Do You Know How to Identify Textile Fibers?

With the gradual and steady improvement of people’s living standards, people are more and more willing to spend a lot of money on wearing. However, there are actually a lot of tricks in this industry. There are many unscrupulous merchants who sell inferior textiles to unsuspecting consumers. So, as ordinary consumers, how can we help ourselves to identify textiles?

1. Combustion

The combustion method, as the name suggests, involves burning the textiles we need to identify. The main principle of the combustion method is that different textiles are composed of different substances, then they burn up the phenomenon is naturally different. Take a relatively simple example, silk, a relatively expensive raw material, it burns up the smell and hair burning odor is very similar. Because of their chemical properties are proteins, so the smell of burning up is naturally the same. In addition, in addition to judging from the point of view of the smell. There are also some other characteristics, such as whether it is easy to ignite, what kind of shape it takes after burning, and so on. Although this method is a method that can be tried by ordinary people, I think many people must be reluctant to take their clothes to be burned after cutting them up.

Combustion

2. Microscope Observation Method

Microscope observation method, is to take the stereo microscope magnification observation we need to identify the textile items. Different textile materials, although their appearance seems to be similar, but when they are magnified ten or twenty times after the difference is very big. We can observe and analyze the fiber materials we observe from the following dimensions. The first is the cross-section of the fiber, followed by the longitudinal form of the fiber. Take the silk we mentioned above as an example, under the microscope, it has a triangular cross-section. Polyester fibers, on the other hand, have a circular cross-section. Although it is also a good way to look at textile fibers with a stereo microscope, there is a problem here in that a tool like a stereo microscope can only help us identify the broad category of textile fibers that we are looking at. This includes natural fibers, plant fibers, and mineral fibers, among others.

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3. Dissolving Method

Perhaps when you hear the dissolution method, you will feel very surprised, how can the fiber melt in water? In fact, the solution used in the dissolution method is not water, of course, but a special solution. As for the need to use what solution, which needs to be further consulted to specialize in these aspects of the experts to answer, and this involves the operation of the skills or quite a lot.

I will describe the specific methods of operation. The fiber material to be identified is cut to the appropriate size and placed into a test tube. Then, fill it with the desired chemical solution. Finally, the glass is slowly stirred. The important thing to note here is that we need to always observe and record the changes of the fiber material in the solution. If the textile fiber you want to identify is very small, this means so small that it cannot be seen clearly in the test tube. At this point, you need to resort to the tool mentioned in the previous method – the microscope. You place the textile material you want to identify on a slide, and then use a dropper to add the appropriate chemical solution. In the end, you just need to observe the changes in the textile fibers under the microscope. Although the dissolution method sounds simple, the textile fibers change very quickly in the solution, and you will even need to keep track of how long the textile fibers take to dissolve and the temperature at which they dissolve.

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4. Melting Point Method

Different textile fibers melt naturally at different temperatures. But because the textile fibers really melt when we just with the naked eye can not be seen. Therefore, this is where the microscope comes in handy. But this time the microscope used is very special, where is it special? The microscope’s slide must be heated, otherwise how do we know when the textile fibers are melting? Secondly, the microscope must be equipped with a thermometer. Otherwise, even if we see the textile fiber melted, do not know its specific melting temperature, all for nothing. It should be noted here that the melting point method is particularly accurate for identifying synthetic fibers. This is because synthetic fibers have a very distinct phenomenon when they melt.

5. Reagent Coloring Method

As we mentioned earlier, different fibers have different internal forms. So if we use the same dyes to dye different textile fibers, their coloring process is naturally unique. The common dyes we use include iodine or potassium iodide solution. However, we cannot generalize about all textile fibers. For example, white textile fibers cannot be compared with other colored textile fibers. Here we make a simple distinction between textile fibers. One is white textile fibers and the other is colored textile fibers. For white textile fibers, we can distinguish them according to their coloring after contact with dyes. For colored fibers, we have to fade them first. Otherwise, we can not see the color of these textile materials! About the fading solution preparation method, I also do a simple explanation here. That is in one hundred milliliters of saturated potassium iodide and add 20 grams of iodine and mix well. Once the colored textile fibers have faded, the dyeing operation can be performed and then observed.

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Of course, the five identification methods mentioned above have their own advantages and disadvantages, readers can choose the identification method according to their own actual situation. In fact, if we want to buy the genuine article, we’d better try to choose the formal channels to buy.After all, there are reasons why some fabrics that sell for a lot of money on the market are suddenly selling so cheaply.