- What is the textile industry?
- History of the textile industry
- Textile machinery
- Countries with strong textile industry
- Textile industry in Mexico
We explain what the textile industry is, its history and the sectors that make it up. In addition, its development in Mexico and the world.
What is the textile industry?
The textile industry is the sector of the manufacturing industry dedicated to the production of fibers (natural and synthetic), fabrics, yarns and other products related to clothing and clothing. It usually covers the manufacture of clothing, clothing items and even shoes, and its work is carried out in textile factories or maquilas.
The textile industry is one of the most important economic activities in the entire world. For this reason, it provides jobs to huge sectors of the population in each country, since their products they tend to be marketed at a steady and massive rate.
At the same time, it is a source of enormous controversy, since its use of light machinery allows constant geographic relocation, which sometimes translates into unworthy working conditions and wages.
On the other hand, we speak of textile sectors to refer to the different components or stations of textile production, which directly make up the industry. Such as:
- Fiber production. Obtaining by natural or artificial means of the raw material to make textile products.
- Spinning. Stage of treating the fibers and obtaining the basic threads for the manufacture of fabrics.
- Weaving. Fabrication process of fabrics by weaving fiber yarns.
- Dry cleaner. Stage in which the fabrics are dyed and the final finishing of them is carried out.
- Tailoring and sewing. Sector in which the pieces of each garment are designed, cut and sewn, from fabrics already finished. It is divided into high and low fashion.
- Nonwovens. Non-textile elements or fabric manufacturing sector without requiring threads and fibers.
History of the textile industry
The textile industry, traditionally, was a field of female work that took place in the homes themselves and whose production was, at best, artisanal. The fabrics thus produced were then derived to a tailor or seamstress, in charge of manufacturing the pieces of clothing tailored to the client wealthy, or to make regular pieces for the use of the common people.
Population and economic growth during the early stages of the Industrial Revolution They led to the installation of workshops (looms) in which cloth could be produced on a constant basis, still employing manual labor and a large number of textile workers.
These conditions changed radically when in the 18th century and especially the 19th century, the first industrial technological devices emerged, destined to speed up and massify the production of textiles. These tools modernized the textile industry and allowed the mass manufacture of fabrics, albeit at the cost of reducing the amount of workers.
There were reactions against the arrival of this technologyAs were the violent Luddite demonstrations, but the advantages of the new mechanized industry were undeniable and ended up being imposed to this day.
In fact, the textile industry was the first of the industries to develop, when John Kay's first flying shuttle emerged in 1733. As early as 1800, there were only about 350,000 textile workers in Britain, divided between yarns and fabrics. At the beginning of the 19th century, 40% of the exports of this nation they consisted of fabrics.
Textile machinery
The modern textile industry has important mechanical and even automated artifacts, which carry out constant, continuous and mass production. Among them are:
- Openers and processors. These are different machines that are used to open bales of cotton or other natural or synthetic raw materials, shredding them and separating the useful material from the impurities. They often lead to a "softener", which is a kind of press equipped with rotating rollers, which crush and soften the fibers, especially of rigid materials such as hemp; and various water extractors to avoid further complications with the fiber.
- Spinning machines. These are machines that receive the fibers processed and ready for use, and proceed to make a thread with them. Currently this process is highly automated, but in the beginning the first spinners were devices equipped with spools and eight fiber spools, known as Jenny spinners (and invented in 1770 by James Hargreaves).
- Loom. Modern version of the artifact formerly invented by textile artisans, the loom is a weaving machine, that is, to transform threads into fabrics. To do this, it intertwines two sets of threads: the warp and the weft, generally by means of a drum that allows the threads to interlock following a certain set of guides, at the rhythm of the movement of a comb, whose swing pushes the thread, forming the weft. The result of this operation, nowadays carried out by automated machines, is a piece of cloth of large proportions.
Countries with strong textile industry
The textile industry is very robust in countries such as China, the world's largest textile producer and the leading exporter of finished fabrics and garments.
The United States, India are also highly developed, and since 2010 Morocco, Vietnam, Thailand, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkey and South Korea have been added to the list, as well as Peru, Brazil, Mexico and Indonesia, to a lesser extent.
Textile industry in Mexico
In the case of Mexico, the textile industry represents an important portion of its GDP. Traditionally occupied by women, this sector developed continuously and unregulated until 2009, the year it entered a crisis, and was characterized by low wages, minimal labor demands and zero environmental protection.
However, thanks to this booming industry, Mexico is among the world's textile powers, especially in the synthetic fibers sector, of which it is the fifth largest supplier worldwide, exporting 4.695 million dollars annually.