Fiber and Biopolymer Research Insitute

 

 When I first learned that we were going to visit the Fiber and Biopolymer Research Institution, I was a little overwhelmed, both by the name and because we were on our own finding this building that apparently lots of people get lost trying to find. The morning we were scheduled to go I woke up thinking thank god for modern technology, that I could just type the address into my GPS and get there no problem; I was so wrong. My GPS took me to the middle of an intersection of a highway and kept rerouting me, finally, after driving all around Lubbock for awhile and calling my just as equally confused friends, I looked up the directions online and found out I was on the complete opposite side of Lubbock that I was supposed to be. After following the directions I finally found the building and scrambled into where the rest of my class was, 20 minutes late, but better late than never. Not really sure what to expect, I was surprised at how interesting being there really was.

 

 

Our tour guide I guess you could call him (shown above) was extremely knowledgeable and took us step by step through the facility explaining exactly how they turned the fibers into actual fabrics. I knew it probably took some time to do this process but I was surprised at how many steps and different machines they really do have to turn out a quality product.

 

The fiber has to be cleaned

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and sorted out into long and short fibers,

 

 

 the long fibers are what make it to the fabric process, and the short fibers are not wasted but used for things such as q-tips and cotton balls, then they go into a room where they are spun into thread and yarn on all of these bobbins. (below and in very first picture)

 

 

 

All of the rooms were pretty loud when the machines were turned on, but when we walked into the final room where the yarn and thread becomes fabric, without warning he turned on the loom to start weaving the fabric and the noise was so loud it scared the living daylight out of me, especially that early in the morning. Luckily he turned it off pretty quickly, but it was the coolest part in my opinion, especially because we got to see a patterned fabric being woven, versus just a simple solid. He also showed us how socks and t-shirts are made on a totally different machine which I thought was really neat because I never knew they wove them differently. Although it was very difficult to find and I was a little on the late side, I really enjoyed my experience.