Chapter5NaturalCellulosicFibers.pptVIP

Joseph’s IntroductoryTextile Science (6th Ed.) Xudong Yang 杨旭东 xdyang@dhu.edu.cn Ch.5 Natural Cellulosic Fibers The natural cellulosic fibers are those that occur in fiber form in nature as parts of plants. Such fibers are sometimes called vegetable or plant fibers, but the preferred term is cellulosic, because it describes the chemical composition common to these fibers. Cotton Cotton raised in the Southeast at that time was of the Sea Island variety. The Churka, or roller gin （皮辊轧棉机）imported from India, could separate the fiber from the seeds of this long-staple variety, but it could not separate the fibers from the seeds of the varieties grown far from the ocean. The inland varieties were called Upland cotton. The only way to separate the fibers of Upland cotton from the seed was to pull them off by hand. In 1793- Eli Whitney invented a saw-type cotton gin（锯齿轧棉机） that could mechanically separate the fiber of Upland cotton from its seed. Inland areas of the Carolinas and Georgia could then raise cotton more profitably. In the 10-year period between 1793 and 1803,the cash value of the cotton crop rose dramatically from $150.000 to more than $8 million. Gossypium：棉属 Arboreum：树棉 Berbaceum：草棉 Barbadense：海岛棉 Hirsutum：陆地棉 In the days before mechanical harvesting, cotton was picked from the plant by hand. The fiber did not contain as much trash（废物、断枝、落叶） as mechanically picked cotton does, and only fiber that was at its peak could be pulled from the plant on a given day. Although such methods might produce better fiber, the time and labor costs have made the practice impractical in industrialized countries. The harvested cotton is taken to the gin, where the fiber, or cotton lint（皮棉）, is stripped from the seed (Figure 5.5). Some short fibers, called linters（棉短绒，棉籽绒）, may be left on the seed. The ginned fiber is compressed into 500-pound rectangular bales大包 (Figure 5-6), Most bales are covered with a protective wrapping of burlap（粗麻布，打包麻布） or a woven polypropylene fabric