Dehairing

  • Dehairing Australian Alpaca Fibres With a Cashmere Dehairing Machine

    Many classes of alpaca fibres contain a certain amount of coarse fibres, which are strong and stiff, and cause discomfort to the end users of the alpaca fibre products. It is therefore desirable to separate the coarse fibres from the fine alpaca fibres. This paper reports trial results on alpaca dehairing using a cashmere dehairing machine. The diameters of alpaca fleece, dehaired alpaca fibres and removed alpaca fibres were analysed, and the fibre lengths before and after dehairing have been compared. The results indicate that it is feasible to dehair alpaca fibres using a cashmere dehairing facility. The dehaired alpaca fibres are cleaner, bulkier and softer, with around 1.5 μm reduction in average fibre diameter, but the dehairing process shortens the dehaired fibre length considerably. The dehairing effectiveness of coarse fibre removal using the cashmere dehairing technology has also been discussed in this paper.More »
  • Skirting Suri – a Textile Process

    As soon as an alpaca – suri or huacaya - is restrained on the shearing table or floor, its fleece becomes a commercial commodity. The genetics, breeding, awards and animal’s name and temperament are no longer important. The priority at that point is to obtain the highest commercial yield possible from individual and groups of alpacas with the key being ‘consistency’. That means aiming to have consistency within a single skirted fleece and within the total fleece clip of your alpaca herd.More »

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