Textile Industry Glossary

Bast Fibre

Nat­ur­al plant fibres extract­ed from the stems (phloem) of plants such as flax (linen), hemp, jute, kenaf, and ramie. Bast fibres offer high ten­sile strength, low elon­ga­tion, and nat­ur­al rigid­i­ty. Used in appar­el (linen), tech­ni­cal com­pos­ites, geo­t­ex­tiles, and pack­ag­ing. Their low-input cul­ti­va­tion and biodegrad­abil­i­ty make them attrac­tive for sus­tain­able tex­tile devel­op­ment.

See also: Nat­ur­al Fibre · Tech­ni­cal Tex­tiles · Geo­t­ex­tile

Cot­ton

The world’s most impor­tant nat­ur­al cel­lu­losic fibre, grown in trop­i­cal and sub­trop­i­cal regions. Cot­ton’s soft­ness, breatha­bil­i­ty, absorben­cy, and dye­abil­i­ty make it the dom­i­nant fibre for appar­el and home tex­tiles. Key pro­duc­ing coun­tries include Chi­na, India, the USA, Brazil, and Pak­istan. Con­ven­tion­al cot­ton cul­ti­va­tion is resource-inten­sive; organ­ic, BCI (Bet­ter Cot­ton Ini­tia­tive), and Fair­trade cer­ti­fied cot­ton address envi­ron­men­tal and social con­cerns.

See also: Nat­ur­al Fibre · Gin­ning · Organ­ic Cot­ton · Bast Fibre

Elas­tane (Span­dex / Lycra™)  EL

A syn­thet­ic polyurethane-based fibre capa­ble of stretch­ing to 500–600% of its orig­i­nal length and recov­er­ing ful­ly. It is rarely used alone but is core-spun or twist­ed with oth­er fibres to add stretch and com­fort to woven, warp-knit­ted, and cir­cu­lar-knit­ted fab­rics for sports­wear, swimwear, lin­gerie, and den­im. Recy­cla­bil­i­ty of elas­tane-blend­ed fab­rics remains a chal­lenge for cir­cu­lar­i­ty.

See also: Syn­thet­ic Fibre · Core-Spun Yarn · Cir­cu­lar Knit­ting · Cir­cu­lar Econ­o­my

Fibre-to-Fibre Recy­cling

A cir­cu­lar tex­tile process in which post-con­sumer or post-indus­tri­al tex­tile waste is con­vert­ed back into vir­gin-equiv­a­lent fibres. Tech­nolo­gies include mechan­i­cal recy­cling (shredding/reprocessing), chem­i­cal recy­cling (dis­solv­ing and re-poly­meris­ing), and bio­log­i­cal recy­cling. Fibre-to-fibre recy­cling is cen­tral to the EU Tex­tile Strat­e­gy and manda­to­ry EPR frame­works.

See also: Chem­i­cal Recy­cling · Mechan­i­cal Recy­cling · Extend­ed Pro­duc­er Respon­si­bil­i­ty · Cir­cu­lar Econ­o­my

Gin­ning

The mechan­i­cal process of sep­a­rat­ing cot­ton fibres (lint) from the cot­ton seed and plant mat­ter. Mod­ern gin­ning uses saw gins or roller gins depend­ing on cot­ton vari­ety. Gin­ning qual­i­ty direct­ly affects fibre length (sta­ple), clean­li­ness, and nep con­tent, which deter­mine yarn qual­i­ty down­stream. Effi­cient gin­ning is crit­i­cal for pro­duc­ing pre­mi­um long-sta­ple cot­ton (e.g. Egypt­ian, Supi­ma, Pima).

See also: Cot­ton · Sta­ple Length · Yarn Count · Card­ing

Lyocell

A cel­lu­losic man-made fibre pro­duced from dis­solved wood pulp using a closed-loop sol­vent spin­ning process (NMMO sol­vent), which recov­ers and recir­cu­lates over 99% of the sol­vent. TENCEL™ is the lead­ing com­mer­cial brand. Lyocell is val­ued for its nat­ur­al soft­ness, high wet strength, biodegrad­abil­i­ty, and low envi­ron­men­tal foot­print com­pared to con­ven­tion­al vis­cose. Wide­ly used in pre­mi­um appar­el, activewear, and non­wo­ven appli­ca­tions.

See also: Vis­cose / Ray­on · Closed-Loop Process · Sus­tain­abil­i­ty · Man-Made Fibre (MMF)

Man-Made Fibre  MMF

A broad cat­e­go­ry encom­pass­ing all fibres pro­duced through indus­tri­al process­es, includ­ing syn­thet­ic fibres (from petro­chem­i­cal poly­mers) and cel­lu­losic man-made fibres such as vis­cose, modal, lyocell (TENCEL™), and cupro — which are derived from nat­ur­al cel­lu­lose but require chem­i­cal or mechan­i­cal pro­cess­ing. MMF accounts for the major­i­ty of glob­al fibre pro­duc­tion.

See also: Vis­cose / Ray­on · Lyocell · Syn­thet­ic Fibre · Cel­lu­losic Fibre

Nat­ur­al Fibre

Fibres derived from nat­ur­al sources — either plant-based (cel­lu­losic) such as cot­ton, linen, jute, and hemp, or ani­mal-derived (pro­tein-based) such as wool, silk, and cash­mere. Nat­ur­al fibres are the raw mate­r­i­al foun­da­tion of tra­di­tion­al tex­tile val­ue chains and are increas­ing­ly val­ued for their biodegrad­abil­i­ty and low­er car­bon foot­print com­pared to many syn­thet­ics.

See also: Syn­thet­ic Fibre · Cot­ton · Wool · Bast Fibre

Polyamide (Nylon)  PA

Com­mon­ly known as nylon, polyamide is a syn­thet­ic poly­mer fibre known for excep­tion­al abra­sion resis­tance, elas­tic­i­ty, and strength-to-weight ratio. Used exten­sive­ly in hosiery, sports­wear, swimwear, ropes, airbags, and tech­ni­cal tex­tiles. Key vari­ants include PA 6 (Nylon 6) and PA 6.6 (Nylon 6,6). Bio-based polyamides derived from cas­tor oil (e.g. PA 11) are gain­ing trac­tion as sus­tain­able alter­na­tives.

See also: Syn­thet­ic Fibre · Tech­ni­cal Tex­tiles · Elas­tane

Poly­ester  PET

Poly­eth­yl­ene tereph­tha­late — the world’s most-pro­duced tex­tile fibre. PET is a ther­mo­plas­tic poly­mer used to pro­duce fil­a­ment yarns and sta­ple fibres. It is val­ued for its high tenac­i­ty, wrin­kle resis­tance, and low mois­ture absorp­tion. PET is also ful­ly recy­clable: mechan­i­cal recy­cling of post-con­sumer PET bot­tles and tex­tile waste into rPET fibre is a cor­ner­stone of cir­cu­lar econ­o­my strate­gies in the appar­el and tech­ni­cal tex­tiles sec­tors.

See also: Recy­cled Poly­ester (rPET) · Syn­thet­ic Fibre · Cir­cu­lar Econ­o­my · Mechan­i­cal Recy­cling

Recy­cled Poly­ester  rPET

Recy­cled poly­eth­yl­ene tereph­tha­late pro­duced by mechan­i­cal­ly or chem­i­cal­ly recy­cling post-con­sumer PET bot­tles or tex­tile waste. rPET reduces depen­dence on vir­gin petro­le­um feed­stocks and can low­er CO₂ emis­sions by up to 45% com­pared to vir­gin PET. It is wide­ly cer­ti­fied by the Glob­al Recy­cled Stan­dard (GRS) and Recy­cled Claim Stan­dard (RCS). Chem­i­cal recy­cling of tex­tile-to-tex­tile rPET remains an impor­tant growth area.

See also: Poly­ester (PET) · Mechan­i­cal Recy­cling · Chem­i­cal Recy­cling · Glob­al Recy­cled Stan­dard

Syn­thet­ic Fibre

Man-made fibres pro­duced from syn­thet­ic poly­mers derived pri­mar­i­ly from petro­chem­i­cals. The most com­mer­cial­ly sig­nif­i­cant syn­thet­ic fibres include poly­ester (PET), polyamide (nylon), polypropy­lene (PP), and acrylic. Syn­thet­ic fibres dom­i­nate glob­al fibre pro­duc­tion by vol­ume and offer tune­able prop­er­ties such as high tenac­i­ty, mois­ture man­age­ment, and dimen­sion­al sta­bil­i­ty.

See also: Poly­ester (PET) · Polyamide · Man-Made Fibre (MMF) · Recy­cled Poly­ester

Vis­cose / Ray­on

A semi-syn­thet­ic cel­lu­losic fibre pro­duced by dis­solv­ing wood pulp or cot­ton lin­ters in caus­tic soda and car­bon disul­fide, then extrud­ing through spin­nerets. Vis­cose offers soft han­dle, good drape, and mois­ture absorp­tion sim­i­lar to cot­ton, but at low­er cost. Envi­ron­men­tal con­cerns around the con­ven­tion­al vis­cose process (chem­i­cal efflu­ents) have dri­ven the devel­op­ment of closed-loop lyocell and modal process­es.

See also: Lyocell · Man-Made Fibre (MMF) · Closed-Loop Process

Wool

A pro­tein fibre derived from the fleece of sheep (and spe­cial­i­ty wools from alpaca, cash­mere goats, ango­ra, etc.). Wool’s unique crimp, scale struc­ture, and hygro­scop­ic prop­er­ties give it excep­tion­al insu­la­tion, mois­ture man­age­ment, flame resis­tance, and felt­ing abil­i­ty. The wool sup­ply chain spans shear­ing, scour­ing, card­ing, comb­ing (for worsted yarns), and spin­ning. Key cer­ti­fi­ca­tions include ZQ and RWS (Respon­si­ble Wool Stan­dard).

See also: Nat­ur­al Fibre · Worsted Spin­ning · Scour­ing · Tech­ni­cal Tex­tiles

Air-Jet Spin­ning

A high-speed yarn spin­ning sys­tem that uses pres­surised air vor­tices to twist fibres around a core. Mura­ta Vor­tex Spin­ning (MVS) is the lead­ing com­mer­cial tech­nol­o­gy. Air-jet yarns have a smooth sur­face, low hairi­ness, and high pro­duc­tiv­i­ty com­pa­ra­ble to OE spin­ning but with ring-spun-like fab­ric aes­thet­ics. Wide­ly adopt­ed for sports­wear, shirts, and woven fab­rics.

See also: Ring Spin­ning · Open-End Rotor Spin­ning · Yarn Count

Blend­ed Yarn

A yarn pro­duced by mix­ing two or more dif­fer­ent fibre types to com­bine their per­for­mance prop­er­ties. Com­mon blends include polyester/cotton (PC), polyester/viscose (PV), wool/polyester, and cotton/elastane. Blend­ing can improve dura­bil­i­ty, mois­ture man­age­ment, cost effi­cien­cy, or aes­thet­ics. Fibre sep­a­ra­tion for recy­cling remains a chal­lenge for blend­ed tex­tiles.

See also: Yarn Count · Fibre-to-Fibre Recy­cling · Mechan­i­cal Recy­cling

Card­ing

A mechan­i­cal fibre prepa­ra­tion process using rotat­ing cylin­ders cov­ered with fine wire teeth to open, clean, and dis­en­tan­gle fibres into a uni­form web or sliv­er. In the cot­ton spin­ning sys­tem, card­ing fol­lows blow­room open­ing and pre­cedes draw­ing. Card­ing qual­i­ty deter­mines sliv­er even­ness, nep lev­els, and final yarn qual­i­ty.

See also: Ring Spin­ning · Comb­ing · Sta­ple Length · Gin­ning

Comb­ing

A fibre prepa­ra­tion step that removes short fibres (noils), neps, and remain­ing impu­ri­ties from a card­ed sliv­er, leav­ing only longer, aligned fibres. Combed yarns are fin­er, stronger, and more lus­trous than card­ed (non-combed) yarns. Used for fine cot­ton shirt­ing fab­rics (Ne 40–120) and for the worsted wool sys­tem.

See also: Card­ing · Ring Spin­ning · Worsted Spin­ning · Sta­ple Length

Com­pact Spin­ning

An enhanced ring spin­ning sys­tem in which fibres are aero­dy­nam­i­cal­ly con­densed into a nar­row spin­ning tri­an­gle imme­di­ate­ly before twist­ing. This elim­i­nates loose fibres and reduces yarn hairi­ness by up to 80%, result­ing in stronger, smoother, more lus­trous yarns with high­er weav­ing effi­cien­cy. Com­pact spun fab­rics have improved pilling resis­tance and a supe­ri­or sur­face qual­i­ty.

See also: Ring Spin­ning · Yarn Count · Pilling

Core-Spun Yarn

A com­pos­ite yarn struc­ture where a con­tin­u­ous fil­a­ment core (typ­i­cal­ly elastane/spandex or poly­ester) is wrapped with sta­ple fibres (cot­ton, poly­ester, etc.) dur­ing ring spin­ning. Core-spun yarns com­bine the stretch and recov­ery of the core fil­a­ment with the aes­thet­ics and com­fort of the sheath fibres. Essen­tial for stretch den­im, sports­wear, and elas­tic wovens.

See also: Elas­tane · Ring Spin­ning · Den­im · Stretch Fab­ric

Draw Tex­tur­ing  DTY

Draw Tex­tured Yarn — a poly­ester or nylon fil­a­ment yarn that has been simul­ta­ne­ous­ly drawn and false-twist tex­tured to intro­duce crimp, bulk, and stretch. DTY is wide­ly used in fab­rics requir­ing soft­ness and stretch, such as sports­wear, warp-knit­ted fab­rics, and cur­tains.

See also: Fil­a­ment Yarn · Warp Knit­ting · Tex­tur­ing

Fil­a­ment Yarn

A yarn com­posed of con­tin­u­ous fil­a­ments — either nat­ur­al (silk) or syn­thet­ic (poly­ester, nylon, polypropy­lene) — extrud­ed through spin­nerets and wound direct­ly with­out cut­ting. Fil­a­ment yarns offer high strength, smooth sur­face, and low hairi­ness. Sub-types include flat fil­a­ment, tex­tured fil­a­ment (DTY), and high-tenac­i­ty (HT) yarns.

See also: Tex­tur­ing · Draw Tex­tur­ing (DTY) · Tech­ni­cal Tex­tiles · Syn­thet­ic Fibre

Open-End Rotor Spin­ning  OE

A high-pro­duc­tion, dis­con­tin­u­ous yarn spin­ning sys­tem where fibres are deposit­ed into a rapid­ly rotat­ing rotor and twist­ed togeth­er by the rotor wall. OE yarns are bulki­er and soft­er than ring-spun yarns but have low­er strength and are lim­it­ed to coars­er counts. Wide­ly used for den­im, tow­elling, and home tex­tiles. Pro­duc­tiv­i­ty is 6–8 times high­er than ring spin­ning.

See also: Ring Spin­ning · Yarn Count · Den­im · Com­pact Spin­ning

Ring Spin­ning

The most wide­ly used yarn spin­ning tech­nol­o­gy world­wide. A draft­ed fibre bun­dle (rov­ing) is twist­ed and wound onto a bob­bin using a trav­eller rotat­ing on a ring. Ring-spun yarns are char­ac­terised by high strength, uni­form struc­ture, and smooth sur­face, mak­ing them suit­able for fine to medi­um count appar­el fab­rics.

See also: Open-End Rotor Spin­ning · Com­pact Spin­ning · Yarn Count · Worsted Spin­ning

Sta­ple Length

The aver­age length of indi­vid­ual fibres in a sta­ple yarn. Longer sta­ple length allows fin­er yarn counts, smoother fab­rics, and bet­ter strength. In cot­ton, sta­ple length is mea­sured in inch­es: short sta­ple (<28mm), medi­um sta­ple, long sta­ple (28–34mm), and extra-long staple/ELS (>34mm, e.g. Supi­ma, Egypt­ian Giza).

See also: Cot­ton · Yarn Count · Gin­ning · Worsted Spin­ning

Worsted Spin­ning

A long-sta­ple spin­ning sys­tem for combed wool, mohair, and oth­er long fibres in which fibres are aligned par­al­lel before spin­ning, pro­duc­ing a smooth, strong, fine yarn used in suit­ing, dress fab­rics, and knitwear. Con­trast­ed with woollen spin­ning, where fibres remain less aligned for a bulki­er, soft­er yarn. The worsted process includes scour­ing, card­ing, comb­ing, gilling, and ring or com­pact spin­ning.

See also: Wool · Ring Spin­ning · Sta­ple Length · Card­ing

Yarn Count

A numer­i­cal expres­sion defin­ing the fine­ness or coarse­ness of a yarn. Two main sys­tems: indi­rect (fixed weight) — e.g. Eng­lish cot­ton count (Ne), where high­er num­bers = fin­er yarns; and direct (fixed length) — e.g. tex and dtex, where low­er num­bers = fin­er yarns. Yarn count deter­mines fab­ric weight, han­dle, and the spin­ning sys­tem required.

See also: Ring Spin­ning · Sta­ple Length · Fab­ric Weight (GSM)

Cir­cu­lar Knit­ting

A fab­ric for­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy that uses rotat­ing nee­dle cylin­ders to pro­duce seam­less tubu­lar knit­ted fab­rics in one con­tin­u­ous process. Cir­cu­lar knit­ting pro­duces jer­sey, inter­lock, rib, and piqué struc­tures wide­ly used in T‑shirts, under­wear, sports­wear, and socks. Machines range from fine-gauge (28–40 needles/inch) for hosiery to coarse-gauge for out­er­wear.

See also: Warp Knit­ting · Fab­ric Weight (GSM) · Gauge (Knit­ting)

Den­im

A durable 3×1 twill woven fab­ric, tra­di­tion­al­ly made from indi­go-dyed warp yarns and undyed (ecru) weft yarns. Mod­ern den­im incor­po­rates stretch (elas­tane core-spun warp), recy­cled cot­ton, organ­ic cot­ton, and laser/ozone fin­ish­ing to address sus­tain­abil­i­ty demands.

See also: Twill Weave · Core-Spun Yarn · Indi­go Dye­ing · Open-End Rotor Spin­ning

Fab­ric Weight  GSM

Grams per square metre — the stan­dard unit for express­ing fab­ric weight. GSM is a key spec­i­fi­ca­tion for fab­ric com­par­i­son, qual­i­ty con­trol, and cost cal­cu­la­tion across all fab­ric types (woven, knit­ted, non­wo­ven). Typ­i­cal ranges: light­weight (<130 gsm) for shirts and blous­es; mid-weight (130–250 gsm) for trousers, den­im, and sweat­shirts; heavy­weight (>250 gsm) for out­er­wear and tech­ni­cal fab­rics.

See also: Weav­ing · Cir­cu­lar Knit­ting · Yarn Count · Fab­ric Con­struc­tion

Gauge (Knit­ting)

In knit­ting tech­nol­o­gy, gauge refers to the num­ber of nee­dles per inch on the nee­dle bed or cylin­der. High­er gauge = fin­er nee­dles = fin­er fab­ric with small­er loops. Com­mon gauges: 28 gauge (fine T‑shirt jer­sey), 14–18 gauge (stan­dard hosiery), 5–7 gauge (coarse knitwear).

See also: Cir­cu­lar Knit­ting · Warp Knit­ting · Yarn Count

Jacquard

A pro­gram­ma­ble loom con­trol mech­a­nism — invent­ed by Joseph Marie Jacquard (1804) — that allows indi­vid­ual warp thread con­trol to pro­duce com­plex woven pat­terns and fig­ured fab­rics. Mod­ern elec­tron­ic jacquard machines (Stäubli, Bonas, Grosse) can con­trol thou­sands of warp threads inde­pen­dent­ly. Jacquard fab­rics include bro­cade, damask, tapes­try, and fig­ured silk fab­rics.

See also: Weav­ing · Warp · Cir­cu­lar Knit­ting

Melt­blown

A non­wo­ven process pro­duc­ing ultra-fine fibres (1–5 µm) by extrud­ing a poly­mer melt through a die while simul­ta­ne­ous­ly blow­ing high-veloc­i­ty hot air to atten­u­ate the melt stream. Melt­blown fab­rics have excel­lent fil­tra­tion effi­cien­cy and are the core fil­tra­tion lay­er in N95/FFP2 res­pi­ra­tors, sur­gi­cal masks, and HEPA fil­ters. Typ­i­cal­ly sand­wiched between spun­bond lay­ers (SMS struc­ture).

See also: Non­wo­ven · Spun­bond · Fil­tra­tion Tex­tiles · Med­ical Tex­tiles

Non­wo­ven

A fab­ric-like mate­r­i­al pro­duced by bond­ing or inter­lock­ing fibres, fil­a­ments, or films through mechan­i­cal, ther­mal, or chem­i­cal means — with­out weav­ing or knit­ting. Pro­duc­tion routes: spun­bond, melt­blown, needlepunch, hydroen­tan­gle­ment (spun­lace), air­laid, and wet­laid. Non­wo­vens are used in hygiene prod­ucts, med­ical tex­tiles, fil­tra­tion, geo­t­ex­tiles, auto­mo­tive, con­struc­tion, and pro­tec­tive wear.

See also: Tech­ni­cal Tex­tiles · Spun­bond · Melt­blown · Fil­tra­tion Tex­tiles · Geo­t­ex­tile

Plain Weave

The sim­plest and most com­mon woven fab­ric struc­ture: each weft yarn pass­es alter­nate­ly over and under each warp yarn, cre­at­ing a 1×1 inter­lac­ing pat­tern. Plain weave pro­duces a bal­anced, smooth, and firm fab­ric. Appli­ca­tions include shirt­ing, muslin, taffe­ta, voile, and most basic appar­el fab­rics.

See also: Weav­ing · Twill Weave · Satin Weave · Thread Count

Satin Weave

A weave struc­ture in which warp (or weft) yarns float over mul­ti­ple yarns before inter­lac­ing, cre­at­ing long floats that reflect light and pro­duce a smooth, lus­trous sur­face. Stan­dard con­struc­tions: 4‑shaft, 5‑shaft (sateen), and 8‑shaft satin. Used for silk satin, poly­ester satin lin­ings, and sateen cot­ton bed­ding.

See also: Weav­ing · Plain Weave · Twill Weave

Spun­bond

A non­wo­ven pro­duc­tion process in which con­tin­u­ous poly­mer fil­a­ments (typ­i­cal­ly PP or PET) are extrud­ed, drawn by air, laid onto a mov­ing belt, and ther­mal­ly or chem­i­cal­ly bond­ed. Spun­bond fab­rics are light­weight, strong, and uni­form. Appli­ca­tions include dis­pos­able hygiene, agri­cul­ture, med­ical drapes, geo­t­ex­tiles, and fur­ni­ture back­ing. Often com­bined with melt­blown lay­ers in SMS or SMMS com­pos­ites for fil­tra­tion.

See also: Non­wo­ven · Melt­blown · Fil­tra­tion Tex­tiles

Thread Count

The num­ber of warp and weft yarns per square inch (or cm) in a woven fab­ric. Thread count is most com­mon­ly used in bed linen, shirt­ing, and fine cot­ton fab­rics as a proxy for qual­i­ty and soft­ness. How­ev­er, thread count alone does not deter­mine qual­i­ty — fibre type, yarn count, and weave struc­ture are equal­ly impor­tant.

See also: Plain Weave · Cot­ton · Fab­ric Weight (GSM)

Twill Weave

A fun­da­men­tal weave struc­ture in which weft yarns pass over and under warp yarns in a stepped diag­o­nal pat­tern, cre­at­ing a char­ac­ter­is­tic diag­o­nal rib or twill line. Twill weaves are stronger and more drape­able than plain weave fab­rics of the same weight. Key appli­ca­tions: den­im, gabar­dine, tweed, chi­no, drill, and sateen.

See also: Weav­ing · Den­im · Plain Weave · Satin Weave

Warp

The set of length­wise yarns held under ten­sion on the loom beam dur­ing weav­ing. Warp yarns must with­stand sig­nif­i­cant mechan­i­cal stress­es (ten­sion, abra­sion, flex­ing) and are typ­i­cal­ly stronger, smoother, and sized (starched) com­pared to weft yarns. Warp den­si­ty (ends per cm) and warp yarn count are key para­me­ters deter­min­ing fab­ric con­struc­tion and han­dle.

See also: Weav­ing · Weft · Siz­ing · Loom Tech­nol­o­gy

Warp Knit­ting

A warp-feed knit­ting sys­tem pro­duc­ing fab­ric in which loops are formed in the wale (length­wise) direc­tion, inter­link­ing adja­cent loops. Key tech­nolo­gies: Raschel and Tri­cot machines. Warp knit­ted fab­rics are dimen­sion­al­ly sta­ble, run-resis­tant, and can incor­po­rate open lace struc­tures. Appli­ca­tions include lin­gerie, sports­wear, swimwear, lace, nets, tech­ni­cal fab­rics, and med­ical tex­tiles.

See also: Cir­cu­lar Knit­ting · Tech­ni­cal Tex­tiles · Draw Tex­tur­ing (DTY)

Weav­ing

The inter­lac­ing of two per­pen­dic­u­lar sets of yarns — warp (length­wise) and weft (cross­wise) — on a loom to pro­duce a woven fab­ric. The three basic weave struc­tures are plain, twill, and satin weave. More com­plex struc­tures (dob­by, jacquard) require pro­gram­ma­ble har­ness con­trol. Mod­ern rapi­er, air-jet, and water-jet looms achieve speeds of 600–1,500 picks per minute.

See also: Warp · Weft · Loom Tech­nol­o­gy · Twill Weave · Jacquard

Weft

The set of cross­wise yarns insert­ed across the warp on a loom dur­ing weav­ing. Weft inser­tion is the speed-lim­it­ing step in weav­ing; inser­tion tech­nolo­gies include shut­tle, rapi­er, air-jet, water-jet, and pro­jec­tile sys­tems. Weft yarn count and den­si­ty (picks per cm) influ­ence fab­ric weight, drape, and tex­ture.

See also: Weav­ing · Warp · Loom Tech­nol­o­gy · Fab­ric Weight (GSM)Lorem ipsum …

Cal­en­der­ing

A mechan­i­cal fin­ish­ing process where fab­ric is passed through heavy pres­sure rollers (cal­en­ders) to com­press, smooth, flat­ten, or emboss the sur­face. Effects achiev­able: glaz­ing, moire/watered effect, schreiner­is­ing, chas­ing, emboss­ing. Wide­ly used in shirt fab­rics, indus­tri­al tex­tiles, and non­wo­vens.

See also: Fin­ish­ing · San­foriz­ing · Non­wo­ven

Colour Fast­ness

The resis­tance of a dyed or print­ed tex­tile to colour change or stain­ing under spe­cif­ic con­di­tions. Key fast­ness tests (ISO/AATCC stan­dards) include: wash­ing fast­ness, rub­bing (crock­ing) fast­ness, light fast­ness, per­spi­ra­tion fast­ness, and chlo­rine bleach fast­ness. Fast­ness is rat­ed on a 1–5 grey scale (5 = excel­lent).

See also: Reac­tive Dye­ing · Dis­perse Dye­ing · Fin­ish­ing · Dye­ing Process

Dis­perse Dye­ing

The stan­dard dye­ing method for poly­ester and oth­er hydropho­bic syn­thet­ic fibres. Dis­perse dyes are water-insol­u­ble, fine­ly dis­persed par­ti­cles that migrate into the poly­ester fibre under high tem­per­a­ture (130°C) and pres­sure con­di­tions in a jet or beam dye­ing machine. Can also be achieved via sublimation/transfer print­ing at 200°C.

See also: Dye­ing Process · Colour Fast­ness · Sub­li­ma­tion Print­ing · Poly­ester (PET)

DWR Fin­ish­ing  DWR

Durable Water Repel­len­cy — a chem­i­cal fin­ish applied to tex­tile sur­faces to make water bead and roll off with­out pen­e­trat­ing the fab­ric. Con­ven­tion­al DWR was based on PFAS (per- and poly­flu­o­roalkyl sub­stances). Under EU REACH reg­u­la­tions, PFAS-based DWR is being phased out in favour of flu­o­rine-free DWR (C0 chem­istry) based on den­drimer, wax, or sil­i­cone tech­nolo­gies.

See also: Fin­ish­ing · PFAS · Sus­tain­abil­i­ty · Func­tion­al Tex­tiles

Efflu­ent Treat­ment Plant  ETP

The waste­water treat­ment infra­struc­ture required in wet pro­cess­ing (dye­ing, print­ing, fin­ish­ing) facil­i­ties to remove dyes, chem­i­cals, salts, heavy met­als, and organ­ic load before dis­charge. Stan­dard ETP stages: screen­ing, pri­ma­ry set­tling, bio­log­i­cal treat­ment, chem­i­cal pre­cip­i­ta­tion, and ter­tiary pol­ish­ing. Zero Liq­uid Dis­charge (ZLD) sys­tems rep­re­sent the high­est stan­dard for water stew­ard­ship.

See also: Reac­tive Dye­ing · ZDHC · Sus­tain­abil­i­ty · Water Foot­print

Fin­ish­ing

All phys­i­cal, chem­i­cal, or bio­log­i­cal process­es applied to a grey (greige) fab­ric to impart desired prop­er­ties and aes­thet­ics before the final prod­uct. Fin­ish­ing can be clas­si­fied as: mechan­i­cal fin­ish­ing (cal­en­der­ing, rais­ing, san­foriz­ing, com­pact­ing, emeris­ing) and chem­i­cal fin­ish­ing (easy-care, water repellency/DWR, flame retar­dan­cy, antimi­cro­bial, soft­en­ing, stiff­en­ing).

See also: San­foriz­ing · Mer­ceri­sa­tion · Cal­en­der­ing · DWR Fin­ish­ing · PFAS

Indi­go Dye­ing

The tra­di­tion­al dye­ing process for den­im warp yarns using indi­go — a vat dye that dyes only the out­er sur­face of cot­ton fibres (ring dye­ing), pro­duc­ing the char­ac­ter­is­tic fade effect of washed den­im. The process involves repeat­ed dips in a reduced (leu­co) indi­go bath fol­lowed by air oxi­da­tion. Mod­ern inno­va­tions include foam dye­ing (reduced water use) and bio-based indi­go.

See also: Den­im · Reac­tive Dye­ing · Colour Fast­ness

Mer­ceri­sa­tion

A chem­i­cal fin­ish­ing process for cot­ton yarns or fab­rics involv­ing treat­ment with a strong caus­tic soda (NaOH) solu­tion under ten­sion, fol­lowed by wash­ing. Mer­ceri­sa­tion caus­es the cot­ton fibre cross-sec­tion to change from kid­ney-shaped to cir­cu­lar, increas­ing dye uptake, lus­tre, strength (up to 20%), and dimen­sion­al sta­bil­i­ty.

See also: Cot­ton · Reac­tive Dye­ing · Fin­ish­ing

PFAS  PFAS

Per- and Poly­flu­o­roalkyl Sub­stances — a large class of syn­thet­ic chem­i­cals char­ac­terised by extreme­ly strong car­bon-flu­o­rine bonds, mak­ing them per­sis­tent, bioac­cu­mu­la­tive, and broad­ly harm­ful (‘for­ev­er chem­i­cals’). In tex­tiles, PFAS were wide­ly used for DWR, stain-repel­lent, and grease-resis­tant fin­ish­es. Under EU REACH and increas­ing glob­al reg­u­la­tion, the tex­tile indus­try is tran­si­tion­ing to PFAS-free alter­na­tives.

See also: DWR Fin­ish­ing · Fin­ish­ing · Sus­tain­abil­i­ty · ZDHC

Reac­tive Dye­ing

The dom­i­nant dye­ing method for cel­lu­losic fibres (cot­ton, vis­cose, lyocell). Reac­tive dyes form a cova­lent chem­i­cal bond with the hydrox­yl groups of cel­lu­lose, pro­duc­ing excel­lent wash fast­ness. Reac­tive dye­ing requires an alka­line fix­a­tion step and is water and chem­i­cal-inten­sive; low-salt, low-water reac­tive sys­tems and salt-free process­es are key sus­tain­abil­i­ty tar­gets.

See also: Dye­ing Process · Colour Fast­ness · Sus­tain­abil­i­ty · Efflu­ent Treat­ment

San­foriz­ing

A mechan­i­cal pre-shrink­ing fin­ish­ing process for woven fab­rics (espe­cial­ly cot­ton and den­im) that com­press­es the fab­ric length­wise by stretch­ing, damp­en­ing, and mechan­i­cal­ly com­pact­ing on a rub­ber blan­ket and heat­ed cylin­der. After san­foriz­ing, resid­ual shrink­age is reduced to <1%, pre­vent­ing unwant­ed gar­ment shrink­age after home laun­der­ing.

See also: Fin­ish­ing · Den­im · Com­pact­ing

Sub­li­ma­tion Print­ing

A print­ing method using heat and pres­sure to trans­fer dis­perse dye from a paper car­ri­er to a poly­ester fab­ric, con­vert­ing the dye from sol­id to gas and back to sol­id with­in the fibre. Results in bright, pho­to­graph­ic-qual­i­ty prints with excel­lent wash and rub fast­ness. Lim­it­ed to poly­ester and poly­ester-coat­ed sub­strates. Wide­ly used in sports­wear, soft sig­nage, and per­son­alised prod­ucts.

See also: Dis­perse Dye­ing · Dig­i­tal Print­ing (Tex­tile) · Poly­ester (PET)

ZDHC  ZDHC

Zero Dis­charge of Haz­ardous Chem­i­cals — an indus­try ini­tia­tive (found­ed 2011) by major appar­el brands to elim­i­nate haz­ardous sub­stances from tex­tile and footwear sup­ply chains. The ZDHC Man­u­fac­tur­ing Restrict­ed Sub­stances List (MRSL) defines sub­stances restrict­ed from use in pro­duc­tion. ZDHC Waste­water Guide­lines set efflu­ent qual­i­ty bench­marks.

See also: Efflu­ent Treat­ment (ETP) · Fin­ish­ing · Sus­tain­abil­i­ty · PFAS

Auto­mo­tive Tex­tiles

Tex­tile mate­ri­als used in vehi­cles — approx­i­mate­ly 20–35 kg of tex­tile is incor­po­rat­ed per car in the form of seat uphol­stery, head­lin­ers, door pan­els, car­pet­ing, airbags, seat­belts, tyre cord, belt dri­ves, and fil­ters. The shift to elec­tric vehi­cles (EV) is dri­ving demand for new light­weight com­pos­ite and acoustic man­age­ment tex­tiles.

See also: Tech­ni­cal Tex­tiles · Com­pos­ite Tex­tiles · Flame Retar­dant Tex­tiles

Coat­ing & Lam­i­na­tion

Coat­ing applies a lay­er of poly­mer (PU, PVC, acry­late, sil­i­cone) direct­ly onto a fab­ric sur­face. Lam­i­na­tion bonds a pre­formed film or mem­brane (e.g. PTFE, PU) to a base fab­ric. Both tech­niques cre­ate bar­ri­ers to water, wind, flame, chem­i­cals, or bio­log­i­cal agents while retain­ing tex­tile flex­i­bil­i­ty. Key appli­ca­tions: out­door wear (water­proof-breath­able mem­branes), tar­pau­lins, inflat­a­bles, and pro­tec­tive work­wear.

See also: Fin­ish­ing · Tech­ni­cal Tex­tiles · DWR Fin­ish­ing · Pro­tec­tive Cloth­ing

Com­pos­ite Tex­tiles

Mate­ri­als in which tex­tile rein­force­ment struc­tures (woven, knit­ted, non­wo­ven, or braid­ed fab­rics of glass, car­bon, aramid, or basalt fibres) are com­bined with a poly­mer matrix to pro­duce high-per­for­mance struc­tur­al mate­ri­als. Tex­tile-rein­forced com­pos­ites offer supe­ri­or strength-to-weight ratios and are crit­i­cal in aero­space, auto­mo­tive, wind ener­gy, and sports equip­ment.

See also: Tech­ni­cal Tex­tiles · Bast Fibre · Smart Tex­tiles

Elec­tro­spin­ning

A process using a high-volt­age elec­tric field to draw poly­mer solu­tions or melts into ultra-fine nanofi­bres (50–500 nm diam­e­ter) deposit­ed on a col­lec­tor sub­strate. Elec­tro­spun nanofi­bres exhib­it extreme­ly high sur­face area-to-vol­ume ratios, enabling supe­ri­or fil­tra­tion, drug deliv­ery, wound heal­ing, and mem­brane appli­ca­tions.

See also: Fil­tra­tion Tex­tiles · Med­ical Tex­tiles · Non­wo­ven · Tech­ni­cal Tex­tiles

Fil­tra­tion Tex­tiles

Tex­tile struc­tures (woven, non­wo­ven, knit­ted) designed to sep­a­rate par­ti­cles or con­t­a­m­i­nants from gas­es or liq­uids. Appli­ca­tions span indus­tri­al air fil­tra­tion, liq­uid fil­tra­tion, clean rooms, HVAC, auto­mo­tive cab­in air, and res­pi­ra­to­ry pro­tec­tion (FFP2/N95). Melt­blown and elec­tro­spun nanofi­bres enable high-effi­cien­cy sub-micron fil­tra­tion.

See also: Non­wo­ven · Melt­blown · Tech­ni­cal Tex­tiles · Med­ical Tex­tiles

Flame Retar­dant Tex­tiles  FR

Tex­tiles treat­ed or man­u­fac­tured to meet fire resis­tance stan­dards for pro­tec­tive cloth­ing, home fur­nish­ings, con­tract fur­nish­ings, trans­port, and indus­tri­al appli­ca­tions. FR per­for­mance is achieved by inher­ent FR fibres (aramid, modacrylic, FR poly­ester, FR vis­cose) or chem­i­cal FR fin­ish­es (phos­pho­rus-based, nitro­gen-based com­pounds). Key stan­dards: EN 11611/11612, EN 1021, NFPA 701.

See also: Tech­ni­cal Tex­tiles · Pro­tec­tive Cloth­ing · Fin­ish­ing · PFAS

Geo­t­ex­tile

Per­me­able tex­tile mate­ri­als used in civ­il engi­neer­ing, con­struc­tion, and envi­ron­men­tal appli­ca­tions to sep­a­rate, fil­ter, rein­force, pro­tect, or drain soil and sub-base lay­ers. Pro­duced from woven polypropy­lene, poly­ester, or non­wo­ven needlepunched fab­rics. Key appli­ca­tions: road and rail­way con­struc­tion, embank­ment sta­bil­i­sa­tion, coastal pro­tec­tion, land­fill lin­ing, and ero­sion con­trol.

See also: Tech­ni­cal Tex­tiles · Non­wo­ven · Bast Fibre

High-Per­for­mance Fibre

Fibres with excep­tion­al mechan­i­cal, ther­mal, or chem­i­cal per­for­mance beyond con­ven­tion­al tex­tile fibres. Key exam­ples: para-aramid (Kevlar®, Twaron®) — cut/ballistic resis­tance; meta-aramid (Nomex®) — flame/heat resis­tance; UHMWPE (Dyneema®, Spec­tra®) — high­est spe­cif­ic strength fibre; car­bon fibre — aerospace/automotive com­pos­ites.

See also: Tech­ni­cal Tex­tiles · Com­pos­ite Tex­tiles · Flame Retar­dant Tex­tiles

Med­ical Tex­tiles

Tex­tile prod­ucts designed for health­care, hygiene, and med­ical appli­ca­tions, includ­ing wound dress­ings, sur­gi­cal mesh­es, sutures, implants, com­pres­sion hosiery, hygiene non­wo­vens (dia­pers, wipes), and pro­tec­tive gar­ments. Must com­ply with strict bio­com­pat­i­bil­i­ty, steril­i­ty, and reg­u­la­to­ry stan­dards (EU MDR 2017/745, ISO 10993).

See also: Tech­ni­cal Tex­tiles · Non­wo­ven · Melt­blown · Smart Tex­tiles

Pro­tec­tive Cloth­ing

Per­son­al pro­tec­tive equip­ment (PPE) in tex­tile form, designed to pro­tect work­ers from phys­i­cal, chem­i­cal, bio­log­i­cal, ther­mal, or elec­tri­cal haz­ards. Cat­e­gories (EU PPE Reg­u­la­tion 2016/425): cut-resis­tant, chem­i­cal-resis­tant, flame-retar­dant, high-vis­i­bil­i­ty, anti-sta­t­ic, bal­lis­tic, and bio­log­i­cal pro­tec­tion.

See also: Flame Retar­dant Tex­tiles · Tech­ni­cal Tex­tiles · Fin­ish­ing

Smart Tex­tiles

Tex­tiles that can sense, react, adapt, or com­mu­ni­cate in response to envi­ron­men­tal stim­uli (tem­per­a­ture, pres­sure, elec­tric­i­ty, light, mois­ture). Tech­nolo­gies: con­duc­tive yarns, embed­ded sen­sors, phase-change mate­ri­als (PCM), elec­tro­lu­mi­nes­cence, ener­gy har­vest­ing, and wash­able elec­tron­ics. Key mar­kets: sports­wear, health­care mon­i­tor­ing, defence, and wear­able tech­nol­o­gy.

See also: Tech­ni­cal Tex­tiles · Func­tion­al Tex­tiles · Med­ical Tex­tiles

Tech­ni­cal Tex­tiles

Tex­tile prod­ucts man­u­fac­tured pri­mar­i­ly for func­tion­al per­for­mance rather than aes­thet­ic prop­er­ties. Tech­ni­cal tex­tiles serve indus­tri­al, med­ical, agri­cul­tur­al, auto­mo­tive, con­struc­tion, and pro­tec­tive appli­ca­tions. The 12 mar­ket seg­ments (Tech­tex­til clas­si­fi­ca­tion) include: Agrotech, Buildtech, Clothtech, Geot­ech, Home­tech, Indutech, Medtech, Mobil­tech, Oekotech, Pack­tech, Pro­tech, and Sportech.

See also: Non­wo­ven · Geo­t­ex­tile · Med­ical Tex­tiles · Fil­tra­tion Tex­tiles · Smart Tex­tiles

Ten­sile Struc­tures

Archi­tec­tur­al mem­brane struc­tures that use high-tenac­i­ty woven or coat­ed tech­ni­cal fab­rics under ten­sion to cre­ate large-span, light­weight enclo­sures (sta­di­ums, air­ports, canopies, exhi­bi­tion halls). Mate­ri­als: PVC-coat­ed poly­ester, PTFE-coat­ed glass fibre (Sheer­fill®), and ETFE foil. Design requires spe­cial­ist engi­neer­ing for pre-stress, mem­brane cut­ting pat­terns, and anchor­age.

See also: Tech­ni­cal Tex­tiles · Coat­ing & Lam­i­na­tion · High-Per­for­mance Fibre

Biodegrad­abil­i­ty

The abil­i­ty of a mate­r­i­al to be bro­ken down by microor­gan­isms under spe­cif­ic con­di­tions (aer­o­bic or anaer­o­bic, indus­tri­al com­post­ing or home com­post­ing, marine con­di­tions) into water, CO₂, and bio­mass. Nat­ur­al fibres (cot­ton, wool, linen) are inher­ent­ly biodegrad­able. Most syn­thet­ic fibres are not biodegrad­able in stan­dard envi­ron­ments.

See also: Nat­ur­al Fibre · Lyocell · Cir­cu­lar Econ­o­my · Sus­tain­abil­i­ty

Blue­sign

An inde­pen­dent tex­tile indus­try stan­dard and part­ner net­work that cer­ti­fies chem­i­cals, process­es, and prod­ucts accord­ing to strict cri­te­ria for resource pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, con­sumer safe­ty, water and air emis­sion lim­its, and occu­pa­tion­al health and safe­ty. Wide­ly adopt­ed by out­door and sports­wear brands (Patag­o­nia, The North Face, etc.).

See also: GOTS (Glob­al Organ­ic Tex­tile Stan­dard) · ZDHC · Sus­tain­abil­i­ty

Car­bon Foot­print  CO₂e

The total green­house gas (GHG) emis­sions asso­ci­at­ed with a prod­uct, com­pa­ny, or activ­i­ty, expressed in CO₂ equiv­a­lents. In tex­tiles, Scope 1, 2, and 3 emis­sions must be report­ed under frame­works like the GHG Pro­to­col, CDP, and Sci­ence Based Tar­gets ini­tia­tive (SBTi). Fibre pro­duc­tion, dyeing/wet pro­cess­ing, and con­sumer laun­der­ing are the most car­bon-inten­sive life­cy­cle stages.

See also: Life Cycle Assess­ment (LCA) · Sus­tain­abil­i­ty · Cir­cu­lar Econ­o­my · Recy­cled Poly­ester (rPET)

Chem­i­cal Recy­cling

Advanced recy­cling process­es that break down tex­tile poly­mer chains to monomer or oligomer lev­el for re-poly­meri­sa­tion into vir­gin-equiv­a­lent fibre. Key tech­nolo­gies: gly­col­y­sis and hydrol­y­sis (PET to BHET/TPA/EG monomers), sol­vent dis­so­lu­tion (cel­lu­lose — Ion­cell, Spin­no­va), enzy­mat­ic hydrol­y­sis (cot­ton to glu­cose), and pyrol­y­sis. Can han­dle mixed/blended fab­rics and coloured waste.

See also: Fibre-to-Fibre Recy­cling · Mechan­i­cal Recy­cling · Poly­ester (PET) · Cir­cu­lar Econ­o­my

Cir­cu­lar Econ­o­my

An eco­nom­ic mod­el that replaces the tra­di­tion­al take-make-dis­pose lin­ear mod­el with closed-loop sys­tems that keep mate­ri­als, fibres, and prod­ucts in use at their high­est val­ue for as long as pos­si­ble. In tex­tiles, cir­cu­lar­i­ty involves design­ing for dura­bil­i­ty, repairabil­i­ty, and recy­cla­bil­i­ty; col­lect­ing and sort­ing post-con­sumer gar­ments; and recy­cling fibres back into new tex­tile prod­ucts.

See also: Fibre-to-Fibre Recy­cling · Extend­ed Pro­duc­er Respon­si­bil­i­ty · Mechan­i­cal Recy­cling · Chem­i­cal Recy­cling

Dig­i­tal Prod­uct Pass­port  DPP

A dig­i­tal record — man­dat­ed under the EU Ecode­sign for Sus­tain­able Prod­ucts Reg­u­la­tion (ESPR) — that con­tains prod­uct-lev­el sus­tain­abil­i­ty and trace­abil­i­ty data acces­si­ble via a QR code on the prod­uct label. For tex­tiles, the DPP will include: mate­r­i­al com­po­si­tion, recy­cled con­tent, coun­try of ori­gin, cer­ti­fi­ca­tions, repairabil­i­ty, and end-of-life instruc­tions. Full imple­men­ta­tion for tex­tiles is expect­ed by 2027.

See also: EU Tex­tile Strat­e­gy · Trace­abil­i­ty · Cir­cu­lar Econ­o­my · Extend­ed Pro­duc­er Respon­si­bil­i­ty (EPR)

EU Tex­tile Strat­e­gy

The EU Strat­e­gy for Sus­tain­able and Cir­cu­lar Tex­tiles (adopt­ed March 2022) sets tar­gets for the EU tex­tile indus­try to become more durable, repairable, reusable, recy­clable, and free of haz­ardous sub­stances by 2030. Key pol­i­cy instru­ments: the Ecode­sign for Sus­tain­able Prod­ucts Reg­u­la­tion (ESPR), manda­to­ry EPR, min­i­mum recy­cled con­tent require­ments, Dig­i­tal Prod­uct Pass­port (DPP), and a ban on destruc­tion of unsold gar­ments.

See also: Extend­ed Pro­duc­er Respon­si­bil­i­ty (EPR) · Cir­cu­lar Econ­o­my · Dig­i­tal Prod­uct Pass­port

Extend­ed Pro­duc­er Respon­si­bil­i­ty  EPR

A pol­i­cy instru­ment that holds pro­duc­ers (brands, man­u­fac­tur­ers, importers) finan­cial­ly or oper­a­tional­ly respon­si­ble for the end-of-life man­age­ment of their prod­ucts. In tex­tiles, EPR requires pro­duc­ers to finance col­lec­tion, sort­ing, and recy­cling infra­struc­ture for post-con­sumer gar­ments. France was the first coun­try to imple­ment tex­tile EPR (Refash­ion, 2007). The EU Tex­tile Strat­e­gy man­dates EU-wide har­monised EPR sys­tems.

See also: Cir­cu­lar Econ­o­my · Fibre-to-Fibre Recy­cling · Post-Con­sumer Waste · EU Tex­tile Strat­e­gy

Glob­al Recy­cled Stan­dard  GRS

An inter­na­tion­al, vol­un­tary stan­dard admin­is­tered by Tex­tile Exchange that ver­i­fies and cer­ti­fies the con­tent, chain of cus­tody, social and envi­ron­men­tal pro­cess­ing prac­tices, and chem­i­cal restric­tions for recy­cled mate­ri­als in tex­tile prod­ucts. GRS applies to all recy­cled mate­ri­als from any source (pre-con­sumer or post-con­sumer).

See also: Recy­cled Poly­ester (rPET) · Mechan­i­cal Recy­cling · GOTS · Sus­tain­abil­i­ty

GOTS (Glob­al Organ­ic Tex­tile Stan­dard)  GOTS

The world’s lead­ing pro­cess­ing stan­dard for organ­ic fibres, cov­er­ing the entire post-har­vest pro­cess­ing, man­u­fac­tur­ing, pack­ag­ing, labelling, trad­ing, and dis­tri­b­u­tion of tex­tiles. GOTS requires a min­i­mum of 70% cer­ti­fied organ­ic fibres (GOTS label) or 95% (GOTS organ­ic label), and sets strict require­ments on chem­i­cal inputs, waste­water treat­ment, and social cri­te­ria.

See also: Cot­ton · Sus­tain­abil­i­ty · Glob­al Recy­cled Stan­dard (GRS) · Blue­sign

Green­wash­ing

The prac­tice of mak­ing mis­lead­ing, unsub­stan­ti­at­ed, or exag­ger­at­ed sus­tain­abil­i­ty claims about a prod­uct, ser­vice, or com­pa­ny. In tex­tiles, green­wash­ing includes vague claims (‘eco’, ‘green’, ‘sus­tain­able’), mis­lead­ing recy­cled con­tent claims, and unver­i­fied cer­ti­fi­ca­tions. The EU Green Claims Direc­tive aims to require sub­stan­ti­a­tion and third-par­ty ver­i­fi­ca­tion for all sus­tain­abil­i­ty claims.

See also: Sus­tain­abil­i­ty · EU Tex­tile Strat­e­gy · Trace­abil­i­ty · Life Cycle Assess­ment (LCA)

Higg Index

A suite of self-assess­ment tools devel­oped by the Sus­tain­able Appar­el Coali­tion (SAC) to mea­sure and score the envi­ron­men­tal and social sus­tain­abil­i­ty per­for­mance of appar­el and footwear com­pa­nies and prod­ucts. Key mod­ules: Higg FEM (Facil­i­ty Envi­ron­men­tal Mod­ule) and Higg MSI (Mate­ri­als Sus­tain­abil­i­ty Index).

See also: Sus­tain­abil­i­ty · Life Cycle Assess­ment (LCA) · Car­bon Foot­print

Life Cycle Assess­ment  LCA

A stan­dard­ised method­ol­o­gy (ISO 14040/44) for quan­ti­fy­ing the envi­ron­men­tal impacts of a prod­uct, process, or ser­vice across its full life cycle — from raw mate­r­i­al extrac­tion through pro­duc­tion, use, and end-of-life (cra­dle-to-grave). Key impact cat­e­gories: glob­al warm­ing poten­tial (CO₂e), water con­sump­tion, eutroph­i­ca­tion, land use, and human tox­i­c­i­ty.

See also: Car­bon Foot­print · Sus­tain­abil­i­ty · Cir­cu­lar Econ­o­my · Higg Index

Mechan­i­cal Recy­cling

The recy­cling of post-con­sumer or post-indus­tri­al tex­tile waste by phys­i­cal process­es (shred­ding, gar­net­ting, card­ing) that break fibres down with­out chem­i­cal dis­so­lu­tion. Mechan­i­cal recy­cling is low-cost and ener­gy-effi­cient but pro­duces short­er fibres that typ­i­cal­ly require blend­ing with vir­gin fibre to main­tain yarn qual­i­ty.

See also: Fibre-to-Fibre Recy­cling · Chem­i­cal Recy­cling · Cir­cu­lar Econ­o­my · Blend­ed Yarn

Microplas­tics

Plas­tic par­ti­cles <5mm released from syn­thet­ic tex­tile prod­ucts dur­ing wash­ing, wear, and end-of-life dis­pos­al. Syn­thet­ic fab­rics (poly­ester, nylon, acrylic) shed microfi­bre par­ti­cles in every wash cycle — esti­mat­ed at 700,000 microfi­bres per 6kg wash. Solu­tions include wash­ing fil­ters (Gup­pyfriend bag, Plan­et­Care fil­ters), fibre engi­neer­ing, and leg­isla­tive con­trols.

See also: Syn­thet­ic Fibre · Poly­ester (PET) · Sus­tain­abil­i­ty · Water Foot­print

Organ­ic Cot­ton

Cot­ton grown with­out syn­thet­ic pes­ti­cides, her­bi­cides, or chem­i­cal fer­tilis­ers, in com­pli­ance with organ­ic farm­ing stan­dards. Cer­ti­fied by GOTS, OCS (Organ­ic Con­tent Stan­dard), and nation­al organ­ic reg­u­la­tions. Organ­ic cot­ton farm­ing reduces chem­i­cal expo­sure for farm­ers and water­ways and sup­ports bio­di­ver­si­ty. Glob­al organ­ic cot­ton pro­duc­tion accounts for rough­ly 1% of total cot­ton pro­duc­tion.

See also: Cot­ton · GOTS (Glob­al Organ­ic Tex­tile Stan­dard) · Sus­tain­abil­i­ty

Post-Con­sumer Waste  PCW

Mate­ri­als that have com­plet­ed their intend­ed use by a con­sumer and have been dis­card­ed or col­lect­ed for recy­cling. In tex­tiles, PCW includes used gar­ments, house­hold tex­tiles, and footwear col­lect­ed through sep­a­rate waste col­lec­tion, take-back pro­grammes, and used cloth­ing mar­kets. Con­trast­ed with pre-con­sumer (post-indus­tri­al) waste.

See also: Cir­cu­lar Econ­o­my · Glob­al Recy­cled Stan­dard (GRS) · Mechan­i­cal Recy­cling · Extend­ed Pro­duc­er Respon­si­bil­i­ty (EPR)

Trace­abil­i­ty

The abil­i­ty to ver­i­fy and doc­u­ment the ori­gin, pro­cess­ing, and move­ment of mate­ri­als and prod­ucts across the tex­tile sup­ply chain. Trace­abil­i­ty sys­tems use phys­i­cal trac­ers (iso­topic mark­ers, DNA fibres), dig­i­tal tools (blockchain, QR codes), and third-par­ty audits. The EU Dig­i­tal Prod­uct Pass­port and CSDDD are accel­er­at­ing trace­abil­i­ty adop­tion.

See also: Dig­i­tal Prod­uct Pass­port (DPP) · Sup­ply Chain · Sus­tain­abil­i­ty · GOTS

Water Foot­print

A mea­sure of fresh­wa­ter con­sump­tion and pol­lu­tion asso­ci­at­ed with the pro­duc­tion of a prod­uct. Cot­ton pro­duc­tion and wet tex­tile pro­cess­ing are among the most water-inten­sive man­u­fac­tur­ing activ­i­ties. 1 kg of cot­ton fibre requires approx­i­mate­ly 10,000–20,000 litres of water under con­ven­tion­al grow­ing con­di­tions.

See also: Cot­ton · Life Cycle Assess­ment (LCA) · Efflu­ent Treat­ment (ETP) · Sus­tain­abil­i­ty

CMT (Cut, Make, Trim)  CMT

A gar­ment man­u­fac­tur­ing mod­el in which the buy­er sup­plies all mate­ri­als (fab­ric, trims, acces­sories) and the fac­to­ry charges only for cut­ting, mak­ing, and trim­ming (fin­ish­ing). CMT is com­mon in Bangladesh and Cam­bo­dia. Con­trast with FOB (fac­to­ry sources mate­ri­als and deliv­ers fin­ished goods at port) and Full Package/turnkey man­u­fac­tur­ing.

See also: Ready-Made Gar­ment (RMG) · FOB · Sourc­ing · Val­ue Chain

Fast Fash­ion

A busi­ness mod­el that trans­lates cat­walk trends rapid­ly into mass-mar­ket gar­ments at low prices, with high turnover of col­lec­tions (from 2 seasons/year to 52+ micro-sea­sons). Fast fash­ion relies on agile sourc­ing, speed-to-mar­ket, and low-cost man­u­fac­tur­ing. The EU Tex­tile Strat­e­gy and EPR direct­ly tar­get fast fash­ion exter­nal­i­ties.

See also: Lead Time · Sourc­ing · Cir­cu­lar Econ­o­my · Extend­ed Pro­duc­er Respon­si­bil­i­ty (EPR)

FOB (Free On Board)  FOB

An inter­na­tion­al trade term (Incoterm) defin­ing the point at which risk and respon­si­bil­i­ty for goods trans­fer from sell­er to buy­er. Under FOB, the sell­er is respon­si­ble for all costs and risks up to load­ing goods aboard the ves­sel at the named port of ship­ment. In appar­el sourc­ing, FOB typ­i­cal­ly means the fac­to­ry sources mate­ri­als, pro­duces the fin­ished gar­ments, and deliv­ers to the export port.

See also: CMT (Cut, Make, Trim) · Sourc­ing · Lead Time · Sup­ply Chain

Lead Time

The total elapsed time from order place­ment to prod­uct deliv­ery in the tex­tile and appar­el sup­ply chain. Lead times vary by prod­uct type: stan­dard woven appar­el: 90–120 days; fast fash­ion: 14–28 days; on-demand/dig­i­tal print: <7 days. Lead time reduc­tion is achieved through sup­pli­er prox­im­i­ty (nearshoring), dig­i­tal sam­pling, fab­ric plat­form­ing, and demand-respon­sive man­u­fac­tur­ing.

See also: Sourc­ing · Sup­ply Chain · Nearshoring · Fast Fash­ion

Logis­tics & Freight

The plan­ning, exe­cu­tion, and man­age­ment of the phys­i­cal move­ment of tex­tiles and gar­ments from ori­gin to des­ti­na­tion. Key modes: ocean freight (dom­i­nant for long-haul), air freight (high speed/cost), rail (grow­ing EU-Chi­na cor­ri­dor), road. Decar­bon­i­sa­tion of freight (bio­fu­els, e‑fuels, elec­tric vehi­cles) is a key Scope 3 chal­lenge.

See also: Sup­ply Chain · Lead Time · Car­bon Foot­print · Sourc­ing

Mass Bal­ance

A chain-of-cus­tody mod­el for cer­ti­fied sus­tain­able mate­ri­als in which cer­ti­fied mate­r­i­al inputs and out­puts are tracked across a pro­duc­tion site but not phys­i­cal­ly seg­re­gat­ed. The cer­ti­fied vol­ume sold must not exceed the cer­ti­fied vol­ume pur­chased with­in an account­ing peri­od. Enables cer­ti­fied con­tent claims at scale with­out oper­a­tional seg­re­ga­tion.

See also: GOTS (Glob­al Organ­ic Tex­tile Stan­dard) · Glob­al Recy­cled Stan­dard (GRS) · Trace­abil­i­ty

Nearshoring

The strate­gic relo­ca­tion of man­u­fac­tur­ing clos­er to the tar­get mar­ket, reduc­ing geo­graph­ic dis­tance and sup­ply chain risk com­pared to dis­tant off­shoring (e.g. mov­ing from South­east Asia to Turkey, North Africa, or East­ern Europe for EU mar­kets). Nearshoring offers short­er lead times, low­er freight costs and emis­sions, reduced inven­to­ry, and improved respon­sive­ness to mar­ket trends.

See also: Sourc­ing · Lead Time · Sup­ply Chain · Val­ue Chain

On-Demand Man­u­fac­tur­ing

A pro­duc­tion mod­el where gar­ments are only man­u­fac­tured after an order is placed, elim­i­nat­ing over­pro­duc­tion and unsold inven­to­ry. Enabled by dig­i­tal print­ing, auto­mat­ed cut­ting (CAD/CAM), and flex­i­ble sewing cells. On-demand reduces waste and cap­i­tal tied in stock but requires high­er unit costs and fast ful­fil­ment infra­struc­ture.

See also: Fast Fash­ion · Lead Time · Dig­i­tal Print­ing · Sup­ply Chain

Ready-Made Gar­ment  RMG

Fin­ished appar­el and cloth­ing prod­ucts pro­duced in fac­to­ries for sale to con­sumers. The RMG indus­try is the down­stream end of the tex­tile val­ue chain and is con­cen­trat­ed in Bangladesh, Chi­na, Viet­nam, India, Cam­bo­dia, and Pak­istan. GHERZI cov­ers the full chain ‘from fibre/polymer to fin­ished RMG and back’.

See also: CMT · Sourc­ing · Sup­ply Chain · Val­ue Chain

Social Com­pli­ance

The adher­ence of tex­tile fac­to­ries and sup­pli­ers to min­i­mum labour and human rights stan­dards — includ­ing fair wages, safe work­ing con­di­tions, free­dom of asso­ci­a­tion, pro­hi­bi­tion of forced and child labour, and rea­son­able work­ing hours. Key frame­works: SA8000, BSCI (amfori BSCI), SMETA (Sedex Mem­bers Eth­i­cal Trade Audit), ILO Core Con­ven­tions.

See also: Sup­ply Chain · Sourc­ing · Trace­abil­i­ty · Val­ue Chain

Sourc­ing

The process by which appar­el brands and retail­ers iden­ti­fy, eval­u­ate, and engage sup­pli­ers (fab­ric mills, trims sup­pli­ers, CMT/FOB fac­to­ries) to ful­fil their prod­uct require­ments at the right qual­i­ty, cost, lead time, and com­pli­ance lev­el. Post-pan­dem­ic, sup­ply chain resilience and sup­pli­er diver­si­fi­ca­tion have become crit­i­cal sourc­ing pri­or­i­ties.

See also: Sup­ply Chain · Lead Time · CMT (Cut, Make, Trim) · Val­ue Chain Man­age­ment

Sup­ply Chain

The net­work of organ­i­sa­tions, peo­ple, activ­i­ties, infor­ma­tion, and resources involved in cre­at­ing and dis­trib­ut­ing a tex­tile prod­uct — from raw mate­r­i­al sup­pli­ers and man­u­fac­tur­ers to logis­tics providers, dis­trib­u­tors, and retail­ers. Sup­ply chain trans­paren­cy, resilience, sus­tain­abil­i­ty, and digi­ti­sa­tion are cen­tral chal­lenges for the indus­try.

See also: Val­ue Chain · Sourc­ing · Trace­abil­i­ty · Nearshoring

Tech­no-Eco­nom­ic Fea­si­bil­i­ty

A sys­tem­at­ic appraisal com­bin­ing tech­ni­cal via­bil­i­ty analy­sis (process selec­tion, capac­i­ty, equip­ment, site require­ments) and eco­nom­ic analy­sis (CAPEX, OPEX, cash flow pro­jec­tions, IRR, NPV, pay­back peri­od) to deter­mine whether a pro­posed tex­tile invest­ment is tech­ni­cal­ly sound and finan­cial­ly attrac­tive.

See also: Val­ue Chain · Tex­tile Sec­tor Study · Sup­ply Chain

Tex­tile Sec­tor Study

A struc­tured mar­ket research and analy­sis exer­cise assess­ing a nation­al or region­al tex­tile indus­try’s com­pet­i­tive posi­tion, val­ue chain struc­ture, capac­i­ty, mar­ket access, labour costs, and devel­op­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties. Com­mis­sioned by devel­op­ment finance insti­tu­tions (IFC, GIZ, UNIDO), gov­ern­ments, and invest­ment funds. GHERZI has con­duct­ed tex­tile sec­tor stud­ies in over 80 coun­tries since 1929.

See also: Val­ue Chain · Mar­ket Analy­sis · Sup­ply Chain · Fea­si­bil­i­ty Study

Val­ue Chain

The end-to-end sequence of activ­i­ties that trans­forms raw mate­ri­als into fin­ished tex­tile and appar­el prod­ucts: fibre pro­duc­tion → spin­ning → fab­ric for­ma­tion → dye­ing & fin­ish­ing → gar­ment man­u­fac­tur­ing → retail → con­sumer use → end-of-life. GHERZ­I’s exper­tise cov­ers the com­plete tex­tile val­ue chain — ‘from fibre/polymer to fin­ished RMG and back’.

See also: Sup­ply Chain · Ready-Made Gar­ment (RMG) · Cir­cu­lar Econ­o­my · Sourc­ing

Brand & Licens­ing

The strat­e­gy of lever­ag­ing an estab­lished brand name, trade­mark, or tech­nol­o­gy to gen­er­ate rev­enue through licens­ing agree­ments. In tech­ni­cal tex­tiles, ingre­di­ent brand­ing (Gore-Tex®, TENCEL™, Lycra®, Pri­maloft®) adds val­ue to end prod­ucts. In appar­el, brand licens­ing allows expan­sion into new geo­gra­phies or prod­uct cat­e­gories.

See also: Strat­e­gy Devel­op­ment · Mar­ket Analy­sis · Val­ue Chain

Dig­i­tal­i­sa­tion

The inte­gra­tion of dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies across tex­tile and appar­el val­ue chain process­es — from design and prod­uct devel­op­ment (3D vir­tu­al sam­pling, PLM) to man­u­fac­tur­ing (IoT, automa­tion, AI qual­i­ty con­trol), sup­ply chain (trace­abil­i­ty plat­forms, blockchain) and retail (e‑commerce, demand fore­cast­ing, AI per­son­al­i­sa­tion).

See also: Strat­e­gy Devel­op­ment · Dig­i­tal Prod­uct Pass­port (DPP) · Trace­abil­i­ty · Smart Tex­tiles

Due Dili­gence (M&A)

A com­pre­hen­sive appraisal of a tex­tile com­pa­ny’s assets, lia­bil­i­ties, oper­a­tions, tech­nol­o­gy, mar­ket posi­tion, and ESG per­for­mance con­duct­ed pri­or to a merg­er, acqui­si­tion, or invest­ment trans­ac­tion. Key areas include: machin­ery con­di­tion and val­u­a­tion, ener­gy and water inten­si­ty bench­mark­ing, envi­ron­men­tal lia­bil­i­ties, qual­i­ty man­age­ment sys­tems, and work­force struc­ture.

See also: Fea­si­bil­i­ty Study · Mar­ket Analy­sis · Oper­a­tional Improve­ment

Fea­si­bil­i­ty Study

A sys­tem­at­ic pre-invest­ment analy­sis exam­in­ing the via­bil­i­ty of a pro­posed tex­tile project across tech­ni­cal, finan­cial, mar­ket, envi­ron­men­tal, and social dimen­sions. Key out­puts: project descrip­tion and capac­i­ty plan, mar­ket assess­ment, tech­nol­o­gy selec­tion, site eval­u­a­tion, finan­cial mod­el (IRR, NPV, pay­back), risk analy­sis, and rec­om­men­da­tion.

See also: Tech­no-Eco­nom­ic Fea­si­bil­i­ty · Mar­ket Analy­sis · Strat­e­gy Devel­op­ment

Mar­ket Analy­sis

The sys­tem­at­ic exam­i­na­tion of mar­ket size, struc­ture, com­pet­i­tive land­scape, cus­tomer seg­ments, pric­ing, and growth trends in a tex­tile or appar­el mar­ket. GHERZ­I’s mar­ket analy­sis ser­vices cov­er fibre-to-retail mar­ket intel­li­gence, coun­try-spe­cif­ic mar­ket entry assess­ments, and com­pet­i­tive bench­mark­ing.

See also: Tex­tile Sec­tor Study · Val­ue Chain · Sourc­ing · Strat­e­gy Devel­op­ment

Oper­a­tional Improve­ment

Sys­tem­at­ic enhance­ment of man­u­fac­tur­ing and oper­a­tional effi­cien­cy in tex­tile facil­i­ties through lean man­u­fac­tur­ing, OEE improve­ment (Over­all Equip­ment Effec­tive­ness), Six Sig­ma, 5S, time-and-motion stud­ies, and ener­gy audits. GHERZI bench­marks mill per­for­mance against glob­al best prac­tice across spin­ning, weav­ing, knit­ting, dye­ing, and gar­ment man­u­fac­tur­ing.

See also: Restruc­tur­ing & Turn­around · Val­ue Chain Man­age­ment · Strat­e­gy Devel­op­ment

Restruc­tur­ing & Turn­around

Strate­gic and oper­a­tional inter­ven­tions to restore prof­itabil­i­ty and com­pet­i­tive­ness in a tex­tile com­pa­ny fac­ing finan­cial dis­tress, loss of mar­ket posi­tion, or struc­tur­al decline. A turn­around pro­gramme typ­i­cal­ly address­es: cost reduc­tion, prod­uct port­fo­lio ratio­nal­i­sa­tion, mar­ket repo­si­tion­ing, oper­a­tional effi­cien­cy improve­ment, cap­i­tal struc­ture opti­mi­sa­tion, and man­age­ment change.

See also: Strat­e­gy Devel­op­ment · Oper­a­tional Improve­ment · Val­ue Chain Man­age­ment

Strat­e­gy Devel­op­ment

The for­mu­la­tion of long-term com­pet­i­tive posi­tion­ing and action plans for tex­tile com­pa­nies in response to mar­ket dynam­ics, sus­tain­abil­i­ty imper­a­tives, tech­no­log­i­cal change, and sup­ply chain dis­rup­tion. Core ele­ments: sit­u­a­tion analy­sis (SWOT, PESTEL, Porter’s Five Forces), strate­gic options gen­er­a­tion, busi­ness mod­el inno­va­tion, and imple­men­ta­tion roadmap.

See also: Mar­ket Analy­sis · Val­ue Chain Man­age­ment · Restruc­tur­ing

Val­ue Chain Man­age­ment

The active man­age­ment, coor­di­na­tion, and opti­mi­sa­tion of all activ­i­ties, rela­tion­ships, and infor­ma­tion flows across the tex­tile val­ue chain to cre­ate sus­tain­able com­pet­i­tive advan­tage. Encom­pass­es sup­pli­er devel­op­ment, ver­ti­cal inte­gra­tion deci­sions, capac­i­ty plan­ning, qual­i­ty man­age­ment, cost bench­mark­ing, and sus­tain­abil­i­ty inte­gra­tion.

See also: Val­ue Chain · Sup­ply Chain · Strat­e­gy Devel­op­ment · Sourc­ing

Ver­ti­cal Inte­gra­tion

A busi­ness strat­e­gy in which a tex­tile com­pa­ny con­trols mul­ti­ple stages of the val­ue chain — from fibre to fin­ished fab­ric or gar­ment — with­in the same cor­po­rate struc­ture. Back­ward inte­gra­tion (acquir­ing upstream sup­pli­ers) and for­ward inte­gra­tion (a fibre pro­duc­er acquir­ing fin­ish­ing and dis­tri­b­u­tion). Reduces costs and improves qual­i­ty con­trol but requires sig­nif­i­cant cap­i­tal.

See also: Val­ue Chain Man­age­ment · Val­ue Chain · Strat­e­gy Devel­op­ment

Automa­tion in Tex­tiles

The use of mechan­i­cal, elec­tron­ic, and robot­ic sys­tems to replace or aug­ment human labour in tex­tile man­u­fac­tur­ing. Spin­ning and weav­ing are already high­ly auto­mat­ed; sewing automa­tion is the remain­ing fron­tier due to fab­ric pli­a­bil­i­ty. Tech­nolo­gies advanc­ing sewing automa­tion include sew­bots (Soft­Wear Automa­tion, Sew­bo), laser cut­ting, auto­mat­ed spread­ing and cut­ting (Lec­tra, Ger­ber), and auto­mat­ed gar­ment inspec­tion.

See also: Indus­try 4.0 in Tex­tiles · Oper­a­tional Improve­ment · Nearshoring · Dig­i­tal­i­sa­tion

CAD/CAM (Tex­tiles)  CAD/CAM

Com­put­er-Aid­ed Design and Com­put­er-Aid­ed Man­u­fac­tur­ing sys­tems for tex­tile and appar­el prod­uct devel­op­ment and pro­duc­tion. In appar­el: CAD sys­tems (Lec­tra, Ger­ber, Opti­tex, Browzwear) are used for pat­tern mak­ing, grad­ing, mark­er plan­ning, and 3D vir­tu­al sam­pling. In weav­ing: CAD sys­tems (EAT, Tex­ion) design fab­ric struc­tures. CAD/CAM reduces sam­pling cycles, mate­r­i­al waste, and time-to-mar­ket.

See also: Automa­tion in Tex­tiles · Dig­i­tal­i­sa­tion · On-Demand Man­u­fac­tur­ing

Dig­i­tal Print­ing (Tex­tile)

A fab­ric print­ing tech­nol­o­gy in which dig­i­tal files are direct­ly con­vert­ed into print­ed pat­terns on fab­ric using inkjet print heads (reac­tive, acid, dis­perse, or pig­ment inks). Elim­i­nates the need for screens and enables short runs, mass cus­tomi­sa­tion, rapid design changes, and on-demand pro­duc­tion. Water con­sump­tion is 50–90% low­er than screen print­ing.

See also: On-Demand Man­u­fac­tur­ing · Fin­ish­ing · Sub­li­ma­tion Print­ing

Indus­try 4.0 in Tex­tiles

The appli­ca­tion of cyber-phys­i­cal sys­tems, IoT (Inter­net of Things), big data ana­lyt­ics, AI, and automa­tion to tex­tile man­u­fac­tur­ing process­es. Exam­ples: AI-pow­ered qual­i­ty inspec­tion (vision sys­tems), pre­dic­tive main­te­nance (sen­sor data), dig­i­tal twin sim­u­la­tion of pro­duc­tion lines, auto­mat­ed guid­ed vehi­cles (AGV), and robot­ic sewing.

See also: Dig­i­tal­i­sa­tion · Smart Tex­tiles · Automa­tion · Oper­a­tional Improve­ment

Knit­ting Machine

A machine that pro­duces knit­ted fab­rics or gar­ments by inter­lock­ing loops of yarn with nee­dles. Key types: cir­cu­lar knit­ting machines (for T‑shirts, under­wear, sports­wear); flat knit­ting machines (ful­ly-fash­ioned knitwear, seam­less gar­ments; Stoll, Shi­ma Sei­ki); warp knit­ting machines (Raschel and Tri­cot; for lace, sports­wear, tech­ni­cal fab­rics).

See also: Cir­cu­lar Knit­ting · Warp Knit­ting · Gauge (Knit­ting) · Tech­ni­cal Tex­tiles

Loom Tech­nol­o­gy

The range of weft inser­tion tech­nolo­gies used in mod­ern weav­ing machines: rapi­er looms (flex­i­ble or rigid grip­pers car­ry weft across), air-jet looms (com­pressed air pro­pels weft, high­est speed), water-jet looms (for water-repel­lent yarns), pro­jec­tile looms (Sulz­er, for tech­ni­cal fab­rics), and shut­tle looms (lega­cy tech­nol­o­gy). Lead­ing man­u­fac­tur­ers: Picanol, Toy­ota, Tsu­dako­ma, Dornier, Itema.

See also: Weav­ing · Warp · Weft · Tech­ni­cal Tex­tiles

Needlepunch

A non­wo­ven bond­ing process in which barbed nee­dles are repeat­ed­ly punched through a fibre web, mechan­i­cal­ly entan­gling the fibres with­out adhe­sives or heat. Needlepunch pro­duces durable, dense non­wo­vens used in auto­mo­tive car­pet­ing, geo­t­ex­tiles, fil­tra­tion media, floor cov­er­ings, and insu­la­tion. The process is ver­sa­tile across fibre types (poly­ester, polypropy­lene, nat­ur­al fibres, recy­cled con­tent).

See also: Non­wo­ven · Geo­t­ex­tile · Fil­tra­tion Tex­tiles · Tech­ni­cal Tex­tiles

Tex­tur­ing

A yarn pro­cess­ing method that imparts crimp, bulk, and stretch to smooth fil­a­ment yarns to increase their cov­er, soft­ness, and elas­tic­i­ty. The dom­i­nant tech­nol­o­gy is false-twist tex­tur­ing (DTY) for poly­ester and nylon. Oth­er meth­ods: air-tex­tur­ing (for high-tenac­i­ty yarns and tech­ni­cal appli­ca­tions), stuffer-box crimp­ing, and knit-de-knit.

See also: Draw Tex­tur­ing (DTY) · Fil­a­ment Yarn · Cir­cu­lar Knit­ting