Fibers and filaments are the textile raw materials for the textile industry. Fibers are characterized by a limited length of 10 to 500 mm, while filaments are in principle endless. Filaments thus already form a yarn and are in principle suitable for further processing. By default, the fibers and filaments have a diameter of 10 to 40 micrometers. To be able to spin a yarn of fibers, the fibers must have a spinning band. The fibers are not completely straight. Straight fibers do not hold each other and slide sideways so that no yarn can be formed. Cotton has a corkscrew shape, wool is corrugated and artificial fibers usually have a zigzag crosstalk. The fiber length is indicated by the stack or stack length. This means the mean fiber length. Different types of bar charts are shown below. The two left-handers are natural fibers and the right of an artificial fiber. It is with this technique that infrared sensors can automatically sort textile on fiber composition. The Wormerveer t4t machine sorts worn clothing to bale textile of one kind, for example 100% cotton. After that, it is made ready for spinning via fiber optics.

For a good yarn quality, a long fiber with as even a bar chart is advantageous.

The raw materials can be divided into a number of groups according to the following schedule: Natural fibers Animal Mineral Artificial fibers On a synthetic basis

The summary in the schedule is certainly not exhaustive. Especially in the synthetic fiber group, there are many more types.

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