Spun yarn program

• Apparel 
  dresses, suits, skirts, jackets, pants, blouses, shirts, children wear, mixed with cotton in knitted sweaters
• Home Fashion
  curtains, draperies, upholstery, bedspreads, table linens, sheets, dish towels
• Sewing threads
• Handkerchiefs
• Parachute fabrics
• Woven fire hoses
• Narrow weaving
• Canvas
• Filter cloth
• When used in a mixture with wool, shrinkage is reported to be greatly reduced when compared with pure wool. 
• Short waste fibers are used for the production of high quality papers, such as bank notes & cigarette papers.
• As ramie takes up phosphorous, it is potentially useful for cleaning up the Everglades.  This region suffers   from a nutrient overload from the sugar industry.

Ramie as a Blend

Care procedures prescribed on the care labels of ramie products vary. Items of 100 percent ramie should not require special care. Generally, they may be laundered or dry-cleaned depending on individual dyes, finishes and design applications. High temperatures will not harm the fiber itself, making washing in hot water and ironing at high settings possible; however, color retention, shrinkage control or properties of blended fibers may dictate lower temperatures. Recent laboratory testing done has led to the conclusion that the best performance results when gentler or more special handling is used in care. For example, fabrics retained the best color and shape with the most wrinkle-free appearance when they were dry-cleaned.

Machine washing in cold water on gentle cycle with line drying was better than machine washing in warm water with tumble drying on permanent press cool down cycle. Hand washing in cool water with flat drying is the most strongly recommended home care method for both knits and woven fabrics. The consumer who knows the strengths and limitations of the fiber can receive maximum service and enjoyment from ramie products.

The following characteristics of the ramie crop would influence its suitability in Australian farming systems:

• it is a perennial crop with a life of 6 to 20 years
• it is capable of producing high yields of biomass and if the harvesting system involves total removal of this biomass, there would be a rapid decline in soil fertility and
• ramie is subject to a number of pests and diseases, including nematodes.

Ramie is a member of the Urticaceae or nettle family and is a hardy perennial which produces a large number of unbranched stems from underground rhizomes. The stems of ramie grow to a height of 1 to 2.5 m. The crop is generally propagated vegetatively, using rhizome or stem cuttings. Production begins to decline once roots become overcrowded.

Ramie is normally harvested two to three times per year but under good growing conditions can be harvested up to six times per year. Harvesting is done just before or soon after the onset of flowering, since there is a decline in plant growth at this stage and maximum fiber content is achieved. Stems are harvested by cutting just above the lateral roots or the stem can be bent, to enable the core to be broken and the cortex can be stripped from the plant in situ. Mechanical harvesters have been developed but are not used commercially. After harvesting, stems are decorticated while the plants are fresh as the bark gets harder to remove as the plant dries out. The bark ribbons are dried as quickly as possible to prevent attack by bacteria or fungi.

The dry weight of harvested stem from both tropical and temperate crops ranges from about 3.4 to 4.5 t/ha/year; a 4.5 ton crop yields about 1,600 kg/ha/year of dry non-de-gummed fiber. The weight loss during de-gumming can be up to 25% giving a yield of de-gummed fiber of about 1,200 kg/ha/year.

Extraction of the fiber occurs in three stages.

• Firstly, the cortex or bark is removed, either by hand or machine, in a process called de-cortication.
• The second stage involves scraping the cortex to remove most of the outer bark, the parenchyma in the bast layer and some of the gums and pectins.
• The third stage involves washing, drying and de-gumming of the residual cortex material to extract the spinnable fiber. Details of the de-gumming processes tend to be regarded as commercial-in-confidence information

Ramie fiber is one of the premium vegetable fibers. The ultimate fibers are exceptionally long and are claimed to be the longest of vegetable origin, with one report claiming the fibers range up to 580 mm, averaging about 125 mm. Ramie fiber is very durable, is pure white in colour and has a silky luster.

For the hand spinner, ramie is treated similar to flax in that it can be either wet or dry spun. A wet spun yarn will produce a smooth softer yarn with high luster, while a dry spun yarn will feel hairier, have less luster and a harsher handle. It can readily be blended with other fibers such as wool or silk, although the length of ramie can sometimes cause difficulties.

Hunan Isunte