'Wool- A Fabulous Fibre'- The 'Behind the Seams' Series

Notes from watching 'Number 3- Wool: A Fabulous Fibre' from The Behind the Seams' series. The 45minute documentary showed the manufacturing process of wool in Australia.

-the wool industry in Australia has a value of £3, 000, 000, 000 a year- its in Australia's top five exports
- the shearing process accounts for 1/5 of the cost of wool production- on average a shearer can collect the fleece from 150 sheep every eight hour working day
- the bulk of wool comes from the sheep's back- that specific cut is called a 'long blow'
- the shed hands remove the tangled belly wool and the poor quality edgings of the wool, which is referred to as the 'skirting', on the grating table
- a Wool Classer assesses the fleece and classifies the wool according to its quality and the thickness of fibre (each fleece has over 100,000,000 fibres)
- the raw, greasy wool is packaged in bails and transported to a large holding warehouse
- exported through local buying agents, who price the wool according to the length and strength, the style of the clip and how well prepared the sheep's wool was (clean wool brings a high premium)
- most Australian wool goes to Italy, France, Japan, Germany and China. A sizable quantity also goes to the UK, America and Russia. There is a constant demand, due to growing populations in these countries and the fast turnover of fashion trends. The sale is subject to 'supply and demand' fluctuations
- three quarters of the exported wool is sold in an unprocessed state
- the quarter processed has to travel a large physical distance= high cost

2 main systems to process the wool fibre into yarn: the woollen system and the worsted system

The woollen system:
- uses coarser, shorter stapled wool, which is highly contaminated
- used to produce upholstery, bulky knitwear, carpets and tweeds
- used in Bradford

The worsted system:
- uses fine, long stapled wools, which has a low level of contamination
- used to produce fine, smooth suitings and fashion fabrics
- used in Leeds

- First process, Scouring- the raw wool is washed vigorously in water and hot detergent, which removes dirt, perspiration salts and vegetable matter from the wool- it also removes lanolin, the wool's natural grease, which is sold as a by-product
- the dirty water causes a lot of pollution concerns, as in a year it produces the same amount of waste water, as twenty-five thousand residents- nowadays most wool factories are forced to have their own sewer treatment system
- Second process, Carding- uses large blowers to dry the wool and then feds the wool into the carding machines, which uses large revolving drums with rollers and pairs of fine wire teeth, to shred the wool into a continuous slither/ web and lay the fibres roughly parallel to each other.
- this process also removes seeds which may have remained immersed in the wool, even after the scouring process
- Third process, Gilling- continues the carding process by aligning the fibres further using rollers and combs, and stretching the slithers into thinner hanks
- Fourth process, Combing- uses pinch rollers that thrust the fine slithers onto a revolving drum comb, which eliminates any fine or broken fibres. This process unifies the fibres and creates a slither of uniform thickness. These slithers are then wound into balls called 'tops', which are immersed into a chemical bath, which coats the fibres in shrink-proof resin. The fibres are then dyed in a boiling dye bath an hour later if needs be.
- Fifth process, Drawing- spins the tops into yarn for fabric production, by passing the tops through a drawing machine, which is set to adjust the fibre to a certain weight and thickness, ready for spinning. The drawing machine also twists the fibres adding strength to the yarn
- Sixth process, Spinning- completes the yarn process by spinning the yarn through a spinning frame, which twists the fibres, stretching and strengthening the yarn. The yarn is finally then spun, at high speed, around a rapidly turning bobbin. Two single spun yarns are combined to produce worsted yarns.

- The yarns are then packed for overseas mills, ready for domestic fabric and garments.

Knitting- Interlocks loops of one or more yarns
Weaving- Interlaces yarns at right angles. The warp is the name given to the length yarn and the yarn that travels across the material is called the weft. This process takes place on a loom, which produces a much finer and softer fabric than knitting. This fabric is usually used for suitings and quality apparel.