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An overview of engineering, manufacturing, and innovation principles used in textile production. Learn how to design fiber-based smart materials and products, and craft a utility patent application that will protect your inventions.
After a course session ends, it will be archived.
What makes fiber a unique engineered-to-the-extreme state of soft matter?
This online course from the MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering introduces the key principles used to engineer and manufacture fibers and textiles. You will learn the fundamentals of polymer science, mechanical, thermal, and moisture transport engineering of fibrous media. You’ll get an overview of industrial and lab-scale textile manufacturing techniques and machinery, visual color science and engineering, and design of composite fibrous materials.
You will learn how to hierarchically design new materials and products that derive their cumulative properties from the fiber as the smallest engineering building block. You will also get a feeling for what it means to innovate in the industry that literally touches every single person on the planet at any given moment of time, amplifying the impact of any innovation compatible with its large-scale distributed industrial and supply infrastructure.
The course will guide you through several real-world examples of iconic commercialized textile-based technologies. The course will reinforce the learning process via peer-to-peer discussions, and will culminate with the practical exercise of crafting your own mock patent applications. Several mock applications created by MIT students taking the residential version of this class have been converted into filed utility patent applications.
None (basic high-school-level knowledge of algebra, chemistry, physics, history, fashion design, and environmental science)
In this course, you will:
Week 1
Introduction, course overview, and a concept map. Basic characteristics of fibers and yarns. Textile terminology and units. Natural fibers: plant-, animal-, and mineral-based. Yarn spinning from staple fibers. Spinning preparation: carding, combing, drawing & roving. Ring, open-end rotor and air-jet yarn spinning.
Week 2
Innovation in textile industry & intellectual property protection. Utility patent structure & coverage. Design patent structure & coverage. An anatomy of a patent application. Patent infringement and invalidation. Richard Arkwright’s spinning frame patent of 1769 v. his carding technology patent, 1775.
Week 3
Bio-derived man-made fibers. Intro to wet, dry, and melt spinning techniques. Cellulose-based rayon fibers. Alternative solvents for cellulose; cupro & lyocell processes; Tenacity as a measure of fiber strength. Dry spinning. Regenerated protein fibers. Polymer cross-linking. Engineering v. specific stress, unit conversion.
Week 4
Synthetic fibers and textiles production. Nylon history; condensation polymerization. Fiber-making polymers. Polyethylene; addition polymerization. Degree of polymerization and molecular weight. Polyester. Fiber melt-spinning and spin-doping. Fiber drawing; strain-induced crystallization; natural draw ratio. Yarn classification by orientation & crystallinity (FOY, POY, etc.)
Week 5
Mechanical characterization. Stress-strain curve. Young’s modulus. Standard tensile tests. Structural characterization: X-ray scattering; Scanning electron microscopy (SEM); Crystallinity analysis via wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS). Herman’s orientation function; birefringence. Raman scattering. Vibrational modes of polymer molecules. Curve fitting and peak deconvolution. Thermal properties of fibers. Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC). Glass transition, melting, crystallization, cold crystallization; decomposition. Testing standards. Melt flow index.
Week 6
Yarn engineering. Smooth and textured yarns. Specialty yarn engineering. Hollow spindle fancy-yarn machines. Elastic fibers. Cyclic yarn testing. Auxetic fibers & yarns. Fiber properties engineering and characterization. Contact angle and fiber wettability. Fiber surface treatment & coating. Human color vision. Chemistry of natural and synthetic dyes. Pigment-based and structural color, spin(solution)-dyeing. Engineering thermal and electrical conductivity of fibers. Engineering reversible thermal energy storage in fibers.
Week 7
Weaving. Warp & weft yarns. Basic functions and elements of looms. Loom primary & secondary motions. Weaving preparation: yarn sizing & loom warping. Shedding mechanisms: cam, dobby, Jacquard. Picking mechanisms: shuttle, projectile, rapier, airjet, waterjet. Edmund Cartwright’s power loom. Crompton fancy power loom. Recent innovations in loom technology. Weaving patterns & notations. Plain, twill, satin, rib, and matt weaves. The role of yarn twist and texture. Mechanical properties of woven fabrics. Tensile testing standards for textiles: grab v. strip test. Textile area density & thread count. Crimp engineering & characterization. Knitting. Lee’s stocking frame. Bearded v. latch needle, stitch formation process. Weft-knitted fabrics. Course & wale. Circular knitting machine operation principle. Knitted loop notations; plain (jersey), flow (float, missed) & tuck stitches. Rib & purl knits. Yarn plating. Fleecy, terry/plush & pile fabrics. Spacer fabrics. Whole garment knitting. Warp knitting.
Week 8
Project 1: a dissection of an iconic textile product/technology.
Week 9
Nonwovens. Felting. Web formation & bonding. Drylaying by carding. Airlaying. Wetlaying. Direct/polymer/spunlaid nonwovens. Binder types & curing processes. Meltblown fabric formation. Electrospinning. Mechanical bonding: Needle-punching, Hydroentangling, Stitch-bonding, Ultrasonic welding. Fiber-reinforced composites & laminates. Matrix & dispersed phase of a composite. Stiffness and strength of fiber-reinforced composites, rule of mixtures. Monomaterial textile concept. 3D printing on textiles. Moisture-repellent and moisture-absorbing textiles. Push-pull hierarchical textiles. Industrial standards for textile testing for moisture transport. Engineering color & light reflectance on the textile level. Heat transport engineering. Insulating, heat-reflective & cooling textiles. Standards for textile testing for heat transport.
Week 10
Electronic(+) textile envelope engineering. Fiber- & textile-integrated sensors, capacitors and actuators. Optical fiber engineering, manufacture, and integration. Shape memory polymers. Artificial muscles. Mechanocaloric fibers. Fabrication, knitting & weaving of specialty fibers. Embroidery. Melt-spinning from preforms.
Week 11
Textiles and the environment. Lifecycle analysis of fibers, textiles and garments. Higg’s index. Mechanical v. chemical recycling and automated sorting. Supply chains.
Week 12
Project 2: mock patent application drafting.
“My focus is on composites, especially for the building industry. One aspect of them, is the extensive use of fibers, in a more controlled/computable way. Composite envelopes are in fact a form of clothing. Thus composite-building manufacturing should listen the fashion industry, a field that historically addresses the use of fibers. I was excited to dive into the world of textiles, fabrics, yarns, and absorb new information.”
“I have worked with a variety of fibers and traditional techniques from processing raw material to constructing final pieces. More so on the hand craft side and natural fibers/dyes. Super excited and interested to learn more from the engineering perspective and have a focus on sustainable fashion.”
“I develop new manufacturing methods for large-scale production of polymers and composites. My focus is on advanced manufacturing and carbon-nanotube-based composite for aerospace applications. On my spare time, I love sewing and fibercraft and I was excited to learn how I can mesh my passion for manufacturing and fabrics to promote more sustainable fabrication methods in the textile industry.”
“In my research, I am developing land-free, low-waste production techniques for plant-based materials. I have a particular interest in the logistics of plant-based and cellulosic textile production and loved learning about some of the challenges facing the industry.”
Q: Is this course similar to a residential course at MIT?
A: This course covers most of the material taught in the MIT residential graduate course Fiber and Textile Engineering except for the Matlab-based computational assignments that require higher-level knowledge of calculus, mechanics, chemistry, and signal/image processing. The hands-on laboratory experience of the residential class is substituted by an extensive supplementary video library illustrating the operation of various types of equipment discussed in the lecture materials.
Who can take this course?
Unfortunately, learners residing in one or more of the following countries or regions will not be able to register for this course: Iran, Cuba and the Crimea region of Ukraine. While edX has sought licenses from the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to offer our courses to learners in these countries and regions, the licenses we have received are not broad enough to allow us to offer this course in all locations. edX truly regrets that U.S. sanctions prevent us from offering all of our courses to everyone, no matter where they live.
Who can take this course?
Unfortunately, learners residing in one or more of the following countries or regions will not be able to register for this course: Iran, Cuba and the Crimea region of Ukraine. While edX has sought licenses from the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to offer our courses to learners in these countries and regions, the licenses we have received are not broad enough to allow us to offer this course in all locations. edX truly regrets that U.S. sanctions prevent us from offering all of our courses to everyone, no matter where they live.
