Cotton manufacturing process

Preparation of the yarn for weaving or knitting is the first step of cotton fabric manufacturing.

Weaving

Modern mills use high-speed weaving machines that move horizontally back and forth across the loom, interlacing the filling yarn with the horizontally, lengthwise warp yarn. Some machines have metal arms that are also known as rapiers. The rapiers pick up the filling thread and carry it halfway across the loom where another rapier picks it up and pulls it the rest of the way. Other types of machines utilize small projectiles that pick up the filling thread and carry it all the way across the warp.

Knitting

This method of constructing fabric consists of a series of needles that interlock loops of yarn. The majority of cotton is knitted on circular machines that have needles fixed to the rim of a rotating cylinder. When the cylinder rotates, the needles work their way from stitch to stitch producing a tubular fabric. Another basic machine is the flat knitting machine. The flat bed has dozens of needles arranged in a straight line. The result is a knit fabric that is flat, similar to woven fabric.