Linen / Flax
APPLICATIONS OF LINEN
Customers around the world buy linen because they like the way it looks, feels and performs. With new varieties of flax, news processing techniques and new ways of spinning, weaving and finishing, the European linen industry has reinvented itself. And all of the links in the supply chain are working together through the European flax and linen organization, Masters of Linen (Paris), to market linen globally to a new and growing trade if niche players.
Furthermore, linen has found its way in applications like:
- table wear & decorative fabrics
- suiting
- clothing apparel
- surgical thread
- sewing thread
- bed linen
- kitchen towels
- fabrics for light aviation use
- reinforce plastics and composite materials
- high quality papers
- handkerchief linen
- shirting
- upholstery
- draperies
- wall coverings
- luggage farbics
- insulation
- filtration
Also, the flax plant has also a couple of other important end uses:
- industrial
Flax is still produced for its oil rich seed. Linseed oil has been used as a drying agent for paints, varnishes, lacquer, and printing ink. Unfortunately these markets have eroded somewhat over the years with the production of synthetic resins and latex. One bright spot in the market has been the use of linseed oil as an anti-spalling treatment for concrete where freezing and thawing effects have created problems on streets and sidewalks. Occasionally the straw is harvested and used to produce some paper products.
- livestock feed
Linseed oil meal is an excellent protein source for livestock containing about 35% ctude protein. Flax straw on the other hand make a very poor quality forage because of its high cellulose and lignin content.
- human food
Recently, there has been some interest in seed flax as a health food because of its high amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids in the oil.
HOW TO TREAT ARTICLES IN LINEN
White articles should be washed in the washing machine at 60° C, whilst colored ones at a lesser temperature.
White articles should be ironed damp with a very hot iron, even steam, first on the inside, then on the right side. Colored articles, above all if dark, should be ironed only on the inside. Starching is not needed as with ironing linen returns to being stiff.
If you hang the articles folded in a suitcase over a bath of hot water, they will return to their original state: the steam will help to soften the folds.