich and long experience to handle similar materials for a long time. The burning test was the second came in the picture to identify various textile fibre by watching their behaviour when it comes to flame contact. With the microscope's invention to magnify various surfaces, the longitudinal view was the next fibre identification destination. Solubility test to dissolve the textile fibres in different chemicals has remained the most reliable fibre identification method due to the objective evaluation concept. The solubility test is the only reliable identification technique to decide the blend ratio of various fibres in blend yarns and fabric. However, the solubility test comes under the destructive test class because fibre destroys entirely during this test, and recovery becomes impossible. The solubility test cannot be afforded in rare and costly and cultural artefacts of textile materials. Consequently, these materials are subjected to sophisticated analytical techniques such as spectroscopy and chromatography, and advanced microscopic techniques are often combined with sophisticated computational analysis.