Jute fiber
Jute
fiber is a long, soft, shiny best fiber that can be cut into thick, strong
threads. It is mainly produced from the genus Corcharas. Jute is one of the
most affordable natural fibers, and second only to cotton in quantity and
variety used. Jute fibers are mainly composed of plant materials cellulose and
lignin. It falls into the category of bust fiber along with kenaf, industrial
hemp, flax (linen), ramie, etc. The industrial term for jute fiber is raw jute
fibers white-brown and 1-4 m long. Jute is also called golden fiber for its
color and high cash quality.
History of the jute industry in Bangladesh
The history of the jute industry in Bangladesh is long before. Initially, jute
fiber was used to make textiles in the Indus Valley Civilization from the third
millennium BC. For centuries, jute fiber has been an integral part of the
culture of East Bengal and parts of West Bengal in southwestern Bangladesh. The
British started the jute business in the seventeenth century. Jute fiber was
also used in the military during the rule of the British Empire. British jute
barons became rich by processing jute and selling products made from it. The
Dundee Jute Barons and the British East India Company established many jute
mills in Bengal and in 1855 the jute industry in Bengal surpassed the Scottish
jute business. Many Scots emigrated to Bengal to set up jute factories. More
than one billion jute sandbags were exported from Bengal to World War I
trenches. It was used in fishing, construction, industry, and arms industry.
Initially, due to its texture, it could only be processed by hand. No one in
Dundee discovered that treatment with whale oil made it machine-processed. The
industry spanned the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but the trade closed
in the 1970s due to the rise of synthetic fibers. In the 21st century, jute has
again become an important export crop worldwide, mainly in Bangladesh.
Features of jute fiber
1.
Jute is the second most important vegetable fiber after cotton in terms of usage, global cost, production, and availability.
2.
Jute has low pesticide and fertilizer needs.
3.
It is a natural fiber with a golden and silky luster and hence it is called
golden fiber.
4.
It is the cheapest vegetable fiber procured from the bast or skin of the
plant's stem.
5.
It is 100% bio-degradable and recyclable and thus environmentally friendly.
6.
It has high tensile strength, and low extensibility, and ensures better
breathability of the fabric. Therefore, jute is very suitable for agricultural
products in bulk packaging.
7.
Advantages of jute include good insulating and antistatic properties,
8.
Jute has poor drape ability and crease resistance, brittleness, fiber shedding,
and yellowing in sunlight.
9.
Jute has a decreased strength when wet, and also becomes subject to microbial attack in humid climates.
Properties of jute fiber
A. Physical properties of jute fiber-
1. Fiber length 1-4miters
2. Strength or tenacity 3-4gm/den
3. Elongation at break - 1.7%
4. Specific gravity - 1.5
5. Moisture Regain - 13.75%
6. Dimensional stability is good
7. Color- Brown, grey, yellow, white,
off-white, golden, etc.
B. Chemical properties of jute fiber
1. Effects of Acid- Easily damaged by hot
dilute acid and cold conc. Acid.
2. Effects of Alkali- Easily damaged by
strong alkali.
3. Effects of Bleach- Resistant to all types of bleaching agents.
4. Effects of mildew- Prevention of mildew is better than cotton.
5. Dyeing ability- Easy to dye. Basically, the basic dye is used.
Chemical composition of jute fiber
Cellulose
– 65.2%
Hemi-cellulose
– 22.2%
Lignin
– 10.8%
Water-soluble material – 1.5%
Fat
and wax – 0.3%
Jute cultivation process
To
increase jute, farmers spread seeds on cultivated soil. When the plants are
around 15-20 cm tall, they are thinned. About four months after planting, the
harvest begins. Trees are usually cut after flowering. The
stalks are cut close to the ground. The stalks are tied in bundles and soaked
in water for about 20 days. This process softens the tissues and breaks the
hard pectin bond between the busts and allows the process to separate the fibers.
It is then stripped from the stalk of the long strand and washed in clean,
flowing water. They are then hung or spread on the roof to dry. After 2-3 days
of drying, the fibers are bound in bundles.
The
climate suitable for jute growth is a warm and humid climate, which is provided
by the monsoon climate in the fall season immediately after the summer.
Temperatures above 25˚ C and relative humidity of 70% -90% are favorable for
successful cultivation. Additional requirement during jute sowing is 160-200 cm
rainfall per week. River basins or waterlogged or loamy soils are best for jute
cultivation. Cultivation of jute in red soil may require high doses of
fertilizer and the best pH range of 4.8-5.6 is required for its cultivation.
Ideal for plain or soft or lowland jute cultivation. As jute seeds are small in
size, the land should be prepared for fines, which can be carefully tied to the
land.
Types of jute
There are three types of jute,
such as-
a. White jute
b. Tossa jute
c. Mesta jute
a. White jute
Corchorus
capsular, commonly known as white jute, is a shrub species in the Malvaceae
family. The plant originated in China but is now native to Bangladesh and India
and has spread to many parts of tropical Africa. It is also cultivated in the
Amazon region of Brazil. It is one of the sources of jute fiber, which is
considered to be of better quality than the fiber obtained from the main source
of jute, Corchorus olitorious. The leaves are used as food and the leaves,
unripe fruits, and roots are used in traditional medicine.
b. Tossa jute
Tosa
jute or Corchorus olitorious is a local thought in South Asia. It is developed
for both fiber and culinary purposes. People use the leaves as an ingredient in
a mucilaginous potherb called molokhia. Bangladesh and many other countries in
Southeast Asia and the South Pacific commonly use jute for their fiber. Tosa jute
fiber is soft, silky, and stronger than white jute. This variety shows good
stability in the Ganges delta climate. In addition to white jute, the Tosa jute
is also cultivated in Bengal where it has been known as jute since the
beginning of the nineteenth century. Bangladesh is the largest global producer
of different varieties of Tosa jute.
c. Mesta Jute
Mesta jute is a hybrid of white jute and tosa jute. Although this
type of jute was not historically popular historically, the political
complexities of India's turbulent independence made the production of this type
of jute paramount.
Different defects/faults in jute fiber
Rooty Jute: This problem occurs due to improper retting underwater. These faults see on the root end area in jute.
Specky jute: These defects occur due to
insufficient washing which causes the outer barks to adhere to some places. Speck in jute is a
major defect that lowers the quality of Jute fibers.
Dazed fibers: These defects see on jute
fiber due to over-retting in water, for this reason, jute fiber loses strength
and luster and becomes bad for spinning.
Runners: Runner is a defect where a long and hard barky ribbon of fibers remains in jute fiber.
Hunka: Hunka is a jute defect, for
this reason, jute show hard and barky.
Mossy jute: Fibres from short plants that
cannot be properly steeped and cleaned contain broken pieces of jute sticks etc.
Croppy Jute: This defect is shown on the top end of the fiber. For this reason, the top end of the fiber becomes rough and hard. These defects usually occur due to careless steeping.
Knotty
jute: This
type of defect in jute fibers is caused by insect bites or punctures.
Flabby
or hairy jute: These defects occur due to careless stripping, fiber
loses firmness, and becomes flabby and hairy.
Heart
damage: These
defects occur when jute fiber contains excess moisture in baled and the bale center
becomes badly tendered in some cases, fibers are reduced to powder.
Jute spinning process
The main function of jute spinning units is to convert jute fiber into yarn for
various end uses. The type of jute yarn that is made can be classified
according to the application/use such as fine yarn, hessian yarn, carpet,
sacking yarn, etc. various, etc. according to on the need and use. By conventional
technique, it is not possible to produce fine jute yarn with more than 138 texts.
However, later, after the development of the apron draft ring spinning system,
it was easier to produce yarn as fine as 60 tex.
The processing sequence in jute spinning is-
1. Jute selection
After
drying, the raw jute is packed in jellies in the form of 150 kg or 180 kg bells
for easy movement. The bells from the mill godown are taken to the selection
department where all the jute bells are opened to search for any jute and to
remove the defective part from the bend by experienced workers. After
selection, the jute boundaries are driven by workers in the softening/batching
department.
2. Batching section
Batching
is the process of mixing oil and water in jute. A batch is a mixture of fibers
with different types of jute fibers for a particular class of yarn. The section
where jute is prepared for carding is called batching house. In this section,
the fibers are conditioned for easy processing in the resulting processes by
adding oil and water. The ready-to-pick wrap is processed with a softener or
spreader machine to fit the jute fiber bundles for subsequent carding
operations. As it passes through these machines, the oil in the water mixture
is applied to the jute for its moisture or lubrication.
3. Batching emulsion recipe
Jute
batching emulsion usually consists of three products such as mineral oil, water, and an emulsifier. The most commonly used mineral oil is Jute Batching Oil
(JBO), a medium distillate produced by petroleum refiners. JBO lubricates the
fiber and makes it flexible. Water provides adequate moisture to the fiber and
increases its extensibility. The emulsifier reduces the surface tension and
stabilizes the emulsion.
Solution
recipe-
Water = 20 - 30%
Jute
batching oil = 2 - 5%
Emulsifying
agent = 0.1 - 0.5%.
4. Softener process
The
softener machine is used for batching of sucking yarns, its raw materials are
low grade. It is a long machine consisting of 4 - 2 pairs of cast iron curved
rollers. The lower part of the pair is driven by the side shaft and the top is
the spring-loaded one by contacting the bottom of the pair. Long jute is
conditioned 24 - 48 hours after softening and then ready to feed on the breaker
card.
5. Carding process
The
main objectives of jute carding are-
1.
Dividing the jute root longitudinal and breaking it transversely.
2.
Converting jute ghats into uniform fibrous strands, suitable for further
processing
3.
Some amount of fiber is clean, orienting, and attenuating.
4.
Randomize the fibers among themselves.
Two
types of carding machines are commonly used in jute processing, namely breaker
card and finisher card and both roller and clear type.
6. Drafting process
The
main objectives of the jute drawing frame are-
1.
Drafting finisher card slivers to make the spinning frame suitable for feeding.
2.
Doubling the slivers to reduce irregularities.
3.
Straighten and align the scales along the sleeve axis.
Jute
drawing frames are divided into two types, according to the process of follar
bars. Such as- push bar type and spiral or screw gill type.
7. Jute spinning
Most
of the jute yarn is cut from the finisher drawing sliver and the spinning from
the rove is basically limited to the finer range. Nowadays, however, most ring
spinning is used for fine counting yarn directly from the sliver. The jute
spinning frame is designated by the pitch distance between adjacent spindles.
The main objectives of the spinning process are to draft, twist, and rotate.
a. Drafting
In the case of yarn making, the process of reducing the assembly of fibers called
sliver by flowing through different rollers thus straightening the individual
fibers and making them more parallel is called drafting. Each pair of rollers
moved faster than before.
b. Twisting
In
the production of yarn and rope, the process by which fibers or yarns are tied
together in an uninterrupted strand, performed in spinning or playing
operations is called twisting. The twisting side can be on the right,
described as a Z twist, or on the left, described as an S twist.
c. Winding
The process of making large yarn packages like
the cone from different small yarn packages like ring cops using subsequent
machinery is called winding. The winding process not only creates larger
yarn packages, but also corrects spinning errors such as naps, hairiness,
and wax.
Weaving process
The
process of separating two series of thread warp and waffle yarn to produce a
fabric of the desired quality is called weaving. The weaving department has
separate looms for hessian and dismissal. Hessian loom, the shuttle whose
materials (weft yarn) have been changed manually. The sacking looms are
equipped with an eco-loader to automatically load polish into the shuttle.
Damping
The process is damp, where the rolled woven fabric is uncontrolled and water is
constantly sprinkled on it to provide the desired moisture. Each roll is
typically 104 yards or 95.976 meters. This is done manually.
Calendaring
The process is similar to dressing calendaring fabric. Damp fabric renders the thread
into the fabric through heavy roller pairs to expand and improve quality and
appearance.
Advantages of jute fiber
1.
For this purpose, jute matting is used to prevent flood erosion, and natural and
biodegradable fibers are required.
2.
It is mainly used for wrapping raw cotton yarn and for making sacks and thick
cloth. The fibers are woven into the backing for curtains, chair covers,
carpets, area rugs, hessian fabrics, and linoleum.
3.
In many of its uses, it is being replaced by synthetic materials, some uses
have taken advantage of the biodegradable nature of jute, where synthetics are
unsuitable.
4.
Jute fibers are used alone or mixed with other types of fibers to make needles
and ropes. Jute butts, and thick edges of trees, are used to make cheap clothing.
5.
The main breakthrough came when the automobile, pulp and paper, and furniture
and bedding industries began using jute and related fibers with their non-woven
and blended technologies in non-woven, technological textiles, and blends.
6.
Jute is used to make a number of fabrics such as hessian fabrics, sacking,
creams, carpet backing fabrics (CBC), and canvas.
7.
Jute as a home textile has many advantages, either replacing cotton or blending
it because of its strength, durability, color, and light fiber. Its UV
protection, sound, thermal insulation, low thermal conductivity, and
anti-static properties make it an intelligent choice in home decor.
Disadvantages of jute fiber
1.
Crease resistance of jute fiber is very low.
2.
Drape property is not good enough.
3.
Shade becomes yellowish if sunlight is used.
4.
When jute is wetted, loses its strength.
5.
The jute is not so flexible.
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