Fiber and carpet terms

Cellulose—a naturally occurring polymer made of repeat units of the monomer glucose. This is the same glucose which your body metabolizes in order to live, but you can't digest it in the form of cellulose. Because cellulose is built out of a sugar monomer, it is called a polysaccharide.

Crimp—a property of fibers that refers to their inherent waviness, kink, or curl.  Natural fibers such as wool and cotton have crimp, while silk does not.  Synthetic fibers that will be blended with natural fibers have induced crimp to allow processing with the same equipment.

Decitex—also called Detex—a measure of fiber density, and indirectly of yarn size.  In the US, the word is pronounced “DEH-sih-TEX”.  Decitex is determined by weighing 10,000 meters of a single thread and recording the mass in grams (or by weighing 100 meters and multiplying the mass in grams by 100).  See “Denier.”

Denier—a measure of fiber density, and indirectly of yarn size.  In the US, the word is pronounced “DEN-ee-er” or “DEN-yer.”  Denier is determined by weighing 9,000 meters of a single thread and recording the mass in grams (or by weighing 90 meters and multiplying the mass in grams by 100).  Applications by denier:

· 15-50 denier yarns are suitable for lingerie and hosiery

· 50-70 denier yarns are suitable for ties and other indoor apparel

· 70-120 denier yarns are suitable for jackets

· 1000-1200 denier yarns are suitable for tire cord

· 1400-3600 denier yarns are suitable for carpet yarn

See “Decitex.”

Drawing—a process of stretching yarn to align the polymer molecules within.  When fully drawn, a fiber is at it maximum tensile strength.  You can see how this works by taking a strand of spider silk and stretching it.  Initially, it stretches easily.  As the polymer chains become aligned, however, the force needed to stretch the spider silk further increases until a significant amount of force is required to stretch it any further at all.  The same is true of some other natural fibers (protein polymers, for example, but not cellulosic polymers) and of most synthetic polymers.

Dyeability—a measure of the readiness with which a fiber accepts dyes.  Good dyeability means the fiber is easy to dye, while poor dyeability means it is difficult to dye.

Fiber—a class of materials that are long, thin strands, which in turn are often spun together to make thread or rope.

Filament—an individual fiber that is combined with other filaments to spin yarn or thread.  A single cotton or wool fiber is very small in diameter and fairly short.  But when combined and aligned with other fibers of the same type, the individual filaments can be twisted to form thread.

 

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    Cellulose — Filament            Hand — Producer Dyed           Resiliency—Tensile Strength

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Residential & Industrial Cleaning Co.

Carpet Cleaning Specialists Since 1988