Increasing Demand For Crossbred Wool

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32221, 13 February 1970, Page 7

Increasing Demand For Crossbred Wool

Part 11

It should be heartening to know that further developments are in the pipe line to give coarser wools a still stronger place in the textile industry.

An example of a development in the carpet field, which is of course the major outlet for coarser wools, which could have a significant effect on wool use, is the artificial crimping process of which a New Zealander and member of the staff of the Wool Research Organisation. Dr D. A. Ross, is the author. It has resulted from work that he did while on secondment to the International Wool Secretariat. One of the main points about the crimping process is that It gives bulkiness to yarns for carpet manufacture. Mr C. P. Macaluso, who is manager of manufactur- 1 ing and technical services for the Wool Bureau in the United States, said recently that a yard of carpet made from crimped wool looked as though it had four or five more ounces of wool in it than a comparable area of carpet made from untreated wool. He said that it could reduce , the raw material cost of a carpet by 10 per cent.

Apart from this, the crimping process looks like imparting other advantages to a carpet in better appearance and colour and greater resistance to soiling and bet-

Mr E. W. Koelsch. the director of the West German branch of the secretariat, also sees the crimping process as making it possible to make a carpet yarn of a 100 per cent coarser crossbred wool, instead of having to incorporate some 30 to 40 per cent of a naturally crimped fibre with the coarser fibre.

The process has been under commercial evaluation in a number of countries, including New Zealand, and during our travels we saw it being used on an experimental basis at the Riverside Mills in Augusta in Georgia in the United States.

Mr D. V. Damerell, who is regional director for the I.W.S. in America, including Canada and Mexico, believes that the process could have a big impact in the carpet industry in the United States in a relatively short period of time and he forecasts that it could make wool in carpets highly competitive with synthetics—wool might be able to more than match synthetics in this respect. The I.W.S. also foresees earning royalties from this process. Japan is also interested in this process for the production of

Incidentally, there are other developments that could increase wool's competitiveness in carpets. One is sliver knitting and another a needle punching process in which it is envisaged that New Zealand crutchings, with the substitution of some fibre with a polymer i sertion, could result in the production of floor coverings worth as little as an average of about 81.91 per square yard, moving wool into a low price floor covering field for the first time.

It is of course well worth bearing in mind that the carpet industry is the fastest growing textile industry in the world and represents the largest single end use for wool. The prospects for the continued growth of the industry are considered to he good. Carpet consumption in the United States last year was running at the rate of 2.2 square yards a person compared with 1.9 in the United Kingdom and 0 9 over the whole of Western Europe It is considered that the swing from hard to soft floor coverings in Europe could mean that consumption of carpets in Northern Europe could soon match that of the United Kingdom.

The big development in the carpet field in recent years ha been the introduction of the tufted carpet which now constitutes more than 90 per cent of broadloom carpet production in the United States and also more than 50 per cent in Europe. The tufting machine is really an overgrown sewing machine and its particular advantage over the loom is its very much greater speed, and combined with the use of low cost materials it has resulted in a marked reduction in carpet

prices bringing carpets within the range of many more people. The basic policy of the secretariat in this situation has been to concentrate the greater part of its resources on bringing wool into tufted lines, while still of course defending its position in the traditional woven carpel and carpet square fields. Because initially it was claimed that wool would not tuft satisfactorily this exercise has involved a considerable effort on the part of scientists and technicians at Ilkley in developing a virtual package deal for wool in tufted carpets It has meant that manufacturers have not had to experiment themselves. They have had a blueprint presented to them.

Recently there were more than 50 tutfed carpet manufacturers in Europe producing Woolmark lines of tufted carpet compared with 17 two years ago and similarly over the same period in the United Kingdom the numbers tufting with wool has gone up from two to 17. In Britain, however. the amount of wool used in tufting is not large—it represents only about two or three per cent of tufted carpets. but it is perhaps interesting to note here that in 1968 carpets were the only end product in Britain where wool actually increased its share of total fibre consumption—it went up by an extra two per cent.

There are also other significant developments in the use of coarser wools in

the apparel Held in Germany in “Country Look" fabrics and garments, and tn Britain and Japan in light-weight suitings. The Country-look style of fabric and garment is the result of a deliberate programme by the West German branch of the I.W.S. to help to bring more New Zealand coarse wool into use. It involves the use of wool of about 44-48 s counts and late last year it was estimated that some 12m lb of greasy wool had already gone into this end use. It 1 is in both men's wear and women’s wear

In Britain our party paid a short visit to the mitt of A. C. Watsons, Ltd. in Yorkshire where the secretariat has been working with the manufacturer on the production of a light weight suiting using New Zealand crossbred wool of 48s 50s. counts and weighing 11 to 12 ounces to the yard The managing director and sales director for the firm greeted the New Zealand party wearing suits made of the material. It was reckoned that these suits might retail for as low as £lB 18s each. This winter the London Metropolitan Police are trying out a cloth made out of a combination of New Zealand 48s crossbred on the outside and softer 60s. Merino on the back or inside. It weighs about 18 to 19 ounces to the yard and is another project of the secretariat In London there are incidentally about 27,000 policemen, including 9000 specials, and in the United

Kingdom as a whole about 90.000 regular police and' 46.000 specials, which con-J stitutes quite a potential!! market in itself. The Japanese technical I centre at Ichtnomyia is also! interested in light-weight I suitings made of coarser)! wools, which it is felt will ! hold their shape better in J the sticky hot Japanese sum- 1 iner and some of these are)! already on the market in J Japan. (To be continued)

bulky hand knitting yarns. This is Jhe second of o scries of articles written by a representative of 'The Press" who made a flying trip round the world towards the end of last near with three other New Zealand journalists to look at activities of branches of the International Wool Secretariat The trip was made under the auspices of the Wool Hoard