General requirements:

Mechanically extracted coir fibre, also known as “Brown fibre”  is mechanically extracted from the dry husks of matured and ripe coconut after soaking these husks in water. The fibre shall be reasonably free from moisture and impurities.

The requirements of three commercial grades of fibre are also follows:-

1.Bristle Coir Fibre:- The two grades of Bristle Coir Fibre shall be comparatively long and stiff. The texture shall be firm and stiff and shall not be brittle.  The colour shall be cinnamon brwon.

2. Mattress Coir Fibre:- The Mattress Coir Fibre is comparatively short and resilient.

  3.Decorticated Coir Fibre:- Decorticated coir fibre is mixed fibre. The Grade I fibre shall be strong and springy and the Grade II fibre shall be softer than Grade I but harder and more springy than matters fibre and both shall not be brittle

Length of Fibre

Based on the lengths, the mechanically extracted coir fibre shll be grouped as follows:

Impurities      

The maximum permissible impurities, mainly pith, dust, bits of exocarp and fibre bits below 50 mm in two grade of Bristle Coir Fibre, in Mattress coir fibre  and in two grades of Decorticated Coir Fibre shall be in accordence with the requirements of Table I, II & III below:-

  Table  I : Percent by Mass of “LONG”, “MEDIUM” &” SHORT” fibres and impurities in Bristle Coir Fibre.

Table  II : Percent by Mass of “LONG”, “MEDIUM” &” SHORT” fibres and impurities in Mattress Coir Fibre

  Table  III : Percent by Mass of “LONG”, “MEDIUM” &” SHORT” fibres and impurities in Decoticated  Coir Fibre

  Mass

The percentage of Mass of ‘long’, ‘Medium’ and ‘Short’ fibres in the different grades of Bristle Coir Fibre, Mattress Coir Fibre and Decorticated Coir Fibre shall be in accordance with the requirement of Table I,II & III above.

Moisture Content

The Moistrure Content of the different grades of Bristle coir fibre, Mattress Coir fibre and Decorticated coir fibre shall not exceed 15 percent.

Chloride Content   

  The Chloride content of the different grades of coir Bristle fibre.  Mattress Coir fibre and Decorticated coir fibre shall not exceed 0.6 percent by Mass.

  Sulphate content

Sulphate content of different grades of Bristle coir fibre, Mattress Coir Fibre and Decorticated coir fibre shll not exceed 0.25 % by Mass.

General Characteristics:- Brown fibre coir yarn is spun from brown coir fibre. The qualities of coir yarn approved are (i) Fine, (ii) Medium, & (iii)Coarse .  The yarn shall also be supplied in bleached or dyed state.  The yarn shall be reasonably free from moisture,pith and other remnants of husk and impurities.

Definition of Brown Fibre Coir Yarn

(i)Fine

Wheel spun 2 ply yarn, spun from natural brown coloured, long or medium stapled, and well cleaned fibre extracted from dry husks of natured coconut. The yarn is finer in texture, uniform in thickness and twist free from pith and other remnants of husk and foreign materials like sand etc.  It is hard twisted and scorage ranges from 15 to 18.

  ii)Medium

  Wheel spun 2 ply yarn, spun from natural brown coloured, medium stapled and moderately cleaned fibre extracted from dry coconut husk of matured coconut, moderately uniform in thickness. It may be hard, medium or soft twisted and may contain a little of pith, exocarp, sand etc. The scorage range of this yarn is 10 to 14.

(iii)Coarse

  Wheel spun 2 ply yarn, spun from natural brown coloured, medium or short stapled fibre extracted from dry coconut husk, moderately uniform in thickness.  The yarn may be hard,medium or soft twisted and may contain particles of pith, exocarp sand,etc. The scorage ranges from 5 to 9

These coir products are made from brown coir fibre/yarn on the same type of handlooms/farmes as of other coir products.  The products shall be firmly and evenly woven.

  Handloom Brown fibre Coir Mats

  This is a mat made by inserting Brwn fibre tufts around the alternate ends of tight warp.

Note:-For every change in pile height from those specified on increment or decrement

          Of  600 gms.in weight per sq.metre is to be made for every increment or

          Decrement respectively of 3 mm in pile height.

  A mat in which both warp and weft strands are continuous.  The characteristic feature of this mat is that there is no tucking in or binding the warp ends.

This is woven by interlacement of warp and weft in the order of one over and one under alternately for successive picks, that is, when odd ends are up even ends are down and vice-versa. Both sides of the matting present the same appearance.

This weave is the same as that of two treadle plain weave, but two or more threads of coir yarn work together both warp-wise and weft-wise.  This enables the production of attractive stripe and check(tile) patterns. Both sides of the matting present the same appearance

Four treadle weaves are more ornate in appearance and designs can be formed either on one side or both sides.  They are used for the production of superior quality mattings in a variety of patterns, such as, twill, diamond etc.