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Taffeta is a crisp, smooth, plain woven fabric made from silk , rayons as well as nylon and polyester. It is considered to be a ‘high-end’ fabric, suitable for use in ball gowns, wedding dresses, protective clothing; medical gown and in interior decoration for curtains or wall coverings.
Taffeta is made using the plain-weaving technique, where the threads are twisted, creating the stiffness and structure of the resulting fabric.
Taffeta was originally made from silk, but in the twentieth century, manufacturers began weaving taffeta out of semi-synthetic fibers like rayon and synthetic fibers like nylon, polyester, and acetate. Polyester taffeta is the most popular type of taffeta today, as it is inexpensive and imitates of silk well.
Characteristics of taffeta
Taffeta is considered a high-end fabric, with a beautiful, smooth surface and unique characteristics.
- Crisp: Taffeta fabric is crisp and holds it shape well as a result of the tightly twisted yarns woven together in a plain weave fashion.
- Sheen: Taffeta has a lustrous shine that is unique to the fabric and comes from the innate qualities of silk or polyester.
- Smooth: Taffeta fabric also has a smooth surface, and piece-dyed taffeta in particular is especially soft.
- Sound: Taffeta, especially yarn-dyed taffeta, makes a rustling sound called “scroop” (combination of scrape and woop) when it rubs together.
- Luxurious: Taffeta is a shimmery, crisp fabric has created many iconic looks. The shimmer comes from the type of fiber used to make taffeta, such as silk or rayon.
- Pliable: Taffeta is a stiff fabric that can create a beautiful, structural silhouette. Taffeta also doesn’t lose its shape over time.
- Snags easily: Since the fibers are so fine and delicate, the fabric can snag easily and create pulls.
- Stiff: Taffeta doesn’t have much stretch to so it’s not ideal for items where flexibility is needed.
- Expensive: Silk taffeta can be very expensive because of the cost of silk. However, polyester taffeta is much more affordable.
- Snags easily: Since the fibers are so fine and delicate, the fabric can snag easily and create pulls.
Application of taffeta
- Home décor: The heavier, stiffer forms of taffeta create beautiful, flowing window curtains. Taffeta is also sometimes used for wallpaper.
- Evening gowns: Taffeta really shines when used for dressmaking. From evening dresses to wedding dresses to promo dresses, Taffeta is a major part of fashion for its lustrous appearance and beautiful shapes that create texture.
- Corsets: Taffeta is also frequently used for undergarments like corsets, where the stiff fabric is needed to hold in the waistline and create a silhouette.
- Linings: Piece-dyed silk taffeta is great for lining jackets, as the fabric is both decorative and soft to touch.
- Parachutes: Piece-dyed silk taffeta was used for creating parachutes in World War II.
- Medical textile and protective clothing: The Polyester and Nylon Taffeta is use for protective coverall and also Medical gown and other hospital purposes.
Different types of taffeta
- Shot silk taffeta: This is a type of silk taffeta where the warp and the weft threads are different colors, which creates a beautiful iridescent effect.
- Warp-printed taffeta: This type of silk taffeta has the warp threads printed before weaving, which creates a pastel pattern of varied colors. It was very popular in France in the eighteenth century.
- Paper taffeta: Paper taffeta is an extremely thin, lightweight form of taffeta that has a paper-like consistency.
- Antique taffeta: Antique taffeta is woven from unevenly spun yarns, which leads to slight bumps in the material from the inconsistencies.
- Faille taffeta: This type of taffeta is made from staple fibers, which are short-length fibers like cotton or wool.
- Stretch-taffeta: Stretch taffeta is a type of fabric that incorporates spandex into the weave for added stretch and flexibility.
100 % polyester taffeta (PT):
Taffeta is originally a sort of silk (4 categories of 24 small categories of silk), now there is a polyester imitation called polyester taffeta. Polyester taffeta is a full polyester thin fabric. It has a thin texture, durable, easy to wash, cheap and other advantages has been used for all kinds of clothing and luggage lining accessories.
PT application: Polyester taffeta used for jackets, umbrellas, car sets, sportswear, ocean umbrellas, handbags, bags, sleeping bags, tents, artificial flowers, medical PPE, shower curtains, tablecloths, chair sets and so on.
PT specifications : 170T, 180T, 190T, 210T, 230T, 240T, 260T, 300T (poly100%) on all can be coated PA, PU and PVC coated, silver coated, white red coated, black super strong anti-splashing and so on a series of post-processing.
The most important thing is the price of polyester taffeta is very cheap, much cheaper than silk taffeta, so in many places to replace the role of silk taffeta.
To set up 100% Polyester Taffeta (PT) factory first need the mind set up of finished fabric price; normally the polyester taffeta price is around 50 Cents/Meter. Need the big volume plant to ensure the turnover.
Yarn specification: The 100% polyester finer count FDY yarn is use to make different grade Polyester taffeta fabric. Using polyester filament yarn, making the fabric soft and smooth. The Polyester taffeta fabric properties is shape unchanging, non-crinkle and no shrinkage after washing which ensure good wearing property of soft, comfortable and fitting.
Key grey specifications/special features
- Warp: 50D/ 58D/68D/75D Polyester
- Weft: 68D/75D/100D Polyester
- Width: 60″ 63″ 67″ 71″ upto 120,,
- Specification: 170T/180T/190T/200T/210T/220T/230T/240T/290T
- GSM: 60, 72; 80; 100; 120
- Grey, Azo-free Plain Dyed, Print, Embossed, Cire finish, Antistatic, W/R, W/P
- Polyester Taffeta can be made various coating such as PA, PU, PVC, silver, milky coating, with water proof, water repellent affection.
Weaving process of polyester taffeta fabric
Taffeta fabric is plain weave fabric and polyester yarn if hydrophobic yarn. And the best way if taffeta weaving is water jet weaving.
Water jet weaving
Water jet weaving refers to weaving on a water jet loom. A water jet loom is similar to an air jet loom but uses water instead of air to transport the yarn around the shed. Water jet weaving is only suitable for yarns of hydrophobic nature likepPolyester PET, Acetate CA or Polyamides (6 or 6.6 for example).
Despite only hydrophobic materials being used for water jet weaving, one has to dry the fabric afterwards.
Working process of water jet loom
The water jet loom is a shuttle less loom that uses a jet of water to pull the weft yarn across the shed. The frictional traction force of the water jet weft insertion on the weft yarn is larger than that of the jet weft insertion, and the diffusibility is small, and it is suitable for the weft insertion of the synthetic fiber and the glass fiber which are smooth on the surface.
Advantages of water jet loom
- Water jet loom machine consumes less power than others.
- This type of loomis suitable for producing synthetic fabric.
- Production rate is higher. It can reach up to 2000 PPM
- It creates less noise than rapier and other looms.
- It can overcome the static electricity caused by conductivity of the synthetic fiber.
- The production efficiency is extremely high.
Disadvantages of water jet loom
- By using hard water, here may form rust on the yarn.
- It is not perfect for Hydrophilic yarn such as cotton.
Characteristic of water jet loom
Price: 8000 USD/set to 80000 USD/set.
Dyeing process of taffeta fabric: The taffeta Fabric Dyeing and finishing is compare to easy and shorter than any other Woven fabric.
There is 2 way of dyeing taffeta: By High Temperature jigger and Jet Dyeing
Process: 1: Grey Taffeta > Batching > Disperse Dyeing in High Temperature Jigger Dyeing machine > Unloading > Finishing in Stenter > Delivery
Process 2: Grey Taffeta > Batching > Disperse Dyeing in High Temperature Jet Dyeing machine > Unloading > Finishing in Stenter > Delivery
The details of high temperature jigger dyeing
The Jigger Dyeing is very simple and proven dyeing machine for mainly woven fabric. Almost all type of woven fabric can be dyed in the jigger in discontinuous way. The Jigger dyeing is 2 type normal temperature m/c and high temperature m/c. Normal temperature jigger also make in Norshingdi are for mainly reactive dyeing but for the Taffeta need high temperature Jigger Dyeing machine.
Main technical parameter of HTHP Jigger Dyeing M/C
Price: 40000 USD/set –100000 USD/set
Parameters HT jet dyeing machine
Printing
Sometime Taffeta fabric need to do all over print (AOP). It’s a regular process of disperse print. The Printing on taffeta fabric can be done by regular Digital printing; Rotary printing or Flatbed printing as per the demand on customer.
Summery
1. The 60 D FDY polyester yarn is not manufactured in Bangladesh. Once the yarn imported, the weaving and dyeing can be done in Bangladesh
2. Weaving investment is high compare to the return.
3. The Grey import from India and China can be very good option for Bangladesh for taffeta fabric demand.
4. Only dyeing project for taffeta investment is not much compare to outer regular woven dyeing. And it can be a good investment for Bangladesh compare to taffeta fabric growing demand.
