How Is Lyocell Fabric Made?
Tencel is almost chemically identical to rayon, but a somewhat different process is used to make this rayon derivative. Unlike the rayon production process, the lyocell fabric production process involves the use of a direct solvent instead of an indirect solvent. A solvent spinning technique is used to create Tencel, which means that unlike the case in the production of rayon, the Tencel production process doesn't cause any significant chemical changes to the chemical structure of cellulose.
While fabrics derived from cellulose have been around for nearly 200 years, they have only been in mass production since the beginning of the 20th century. These fabrics were originally designed as substitutes for silk, and pioneers of cellulose fabrics attempted to recreate the process that silkworms use to make real silk.
The first cellulose fabric to be mass-produced was rayon, and to this day, rayon is made with an extrusion method. As one of the newest cellulose fabric production methods, production of lyocell improves on the production methods used to make rayon. It is more efficient, it produces less waste, and it results in a product that is less synthetic than rayon.
