Tips and Tricks of Fabric Identification Gone are the days when people only had the limited option of fabric made from natural fibres in comparison to the recent times where one is spoilt for choice owing to the availability of a wide variety of fabrics both natural as well as man-made. As we all know, that there is a flip side to everything, similarly the issue of identification of proper fabric quality kept arising with the introduction of new kinds of fabrics. People, novice to the aspect of identifying the right kind of fabrics were left unsatisfied as they were tricked into buying cheap fabric at high prices with limited or no durability. But we are here to end all your worries related to identifying the proper quality of a natural as well as man-made fabrics.
How to Identify Natural Fibers Natural Fibers usually appear as hair sort of materials which are like continuous fibres or are in the form of detached stretched out thread portions. Natural fibers are known to be easily turned into a thread, filaments or even rope. Therefore, these are a few of the basic characteristics of natural fibers. Fibers can be further categorized into three kinds – natural fiber, synthetic fiber and cellulose fiber. Burn tests are considered to be one of the best ways of ascertaining the purity of a fabric. •
Pure cotton fibre when burned with a stable flame of light and smells similar to burning leaves. The residue is fine and produces a white or gray coloured smoke.
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Linen takes an extended time to be ignited and produces brittle ash.
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Silk readily gets ignited and smells similar to burning hair. The ash produced can be crushed easily and cannot be put out easily unlike linen and cotton.
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Wool is tougher to ignite in comparison to silk and the weave of this fiber is usually looser. The fiber burns progressively but is hard to keep it burning. It produces a smell similar to burning hair.
How to Identify Man Made Fibers •
Nylon is obtained from petroleum and thus, burns and shrinks faster. The beads or rather the residue is hard and uncrushable.
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Polyester is a by-product of air, petroleum, coal and water. It ignites quickly and the residue is dark, round and hard beads.
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Acrylic, Polyacrylic and Modacrylic are obtained from petroleum as well as natural gas and are known to get heavily ignited just at a match-touch and reduces in size from flame. The residue or beads are dark, uneven shaped and hard.
Price Difference between Natural and Man-Made Fabrics Natural fabrics are usually known to be of superior quality in comparison to the man-made ones. Previously, synthetic or man-made fibers were considered to be cheap fabric owing to their artificial components which are not considered to be environment friendly. Natural fibers are preferred as they are known to be suitable for human skin due to the presence of
natural elements in contrast to man-made fibers which often include elements which might not be skin friendly. Thus, the difference between the natural and man-made fabrics differs greatly. Artificial or man-made fibers are often known as discount fabric owing to their low prices and easy availability. Natural fibers lack abundance owing to limited natural resources and are, therefore regarded to be superior quality fabric in contrast to the man-made or discount fabric. For More Detail Visit: http://huntingtonfabricdepot.com/apparel-decorationfabrics