It takes huge capital investment to start a textile mill.
Textile mills account for huge number of employed people in the fashion
industry.
Milling involves the conversion of fiber into yarn. Then
the yarn is processed and cut into fabric.
Things to consider
before starting a textile mill are the financial involvement and plant
requirements. You need to determine the factory capacity and number of
machinery.
You need to invest in property, building structure, labor
costs, raw materials and packaging. Estimating the project cost essential to
the success of the enterprise.
Fixed capital is calculated based on leasehold, building,
equipment and spare parts. Working capital involves procurement of raw material,
packaging cost, freight of yarn and direct labor. Other working capital
requirements are utility, variable power, indirect labor and recurrent
expenditure.
Efficiency
of the Textile Plant
You need to calculate variables such as machine type,
number, efficiency, quantity of yarn produced and delivery speed. This should
provide a framework on procurement of machinery.
Textile
Mill Machinery
Textile mill machinery is fully automated and branded
equipment. They are huge, expensive and structured to carry out specific
processes.
Common machinery found in textile mills is winding
machines, ring frame with auto doffer, overhead blower and combers. More
machinery is spinders, autoconer, draw frame and speed frame.
The mill needs lots of accessories such as hand trucks,
fork lift, trolleys and spindle oil lubricants.
More are strapping machine, pneumatic cleaners, weighing equipment,
testers and card service machines.
These are just a
few equipment's and machinery needed to launch your textile mill. You can see
the enormous challenges facing a startup textile mill.
Locating
the Textile Mill
The textile mill should be located in a zoned commercial
area. The mill requires huge factory, adequate landed space for parking,
loading, equipment and storage. You can lease or purchase suitable land, build
or rent a factory.
Hire
Staff
Hire qualified machine operators, maintenance staff,
administration personnel and drivers. You need a marketing department,
accountant and staff for the packaging department. A small textile mill could
hire between 200 to 250 employees.
Manufacturing
Process
The manufacturing process depends on the type of fiber.
The manufacturing process explained below is based on cotton fiber.
The process starts with the blowing room then carding room,
spinning, weaving shed for cloth. From the spinning room the fiber is divided
into sewing threads, yarns or cloth.
A
simple flow chart for cloth manufacturing
Blowing room-carding room-spinning room-winding- weave
shed-warping-sizing –weaving –cloth
More
complex flow chart for cloth manufacturing
Bale breaker- willowing- breaker
scutcher- finishing-carding-silver lap-
combing- drawing -slubbing - intermediate- roving- mule
spinning-winding-beaming-warping-weaving
A
simple flow chart for sewing thread
Blowing-carding-fine roving-ring
spinning-doubling-bleaching-winding-cabling-gassing-spooling-sewing thread
A
simple flow chart for yarn bundle
Blowing-carding-fine roving-ringing-reeling-bundling-yarn
bundle
Finishing
To remove impurities in the fabric it goes through
bleaching, scouring, desizing and mercerizing. Other process involves dyeing
the fabric, shrinking, raising, singeing and printing.
Things
to Do
Register your business as a limited liability company.
You can source raw materials from wholesalers or farmers. Hire graphic artistes
and designers to create appealing designs.
Marketing
There is a huge market for woven cloths and textile
materials. Sell directly to wholesalers and major fashion outfits.
Produce high quality fabrics and price your products
appropriately. Use both electronic and traditional print methods to reach
customers.
9
Fibers Obtained from Animals
Fibers are strings spun into yarn and then woven into
fabric. The type of fiber dictates the cloth or material. There are two types
of fibers produced by textile companies, the synthetic fiber and natural
fiber.
Fiber is obtainable from certain plants and animals. The
synthetic fibers are either a combination of natural fibers or laboratory creation.
Animal fibers are common to creatures with thick coats such as fur or hair.
Here are a few fibers produced by animals used in the
textile industry.
1-Spider
Silk
Spider silk is a protein fiber spun to make webs for
dwelling or walk ways. Despite the delicate looking structure the webs have
tensile strength and are used to catch prey.
Spiders are versatile at silk production and capable of
making seven different types of silk. The silks function dictates its
application and use.
The different silk types are used for prey
immobilization, dispersal and nesting. Other uses deployed by spiders are guide
lines, prey capture, anchor and alarm lines.
Spider silk is
incredible strong despite its fragile look and diverse functionality. The silk
is produced from seven silk glands located at the lower side of the abdomen.
Although not all spiders have same number of glands they
are equally versatile. Spider silk has many industrial applications in the
textile, coating and cosmetic industry.
Spider silk use in textile is not commercially viable
because of the difficulty and quantity during an extraction process. However, it is possible to farm spiders to
produce light weight material.
2-Sheep’s
Wool
Approximately 85% of the world wool requirement is
produced by sheep. The amazing animal is farmed for meat and wool.
Wool is a tough
fiber used in the manufacture of textile material. The type of fabric depends
on the quality of the fiber extracted from the animal.
Different farm animals produce fibers used in textile
such as the Angora goat, and Angora rabbit. Wool fabric are easy to fleece and
spin into a single fiber.
Sheep wool has good absorbent and bind qualities. There are three different grades of wool the
medium wool, long wool and fine wool.
The long wool is coarser than the others, grows long and
is easy to spin. Medium sheep wool is
least valuable and more difficult to spin. Common applications of medium sheep
wool are the production of socks, sweaters and blankets.
Fine sheep’s wool attract premium prices are luxurious
fibers and best among the lot. Hair-
Sheep wool is not harvest-able fiber because they hardly produce use-able length.
The value of the sheep wool is predicated on the quality
of the fiber, grade, length and contaminants present in the fabric. White wool
has the most commercial value and sold to wool mils globally.
Sheep wool prices are dictated by international prices
and wool exchange. To obtain the wool the sheep goes through shearing, scouring
to clean greasy wool.
Other parameters used to determine quality of wool are
the color, tensile strength, yield, crimp and diameter. Major producers of wool
are Australia, china, united state of America and New Zealand.
3-Mohair
Mohair is a produced from the hair of the Angora goat. It
is a silk-like yarn that has high luster and used in producing premium textile
fabric.
Mohair is crease resistant, durable and has natural
elasticity. Although mohair looks like wool they are distinctively different
from sheep’s wool.
The Angora goat that produces mohair is sheared two or
three times yearly. They are versatile producers of mohair and a single goat is
capable of producing 15 pounds of mohair a year.
One of the major
producers of mohair is South Africa. Tonik is a fabric achieved through a
combination of mohair and wool experimentation.
Other countries that produce mohair are New Zealand,
Australia, Russia and Germany. Mohair is used in the production of suits,
socks, coats and hats. The soft fabric easily absorbs dye and attracts premium
prices. Mohair Goat farming is a
lucrative venture but highly specialized niche.
4- Yak
fiber
The yak produces two types of commercially viable fiber.
Although the coat is composed of three different fibers, coarse, mid-type and
down fiber only two are spun.
The coarse and down fibers are the ones used to produce
yak fibers. During winter the yak produces a soft under coat that is a fine
soft hair.
The down hairs ability to insulate the yak in winter is
its most valuable property. The second hair regarded as guard hair is longer,
tougher and coarser than down hair.
The guard hair covers the entire body of the animal. The
guard hairs are coarse by nature and allow carding or spinning.
Yak hair is produced into belts, halters, bags and rugs.
The entire process includes picking, cleaning, carder and spinning the yarn.
The yarn is a colorless durable fiber with many applications such as making
ropes, blankets, tents and clothing.
5-Sericulture
Silk is a protein fiber produced by the silk worm. The
fiber has lots of commercial application in the textile industry.
The farming of silk worm is known as sericulture and
accounts for 60 percent of silk production worldwide. Silk is obtained from the
cocoons of larvae stage of a silk moth.
The silk worm pupae are the architect of the commercially
harvested silk. They produce a continuous thread woven into silk fibers.
Top countries that produce commercially viable quantities
of silk are Chine, Russia, Brazil, France, Japan, India and Italy.
Stages of silk production start when the silk moth lays
its eggs. They lay thousands of eggs in a batch. The eggs hatch into larvae
which are fed mulberry leaves.
After several growth processes and moulting they weave a
cocoon. The cocoon is then dipped in boiling water to kill larvae, brushing and
fiber wound into raw silk.
6- Alpaca
fiber
Alpaca is a South American camel-like animal that closely
resembles a llama. The domesticated animal is found in Chile, Ecuador, Bolivia
and Peru.
It produces alpaca fiber known to have similar
characteristics as wool. The natural fiber produced by alpaca is luxurious soft
and durable.
The fiber attracts premium price in the international
market. Fabrics made from alpaca fibers are water resistant, elastic and good
for weaving.
Top designers favor the material to make expensive or
inexpensive products. Farmers have a
choice to farm any two types of alpaca the Suri alpaca and the Huacaya
alpaca.
Suri fiber is characterized by long silky fibers while
the Huacaya has crimpy soft dense fibers. The production process involves
carding, spinning and weaving the fiber.
A major advantage is the low impact alpaca farms have on
the environment. The fibers are made into many products such as sweaters,
footwear and jackets.
Cashmere is a luxury item produced by cashier goats. The
product has a high demand and attracts premium pricing.
The cashmere could be produced into different textures
based on the extraction and manufacturing process. A thing of interest is that cashier is harvest from the neck region of the goat.
The goats have a
double fleece of undercoat and outer coating. The outer coating is coarse and
of high quality fiber. It goes through
combing, raking to collect the high quality fiber.
The types of fiber obtained from the goat are processed
fiber, raw fiber, virgin and recycled fibers. Alpaca are social animals that
live in large groups.
8-Buffalo
wool
Bison is a large terrestrial bull closely related to the
buffalo. Bison wool is made into different products such as bison gloves,
head wear, shoes, yarns and kits.
Bison fabric is soft, warm, lightweight material that
does not shrink, easily cleaned and non allergic to the skin. Fine undercoat
attracts premium prices, machine washable and is regarded as a luxury item.
The animal prefers open plains and many are farmed and
kept under supervised captivity.
9-Angora
rabbit
The Angora rabbit is a large rabbit covered in hair. Many
farms use the product to manufacture clothing and fashion items.
Types of Angora rabbit include French angora, English
angora and giant angora. To become commercially acceptable the hair should be
without blemish once plucked.
10-Other
natural animal fibers
Fibers from other animals are used in different
industrial applications. Animal fiber is obtained from the possum, yak, camels,
horses, weasel and oxen.
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