Textile engineering

Textile engineering, also known as textile technology, is the study of various principles form engineering and scientific methodologies. These principles are then implemented for the processing and production of all kinds of textile fabric and yarns from textile fibers. The disciple involves extensive study of chemical and physical principles, which is then utilized for the detailed study and analysis of the behavior of polymers involved in the formation of textile fiber.
This field is part of the larger textile industry that is also referred to as "rag trade" in Australia and England. Other than textile engineering, the working mechanics of this industry involve design, manufacture, distribution, and sales of clothing and apparels. The textile industry developed and progressed in Britain during the Industrial Revolution of 18th century, and from there spread to Germany and then America. More advanced technologies in these countries led to the development and innovation of textile industry on more advanced scientific principles.
Textile engineering is an innovative field as it is a scientific realm. It involves the creative research, study, and exploration of new techniques for production and improvisation. Textile manufacturers not only seek to develop and find new techniques for the production of new fabrics of better quality, but they also constantly work on improving existing textile fibers.


 The same components  that once went into making your jacket are now helping to provide arteries and aortic heart valves.  Carbon fibre and Polyester, braided together, are providing the same properties as human ligament. 

     Other sectors that are drastically reshaping the industry are geotextiles, involved in engineering projects like reinforcing embankments, and protective clothing, providing suits that block heat and radiation, give stab protection and make bulletproof vests.

      According to global manufacturing statistics, production of technical textiles is now growing at four percent a year, while home and clothing textiles is growing at one percent.

      It’s a trend that’s well noted by the National Institute of Textile Training Research and Design, known as NITTRAD, in Bangladesh.  It now includes the teaching of technical textiles as part of its BSc course in textile engineering, at its campus in Savar, near Dhaka.

     The institute has been undergoing a transformation of its own since the operation was handed over by the government to the Bangladesh Textile Mills Association in 2009 as a public-private partnership.  The reborn institute, now privately managed, is much better equipped, with the latest high-tech training installations. 

     Help has come from the Better Work and Standards programme of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation, BEST, funded by the European Union and the Norwegian development agency, Norad.  As well as providing equipment for the campus, the programme has been particularly useful in providing international expertise, in the form of tutors and other professionals, and arranging foreign visits for staff.

      The principal of NITTRAD, Dr Ayub Nabi Khan, has high ambitions for his new dynamic institute, but faces a daunting task in supplying a market so hungry for textile talent.

     “The government has given priority to private enterprise, and this place has become a role model for education, research and training in the textile industry. The problem is we have a huge manpower shortage,“ said Dr Khan.

      There are currently 15 universities in Bangladesh with textile departments, and they will double the number of graduates to 6,000 a year within the next three years.  Over the same period, the projected need for graduates will reach 65,000.  The gap will have to be filled with expensive foreign engineers, so anybody leaving NITTRAD or any of the other training institutions is guaranteed a good job.

      Dr Khan is well aware of this challenge facing the country’s textile industry but can see great progress being shown by NITTRAD and is excited by the enormous potential.  “We hope to become the biggest exporter of garments in the world,” he said.

      For the country to get the most from its overall textile potential it will need to keep up with modern trends such as technical textiles.  For this it has the help of one of the leading scientists in the field, Professor Subhash Anand from the University of Bolton in the UK, who lectures at NITTRAD as part of the UNIDO support programme.

      “Although at the moment Bangladesh is producing basic textiles, I think in time as education and awareness increases they will be able to produce these kind of products which are now being made in Europe,” he said.

      The Bangladeshi textile industry has long had to work to the patterns sent to it from abroad but now it is designing an ambitious one of its own, all about its own future.