Basic Introduction to Tai'an Raw Silk
Tai'an raw silk is a protected geographical indication product and a specialty of Tai'an, Shandong. Raw silk is the product obtained after reeling the cocoons of mulberry silkworms. Commonly known as real silk, machine-reeled silk is called factory silk, while hand-reeled silk is called native silk. After degumming, it becomes cooked silk. Tai'an raw silk is mainly exported to Western European countries, with smaller quantities going to India and Pakistan.
Raw silk is soft and smooth, with a full hand feel, good strength and extensibility, elasticity, a gentle luster, strong moisture absorption, and is non-irritating to the skin, making it a high-grade textile material. It can be woven into various types of silk fabrics with different structures for use in clothing, interior furnishings, crafts, decorations, etc. Raw silk also has a high specific strength, excellent electrical insulation properties, good thermal insulation, and is flammable but burns slowly. It has important applications in industry, defense, and medicine, such as in the manufacture of insulating materials, parachutes, artificial blood vessels, etc.
Tai'an is accelerating the development of mulberry gardens in Daiyue District, Xintai City, Feicheng City, and Ningyang County, promoting the construction of high-quality cocoon bases, enhancing the development of the silk industry, accelerating the research and development of new varieties of mulberry and silkworms, making comprehensive use of mulberry, silkworm, and silk resources, vigorously fostering independent brands, expanding the market share of famous brand products, and focusing on the construction of comprehensive utilization projects and technological transformation projects. By 2015, the city's mulberry garden area will stabilize at 200,000 mu, the cocoon production will strive to reach 20,000 tons, and annual raw silk production will reach 4,000 tons; leading enterprises will aim to reach 10, annual sales revenue will reach 1.2 billion yuan, export earnings will reach 50 million US dollars; it will develop and benefit 80,000 households, increasing farmers' income by 500 million yuan.
Product Characteristics
Raw silk is formed by several cocoon filaments mutually embracing and bonded together by sericin, containing approximately 80% fibroin and 20% sericin. Raw silk is a porous fiber, with void capacity accounting for about 35%, and the maximum diameter of voids reaching 1 micron. Due to the triangular cross-section of cocoon filaments and their irregular arrangement in a conical helix, with a slight undulating state fixed within the raw silk, the cross-sectional shape of raw silk is nearly elliptical. The major axis of a 22 denier raw silk cross-section is approximately 60-70 microns, and the minor axis is around 40-50 microns. Defects in raw silk quality mainly include slubs, color defects, contamination defects, coarseness and hardness, damage and mildew, poor finishing, and fuzziness.