Characterization of newly developed void raw silk fabrics in comparision with raw silk fabrics

CSTRI has developed new technology for the production of void raw silk in reeling process. In this technology, the cocoons were reeled along with PVA yarn as core, which is termed as void silk, since PVA component would be dissolved subsequently. Three types of raw silk yarns were produced by maintaining 10, 20, 30 cocoons per end and with same cocoons with PVA yarn as core. These yarns were utilized for the production of fabrics in power looms with bivoltine silk as warp and raw silk/void silk as weft. After weaving the fabrics, the fabric samples were degummed and dyed using reactive dyes in HTHP dyeing machine, wherein, the PVA component as well as sericin were dissolved so as to create hollowness in the fabrics and showed an improvement in various fabric properties viz., fabric thickness, cover factor, crimp, crease recovery, drape, tensile properties etc. The void silk fabrics has unique appearance on the surface compared to regular silk fabrics and can be utilized for children wear and ladies dress materials for niche market.