Silk

"... the important factor affecting the growth of global silk trade during 1990s was the imposition of quotas by European Union and the United States on imports of"

"Though silk production is less than 0.2 per cent of the world textile output, its production base is spread over 60 countries in the world with Asian nations bagging lion's share of over 90 per cent of mulberry production and almost 100-percent of non-mulberry silk....India is the world’s second largest producer with unique output of four varieties of silk – mulberry, tasar, eri, and moga."

"Sericulture, silk reeling and weaving have been practiced in the ancient trading capital of Shanghai. Shanghai has several modern silk processing plants and is also serving as captive units of American large buying houses."

"Karnataka, earlier known as Mysore, abound with silk, sandal wood and gold, the three most sought-after natural commodities . Karnataka is now the main mulberry silk producing state in India, contributing about two thirds of the output. Over 1 million families earn their living by cultivating bush mulberry, rearing silkworms and harvesting cocoons five to six times a year. Bangalore is the silk capital of India with the headquarters of CSB and its affiliated research located there."

"Silk processing in EU is concentrated in Milan and Como in Italy, Lyon in France and Zurich in Switzerland; same high quality silk weaving, jacquard, and printing are undertaken in the United Kingdom. Italy and France specialize in designer fabrics and scarves from famous fashion houses."

"Silkworm Rearing, Cocoon Harvesting The silk caterpillar, belong to the Order of Lepidoptera winged insects, genus Bombyx. The species Bombyx mori, which can be cultivated indoors, produces over 90 per cent of the world output of raw silk used commercially. There are other types of wild silkworms under the genus Saturnidae."

"Silk is crystalline, homogeneous in structure, hygroscopic in nature, light in weight, and is the longest and the strongest of all natural fibers. Soft, lustrous, and [[hygienic and also has an excellent affinity to dyes. Silk does not catch fire as easily as nylon and wool."

"Success of silk processing depends on quality of silkcocoons, which form integral part of raw silk production and sericulture...Silk is produced and secreted from the external secreting gland (exocrine gland). It is derived from the ecoderm and appears at about 36 hours prior to the rotation (blaktokinesis)...Silk gland can be distinctly divided into three divisions, anterior, middle and posterior....its composition includes spinneret, anteriror division, middle division, and posterior division."

"spinneret: It is a delicate tube inside the posterior part of the primary stage of silk gland. It comprises three parts, viz. spinning area, thread press and common tube. On the dorsal, lateral and ventral sides of thread press, six sets of musculus fibers develops which makes use of their expansion, contraction, flexibility for regulating the flow of silk substance, coarseness of silk as well as pressure in silk formation."

"The weight of the silk filament is decided by the weight of the cocoon shell and silk percentage of cocoon shell. In the reeling factory, raw silk percentage of cocoons and reeling discount of dried cocoons are used. The weight of the cocoon shell and the uniformity of cocoon are considered important commercial factors in raw silk reeling that are closely related to the raw silk yield to be obtained."

"The neatness and some cleanness of raw silk are directly influenced whereas size deviation, tenacity and cohesion of raw silk are indirectly influenced by the breed characteristics of the cocoons. The degree of neatness of raw silk is determined on the basis of incidence of the occurrence of defects which are smaller than those classified as “minor cleanliness defects”."

"The silk reeled on small reels is soaked in permeation chamber kept at low pressure [vacuum up to 400mm of (Hg) mercury/torr before re-reeling. The emulsion medium is water with non-ionic wetting agent and lubricating oil. The permeation of liquor is effected three times to facilitate easy unwinding of silk from the small reels."

"Before spinning a cocoon, the silk builds a hammock, an anchorage to hold its cocoon. This material is known as floss or blaze (Italian:Shelia, Japanese: Kebab). The quantity is small and the quality is poor, but it can be used for noil spinning."

"From Filament to Fabric Silk seems to have played an important role in the development of loom and weaving technology. Traces of primitive looms and woven fabrics are found in excavations in Egypt, China, India and Peru (2500 to 400 BC)...The silk weavers of China innovated the use of heddle and draw loom, a revolutionary development over the primitive tribal loom. India invented a foot tradle for silk weaving, a technical innovation over the ancient loom."

"Raw silk: The silk thread produced by the reeling together of the baves of several cocoons. Raw silk has no twist. Poil: A silk yarn formed by twisting raw silk. The twist may be very slight or exceed 3,000 per meter. Tram: A silk yarn formed by doubling two or more raw silk threads and then twisting them slightly, generally 80 to 150 TPM. Crepe: Silk yarn made by several raw silk threads and twisting them to very high levels in the range of 2000 to 4000 TPM."

"Silk can be woven into all the three basic weaves: plain or tabby twills and [[w:Satin|satin]s. Tabby silk weave produces, among others, taffeta and poplin. Tapestry weaves in silk have been used to weave ceremonial and decorative dresses and tapestries."

"Fabrics are degummed and bleached, if they are woven with yellow raw silk. Silk fabrics like other fabrics (cotton, manmade, wool and others) can broadly divided into mechanical and chemical finishing. The objective of mechanical finishing is to impart or improve certain desirable qualities like drape, fall or handle, feel stiffness, weight etc; but most of the mechanical finishes are only temporary."

"Silk sateen: The sateen is usually woven with degummed silk yarn but sometimes there are also fabrics woven with raw silk, which are degummed after weaving. The former is called glossed silk sateen and the latter is silk sateen."

"Although the bulk of world raw silk supply is spun by the domesticated silk moth, Bombyx mori, there are other sericigenous insects which spin cocoons and their yarn is equally pure silk. There silks are known as wild silk as differentiated from cultivated ‘mulberry silk’. The wild silk moths are abundantly found in remote regions, hilltops and forest interiors in [Burma, China, India, Korea, equatorial Africa and Southeast Asia. In fact, according to one authority, there are between four to five hundred different types of wild moths spinning silk cocoons; but only a few of these moths have commercial values."

"World Raw silk Trading: Raw silk is an important international trade commodity traded at the main commodity markets of New York, Lyon and London. Japan used to dominate the world silk market with her leading position as the top exporter, followed by China and Korea. Since 1869s China has taken over the market and Japan has reversed her role, emerging as a leading importer of raw silk"

"The USA, which used to be the biggest single importer of raw silk until the 1960s has now grown into a leading importer of finished silk cloth by reducing the import of raw silk and waste silk. With the rising weaving costs, the USA prefers to import finished fabric to raw silk."