Nainsook

A fine, light, plain-woven cotton cloth with a soft finish.

Nap

1. A fibrous surface produced on a fabric or felt by raising in which part of the fibre is lifted from the basic structure.
Note: Nap and pile are often used synonymously, but the practice of using tile two terms for different concepts is to be encouraged as providing a means of differentiation and avoidance of confusion.
2. A variant of nep, used in the flax-processing industry.
3. In raw cotton, matted clumps of fibres which are entangled more loosely than those in neps(see nep).

Naphthalene

A solid aromatic hydrocarbon (C10H8) derived from coal tar. Naphthalene is used as moth flakes and as the basis of certain dye components.

Napier

1. A double-faced fabric for dresswear or overcoats that has a wool face and a backing mainly of hair.
2. A floor covering of hemp and jute.

Napping

The production of a layer of protruding fibres on the surface of fabrics by brushing, teazling, or rubbing.
Note: The fabric, in open width, is passed over rotating rollers covered with teazles, fine wires, etc., whereby the surface fibres are pulled out or broken to give the required effect.

Napping

1. An alternative term for raising.
2. Cloth which has been raised to obtain a dense full nap is treated in a machine which rubs the raised fibres into small pills, balls or curls. The process is sometimes called 'friezing' (see frieze).

Narrow fabric

Any fabric made by interlacing fibres or yarns which (in the U.K.) does not exceed 45 cm in width. In the U.S.A., and for the purpose of the Tariff code in the EC, the upper limit of width is 30cm. A characteristic of a narrow fabric is that its edges are an essential feature.

Narrow fabric selvedge (needleloom)

A double pick is inserted into each successive shed from one side of fabric. The selvedge at the side of the loom from which the double pick is inserted is secured by the structure of the fabric (the outside end must be made to change sheds) and at the opposite selvedge successive loops of weft are locked by one of the following methods:
(i) knitting successive loops together;
(ii) knitting a catchthread through the loops;
(iii) knitting a catchthread through the loops together with a locking thread;
(iv) passing a catch thread through each loop by means of a small shuttle.(sub category of selvedge woven , list, listing)

Natural draw ratio

The ratio of the cross-sectional areas of a filament before and after the neck when a synthetic filament or film draws at a neck.(sub category of stretch ratio, draw ratio)

Natural Fiber

A class name for various genera of fibers (including filaments) of animal (i.e. silk and wool); (2) mineral (i.e. asbestos); or (3) vegetable origin (i.e. cotton flax jute and ramie).

Natural flax

Scutched flax produced from deseeded straw without any intermediate treatment such as retting.

Navel

In rotor spinning, a device, aligned on the axis of the rotor, through which the yarn is withdrawn, different types of which can influence yarn quality and processibility.

Neck

In the process of drawing synthetic filaments or films, the relatively short length over which a reduction in cross-sectional area occurs as a result of stretching beyond a critical value.
Note.. Commercial drawing processes for manufactured fibres and films do not necessarily involve the formation of a neck.

Necking

The abrupt reduction in cross-section that may occur when an undrawn filament is stretched.
Note: The term is most commonly associated with undrawn yarn but also occurs when conducting tensile tests on knitted fabrics (see wasting) and thermoplastic materials, particularly in film form.

Needle

1. A thin metal device usually with an eye at one end for inserting the thread used in sewing to transport the thread. 2. The portion of a knitting machine used for intermeshing the loops. Several types of knitting needles are available. (Also see SPRING NEEDLE and LATCH NEEDLE.) 3. In nonwovens manufacture a barbed metal device used for punching the web’s own fibers vertically through the web.