Abstract

Angora (rabbit) fibre - commonly known as Angora Wool - is extremely fine,warm, soft and silky to touch. It is a slippery fibre difficult to spin andrequires excessive twist to hold the fibres firmly in yarn. Therefore, the Angora fibre is blended with superfine wool, mohair, silk or with alpaca for ease inprocessing. In order to overcome the problems that arise during the mechanicalprocessing of Angora fibre, an eco-friendly 'Atmospheric Plasma ProcessingSystem' was developed by NID and IPR for surface modification of fibres toenhance friction and cohesion between them. The System has been successfullyestablished in the Angora industry at Kullu. It has facilitated mill spinningand hand spinning of 100% Angora yarn and subsequent weaving on handloom fordeveloping value added fabrics to generate more income for rural people. As the Angora fibre is lightweight and good thermal insulator, it has also been usedin the development of High Altitude Clothing for soldiers. This shows how ahigh-tech like plasma can help a cottage industry like Angora for enhancing itscompetitiveness.

Keywords: Angora fibre, Atmospheric plasma, Handloom, High altitude clothing

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About the Authors:

P.B. Jhala is associated with National Institute of Design,Ahmedabad at John Bissell Research Chair. S. K. Nema is Scientist-SE, FCIPT andS. Mukherjee is the Head, FCIPT at Institute for Plasma Research, Gandhinagar,respectively.