Blog Post #1- Fibers

The Start of a Miracle

The brightness, the similarities it shares with cotton, a fiber also known as having its own “ray of light,” was given the name Rayon, the French word for ray.  Rayon was the first manufactured fiber developed which was made from wood or cotton pulp and was first known as artificial silk. Artificial silk was made by Swiss Chemist, George Audemars in 1855, by simply dipping a needle in a liquid solution, mulberry bark pulp and gummy rubber, and a thread was created. The issue during this time period, the process in developing rayon was very slow, and it required precision and skill. In 1905, Courtaulds Fibers produced the first commercial viscose rayon, and the first viscose rayon in the United States was in 1910 by the American Viscose Company.

The purpose of developing rayon was making it a lower-cost alternative to cotton, but the cost of rayon and cotton are about the same. Rayon and cotton share similar characteristics, rayon chemically, just about performs the same as cotton. When it comes to rayon and cotton and their differences, rayon is less stable than cotton when wet because it is most likely to stretch. To prevent rayon from stretching, polynosic rayon was developed, a high-wet-modulus of rayon.

In producing rayon there are three methods in doing so, but the main one of producing rayon is viscose because its cellulosic material is already processed into a liquid and is then forced out into a filament. The second method of rayon is the cuprammonium, and it is extended in a copper solution, but it is only produced in Europe and not the United States because of the cost of up keeping the copper residue from the waste water. The last method of rayon is the Saponified rayon, and it is reverted from acetate through a chemical process so that the fiber looks like rayon, but dyes like acetate.

In producing acetate, the cellulosic fiber is extruded through an acetate solution. Acetate is a different from any other fiber because it requires a special dye. It also has poor abrasion resistance and cannot be made into a wide variety of yarn fabrication. Since acetate is lost cost, light resistant, and dimensionally stable, it is fabulous when used for drapery-lining fabric and for drapery-fabric warp yarns.

The miracle, rayon, is used in a filament form or a long-staple spun form. With rayon’s high level of brightness, it simulates silk. It brings brightness and drape when it is blended with other types of fibers. When using rayon it should not be used as vertical yarn in a drapery because the fabric’s weight will pull and make the panel sag. Rayon’s attributes make it excellent as an accent yarn in fabrics of almost any end-use, from wallcoverings to drapery and upholstery fabrics with fill-effect yarns.