Filament Yarn is basically a strand of fibres or filaments twisted in a bunch form to form a continuous length. The yarn is mainly used for weaving, knitting fabrics and also used for stitching. Apart from these main usages, yarn is also used in one or other form for reinforcement, tying etc.

Yarn can be catagorised in to 2 parts from the process of manufacturing and the structure. Spun Yarn and Filament Yarn.

The usage of spun yarn goes back to 3000 BC where traces of cotton and wool fabric are established. Filament Yarns did not appear until much later. The first synthetic, rayon, made from cotton or wood fibers, was developed in 1891, but not commercially produced until 1911. Almost a half a century later, nylon was invented, followed by the various forms of polyester. Synthetic fibers reduced the world demand for natural fibers and expanded applications.

Filament yarn, since are produced mechanically, have better properties wrt the natural spun yarn. Moreover, the breaking strength, elongation and luster etc can be managed the desired way. Thus many doors opened, because keeping in the mind the endues, the properties could be managed with in the possible limits.

Must Know for filament yarn -

Denier - this is the unit used to determine the thickness of yarn. Its actually weight but broadly as the weight increased, so does the thickness of the yarn. Denier is weight in grams of 9000 mtrs of length of yarn. Tex is also used, which is the weight in gms of 10000 mtrs of yarn.

The filament yarn is twisted and the twist is measured as TPM - no of turns per meter. In lieu of the twist, to bind the filaments, intermingling is widely used, where in by air pressure the filaments are bound with each other at a regular intervals. Texturising. - Filament yarn donot have bulk by nature, in order to give the feel to the fabric, the yarn used is texturised. The texture of the filaments is disturbed so as to add bulk. Dyeing - Most of the filament yarns can be dyed externally. However polypropelene is one of the fibres which cannot be dyed. This is due to the strong chemical bonding in the chain. However most of the filament yarns can be dope dyed i.e. while extrusion, the pigments are added to achieve the desired colours. Though most of the filament yarns are chemical but rayon is natural filament yarn manufactured manually with a chemical process.

Following are the filament yarns developed so far.

Rayon Rayon was the first manufactured fiber. It was developed in France in the 1890s and was originally also called as artificial silk.

About the Author

C Mant writes on diverse topics online like Business-Industrial Mechanical, Fashion, Clothing, Types of Natural and Man-made fibres. You can contact him at seochris@hotmail.com