Quality Improvement of Dumba Fleece Using Dehairing Technique and Value Addition of Recovered Wool

Abstract

The wool of Dumba fleece is an admixture of fine wool and coarse hairy fibers. (Tomer, ) The use of the slow speed carding machinerecovers fine wool fibers accounts 19.6% of fleece weight. The mean fiber diameter and medullation of recovered wool are 23.2 µm and 14.0%, respectively. The recovered wool fibers are able to spin into yarn of 20.7 Nm with the use of carrier fiber only. Nylon staple fiber of 2.5 denier and fine crossbred wool are mixed to spin yarn on semi-worsted spinning system. The fabric was woven with prepared yarn on handloom. The fabric has found the harsh feel due to available medullated fibers even after the removal of hairy fibers. The surface properties of the fabric were improved through enzyme treatment followed by softener application. The fabrics were evaluated for thermal insulation and surface smoothness. The thermal insulation value is found to improve from 2.03 to 2.18 for enzyme and softener treated fabric, respectively. The chemical treatment improves the fabric smoothness/softness, i.e, frictional properties viz. dynamic and static frictional resistance by 12.4% and 7.0%, respectively.

Keywords

• air permeability
• dumba
• dehairing technique
• medullated fiber
• nylon dissolution
• thermal insulation