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Fabric Production
Cotton fabric production begins with the preparing of the yarn for knitting or weaving.
Woven Fabrics
 At the loom, end-to-end yarns called the warp make the carcass like structure for the fabric. They normally require a higher degree of twisting and than filling yarns, which are integrated widthwise.
Today's mills utilize high-speed shuttleless weaving machines, which are operated at substantial speed and makes wide range of fabrics. Some holds the filling yarns through out the loom up to 2,000 meters a minute.
As of now, there are three common weaves with several variations, and cotton can be utilized in almost all.
Plain weave: In this, filling is passed under one warp yarn and over the next. This is used for percales, gingham, batistes and many other fabrics.
Twill weave: The yarns are integrated to make diagonal ridges through the fabric. Twill is used for strong fabrics, such as denim, ticking, herringbone etc.
Satin weave: Makes fabric smooth with more shine. This weave is used for making fabrics like cotton-satin.
Knitted Fabrics
Knitting is a process of making fabric by using needles to interlock yarn loops. Lengthwise rows are known as wales and cross rows are known as courses. There are remarkable similarities in hand knitting and machine knitting, however, there are also few differences.
In most cases, cotton is knitted on rounded machines that have series of needles attached to the frame of a rotating cylinder. As the cylinder moves, the needles start performing stitch to stitch making a tubular fabric. Its width is ruled by the cylinder size that normally varies from 9 to 60 inches in diameter.
Another type is the flat knitting machine, with a flat bed and having dozens of needles in a straight line. It makes a flat knit fabric, as same as to woven fabric. This machine performs more than one million stitches in a minute.
Cotton Fabrics
Cotton fabrics, directly from the loom in unfinished stages are called greige goods. To make it smooth for the preparation of dyeing and finishing, they are passed via hot copper plates and gas-fired jets to remove loose threads and lint.
Moving at speeds, which is over 200 yards a minute. The material is tattered and bleached in a non-stop process, which includes the utilizing of hydrogen peroxide. The chemicals reactions starts from crutching the fabric on the conveyor belts, which pass via steaming rooms, or huge steamed J-shaped boxes prior to the products are pull out from the beneath.
If more shine is wanted, then the products are wrapped up under pressure in a caustic soda solution and then afterwards it is stabilized. The process of mercerizing, leads the fiber to bulge lastingly, giving the fabric a silken shine and it also enhances its strength. Mercerizing can also conducted at the stage of yarn manufacture.
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