What is silk?

Silk is a natural protein fiber. The word “silk” comes from Ancient Greece (σηρικός, serikos) and Asia (Chinese silk, Manchurian sirghe, Mongolian sirkek).

Some forms of silk are used into textiles.


Silk is produced by certain insect larvae, which are producing protein fiber to form cocoons. Generally silk is produced from the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori larvae cocoons. Insects aren’t the only one which produces silk – bees, wasps, ants, silverfish, mayflies, thrips, leafhoopers, beetles, lacewings, fleas, flies, midges and spiders are producing it too.


The production process of silk consists of several steps – firstly, for extracting raw silk, silkworms are cultivated on mulberry leaves, secondly, when silkworms are pupating in their cocoons, they are dissolved in boiling water, thirdly, dissolved cocoons are formed in long fibers, fourthly, these fibers are fed into the spinning reel.

Physical characteristics

Silk shimmers because of silk fibres triangular prism-like structure. Bombyx mori silkworms silk fibers have a triangular cross section with rounded corners, and it’s 5 to 10 micrometers wide, but other silkworms silk fibers cross-section can vary in shape and diameter. Silks texture is smooth and soft, but is not slippery as many synthetic fibers. Silk is known as one of the strongest natural fibers, but unfortunately it loses at least 20% of its strength when it’s wet. Silk has a good moisture, but bad elasticity. Silk can be weakened by sunlight and be attacked by insects.

Chemical properties

Natural silk consists of two proteins – fibroin, which is the structural center of the silk, and sericin, which is the sticky material surrounding it.


Silk is used in clothing (daily, high fashion, national), furnishing accessories, wall coverings, window treatments, rugs, bed and wall hangings. Silk is used in such specific things as parachutes, bicycle tires, comforter filling and artillery gunpowder bags.


polyester fiber


Polyester is one of the more durable textile fabrics, that is specially manufactured and made, so that the clothing that is made out of this polyester fabric is long lasting and doesn’t rip easily.

Polyester is made out of synthesized polymers, that are molecules. These molecules consist of chain of smaller particles called monomers. Almost all of these polymers are organic, therefore they have a carbon backbone, but some use silicon as their bonding agent.

Any polyester fabric is not only very very strong, but also resistant to things such as chemicals, as well as these fabrics doesn’t stretch, wrinkle or shrink easy. To add to that polyester also dries extremely quickly and will always retain its shape. That is why this fabric is used to manufacture outdoors clothing, camping equipment and other things and clothes that need the ability to dry quickly and be washed very easily.

However polyester can be used in for other clothing to. In 1970s a popular trend was to make suits among other clothing out of polyester. It was mainly thanks to its strength, because people ddidn’tneed to buy new clothes as often. Some other uses for polyester in 70s was PET bottle and rope making.

And nowadays too you can find quite a lot of clothing made out of polyester, because now the majority of clothes have some percentage of polyester added to the fabric blend to make the clothing more durable and more easy to care for it. From formal wear to work clothing and outerwear you will find polyester everywhere.

Some tips when taking care of fabrics where there is a presence of polyester is to add fabric softener to your washing machine load to make the clothing softer, and dry the clothing in lower temperatures, because that way the clothes will last you even longer. And when ironing the clothes, do it on a warm not hot setting to prolong the life of the fabric.

Polyester is one of the best fabrics that is invented, because it has made so many lives much easier. And although there are many types of polymers yet to be discovered polyester is and will stay one of the best of the whole polymers.


spandexSpandex or also known as elastane is a synthetic material that was created by DuPont in 1959 and it is one of the most elastic and widely used synthetic material in the world. This material is one of the strongest elastic materials and it is better than rubber in its elastic properties as well as it is more resistant to degradation. That means that spandex can be used in many different applications and starting from elastic clothing to hoses and many different things where rubber is degrading from the ozone that is in the air. This material is also very heat resistant as its melting point is around 270 C and that means it can be used in heat resistant applications.

Elastane is a great material for clothing as it is elastic and always returns to its original state no matter what or how much much force is applied to that fabric. This means when neoprene is used in clothing those clothes are really strong and rigid. You may know spandex from tight sportswear or other clothes as spandex leggings for women but when this material was invented it revolutionized the clothing industry and created a massive surge of things made from elastic materials. In fact spandex is so common that in the recent years it is estimated that more than 80% of all clothing sold in the United States contains some form of spandex fibers and if you know how huge the clothing industry is then you have a clue just how widespread this material is.

Because spandex has many different manufacturing methods its availability and price as well as quality may be different from product to product but in general these fibers are made in dry environments using the dry spinning method. In this method spandex is created with a spinning motion from melted materials and as those small fibers are created they are immediately spun together to make a fiber that is thick enough to withstand usual daily use.

As you can see elastane is one of the most common materials in the clothing industry and probably one or more of the clothing pieces that you are wearing right now include some form of this amazing material. So enjoy the elasticity and apprise this amazing invention.


Strongest fibers

carbon_nanotubesWhen talking about textile materials and fibers in general we usually talk about their softness or are they organic or inorganic as well as their size but really we mention the strength of those fibers. If we look at the naturally occurring fibers then the strongest is spider silk as it is one of the thinnest but strongest material known to man. But spider silk is very hard to obtain as spiders produce so little of it so humans needed to invent some synthetic fibers that can rival this natural fiber. And we are constantly trying to do this as with inventions like Kevlar and Zylon we have made fibers that are stronger and lighter than steel but can still be woven and created into wearable protection like bulletproof vests. Of course these materials are strong and they are being used in many different areas like in sports as well as in construction and of course the scientific community. But now there are new things we have found that could outperform any fiber than we know off. And these are carbon nanotubes. These Carbon nanotubes consist of pure carbon atoms that are arranged in a tubular shape that consists of hexagons. This shape resembles something that Mr Buckminster Fuller made – the geodesic dome structure just it is extended. These carbon nanotubes are the newest scientific breakthrough that could shake the whole fiber industry and help make amazingly strong ropes, chains and other similar things. But unfortunately at the moment we do not know how to produce these carbon nanotubes in large enough quantities to start using them in something outside of the scientific research. So for now we have to use those materials like kevlar and Twaron but definitely invest more research in to the study of finding efficient ways of making these carbon nanotubes.


Future of textiles

Textile materials at the moment are made mainly from organic materials like wool and cotton but these materials are not the most efficient in what they can do or achieve. Organic materials were very useful in the old days when there were no technologies sophisticated enough to make textiles from synthetic materials and that is why I think the future of textiles are human-manufactured synthetic materials that will be able to withstand tearing and will not wear down like today’s clothes. If we look at how textile materials and fibers in general are made then we can see that getting wool of sheep and cotton out from the cotton plants is obviously not that efficient and if we want to increase the efficiency and reduce costs then we must come up with different solutions that are more efficient and economically viable.

Of course at this point in time synthetic fibers are not that comfortable and are often treated as a lower level class materials. Synthetic fibers are usually uncomfortable to wear they make you itchy and in general they do not give the same comfort as organic materials. But even now synthetic fibers are showing their strength in affordability and strength as synthetic clothes are usually much cheaper and longer lasting than their organic competitors. So that means that humanity needs to resolve the things that make synthetic fibers uncool like their harsh surface that can irritate the skin as well as the fact that people get rashes from wearing synthetically created materials. It sound like noon is approaching this question with the open-mindedness that is needed and we just need to figure out how to make synthetic fibers soft as well as comfortable to wear. This could be done in any number of ways but my gut tells me that humanity will start to pay closer attention to what makes organic materials so comfortable and then invent a manufacturing equipment that will allow to synthetically produce fibers that mimic that action.

If we manage to create synthetic materials that are as soft and environmentally friendly as the natural acouring silk or hemp then the era of cheap and abundant textile will begin because then every manufacturing company will be able to create this material and I imagine that the cost of fabrication will be very very low. And that is the closest scenario to reality because if you look around then everything around you is modifier by man to increase the total value and increase manufacturing efficiency. I hope that when this day comes then people will see that human-made fibers can be as great as those so called organic fibers that are just a byproduct of some other living organism that is exploited by us to make these fibers.


What is Textile

textileTextile seems like a well known word but if you examine the true meaning behind this terminal you will see that there are many different textiles as well as textile materials and cloths. In general a textile is any fabric that is created from strands that can be artificial or natural but the must be produced by spinning raw wool or other strand making materials. Textile is used in almost all clothe and other cloth like material making and it is usually stored in long textile sheets that are then further divided into smaller fabrics and produced into the end product. What makes textile material different from other synonyms like cloth is that all textile sheets must have interlaced fibers that will hold it together more efficiently and with greater strength.

If we look at the history then there are evidence that suggests that textile materials have been around for more than 30000 years and that implies that this industry that was once the biggest single industry in the world is as old as the modern man and goes well beyond the modern times into the prehistoric index. Textile making has and is an artform that has many different variations like knot-textiles as well as satin-weave textile and plain-wave-textile and a lot more. All this shows us that making strong and soft fiber materials into textile sheets has been one of the main occupations of many different civilisations but lately this industry has been completely revolutionized.