| Sandwash | The soft peachskin finish obtained by blasting a fabric with fine sand. |
| Sailcloth | "Any heavy, plain-weave canvas fabric, usually made of cotton, linen, polyester, jute, nylon, etc. that is used for sails and apparel (i.e. bottomweight sportswear)." |
| Saran Fiber | "A manufactured fiber which has an excellent resistance to sunlight and weathering, and is used in lawn furniture, upholstery, and carpets." |
| Sateen Fabric | "A fabric made from yarns with low luster, such as cotton or other staple length fibers. The fabric has a soft, smooth hand and a gentle, subtle luster. Sateen fabrics are often used for draperies and upholstery." |
| Sateen Weave | "A variation of the satin weave, produced by floating fill yarns over warp yarns." |
| Satin Fabric | "A traditional fabric utilizing a satin weave construction to achieve a lustrous fabric surface. Satin is a traditional fabric for evening and wedding garments. Typical examples of satin weave fabrics include slipper satin, crepe-back satin, faille satin, |
| Satin Weave | "A basic weave, characterized by long floats of yarn on the face of the fabric. The yarns are interlaced in such a manner that there is no definite, visible pattern of interlacing and, in this manner, a smooth and somewhat shiny surface effect is achieved |
| Sanforizing | A controlled compressive shrinkage process. The word Sanforized is a registered trade mark and can be used to describe fabrics which meet defined and approved standards of washing shrinkage. |
| Sari patterns | Traditional Indian sari designs. |
| Scaffold | A temporary platform used for tissue growth. |
| Scouring | "The treatment of textiles in aqueous or other solutions in order to remove natural fats, waxes, proteins and other constituents, as well as dirt, oil and other impurities." |
| Scutching (flax) | The operation of separating the woody part of deseeded or retted flax straw. |
| Seasonless solids | "Basic colours which do not change from season to season, including black, white and navy." |
| Seersucker | "A fabric characterised by the presence of puckered areas contrasted by flat areas, usually in stripes along the length of the cloth." |
| Selvage or Selvedge | "The thin compressed edge of a woven fabric which runs parallel to the warp yarns and prevents raveling. It is usually woven, utilizing tougher yarns and a tighter construction than the rest of the fabric." |
| Serge | "A fabric with a smooth hand that is created by a two-up, two-down twill weave." |
| Separation (geotextiles) | "The function of a geotextile as a partition between two dissimilar geotechnical materials, eg soil and gravel. The geotextile prevents intermixing of the two materials throughout the design life of the structure." |
| Sett | "A term used to define the weft or warp density of a woven fabric, usually in terms of the number of threads per centimetre." |
| Shantung | "A silk fabric similar to pongee, but heavier, which was originally woven in wild silk from Shantung, China. A medium-weight, plain weave fabric, characterized by a ribbed effect, resulting from slubbed yarns used in the warp or filling direction." |
| Sharkskin | "A hard-finished, low lustered, medium-weight fabric in a twill-weave construction. It is most commonly found in men's worsted suitings; however, it can also be found in a plain-weave construction of acetate, triacetate, and rayon for women's sportswear." |
| Sheaves | "Rollers or pulleys over which ropes, wires or umbilicals may be deployed." |
| Shed | An opening formed during weaving by raising some warp threads and lowering others to facilitate the passage of a weft yarn or a weft carrying device across the weaving machine. |
| Shedding | A motion in weaving whereby a shed is created to facilitate the passage of a weft yarn or a weft carrying device across the weaving machine. |
| Shepherd's check | "A small check effect in contrasting colours, often black and white." |
| Shepherd's check | "A small check effect in contrasting colours, often black and white." |
| Shetland | "A wool yarn or fabric with a soft yet firm handle, plain dyed or in mixture shades." |
| Shin gosen | "Fabrics made from ultra-fine polyester filament yarns with enhanced comfort, handle, drape and aesthetics. Shin gosen fabrics are designed specifically to appeal to end users by employing a combination of sophisticated fibre and fabric processing technol |
| Shirring | "Making puckers or gathers in a fabric, often by using elasticated thread in parallel rows." |
| Shives (flax) | Short pieces of woody waste beaten from flax straw during scutching. |
| Shot | A colour effect seen in a fabric woven with a warp of one colour and a weft of a contrasting colour. |
| Sintering | A process in which larger particles are formed by applying heat and/or pressure to a powder. |
| Sirospun yarns | "Worsted ply yarns spun on a slightly modified ring-spinning frame, which creates the yarns directly from two rovings. In forming the yarns, the spinning frame twists the two rovings together, thereby holding the fibres in place. The process, developed in |
| Silk | "A natural filament fiber produced by the silkworm in the construction of its cocoon. Most silk is collected from cultivated worms; Tussah silk, or wild silk, is a thicker, shorter fiber produced by worms in their natural habitat." |
| Sisal | "A strong bast fiber that originates from the leaves of the Agave plant, which is found in the West Indies, Central America, and Africa. End-uses include cordage and twine." |
| Size | "A gelatinous film-forming substance applied to yarns (usually warp) before weaving to protect, strengthen and lubricate them during weaving." |
| Sizing | "A process in which size is applied to yarns (usually warp) before weaving to protect, strengthen and lubricate them during weaving." |
| Sliver | An assemblage of fibres in continuous form without twist. |
| Slub yarns | Yarns with a deliberately uneven surface. |
| SMC | Sheet moulding compound. |
| SMMS | A nonwoven structure consisting of spunbond/meltblown/meltblown/ spunbond layers. |
| SMS | A nonwoven structure consisting of spunbond/meltblown/spunbond layers. |
| Soleiado | "A term, originally the name of a company, used to describe a Provençal print." |
| Solution dyeing | See mass coloration. |
| Sorona | A brand name for DuPont's PBT fibre. |
| Space dyed | A dyeing process in which yarn is coloured at intervals. |
| Space dyeing | A dyeing process in which yarn is coloured at intervals. |
| Space-dyed yarns | Yarns produced by the space dyeing process. |
| Spacer fabric | Three-dimensional structures consisting of two warp- or weft-knitted layers connected by monofilament spacer yarns. They can also be knitted on doublejersey circular or on electronic flat machines. |
| Spandex fiber | "The generic name used in the USA to denote elastane fibre. A manufactured elastomeric fiber that can be repeatedly stretched over 500% without breaking, and will still recover to its original length." |
| Spin drawing | A process for spinning partially or highly oriented filaments in which the spinning and drawing processes are integrated sequential stages. Most of the orientation in spin drawing is introduced between the first forwarding device and the take-up. |
| Spinlaying | Part of a production route for making nonwovens in which synthetic filaments are extruded and gathered on to an endless belt. |
| Spinneret | A nozzle or plate provided with fine holes or slits through which a fibre-forming solution or melt is extruded during fibre manufacture. |
| Spinning solution | A solution of fibre-forming polymer ready for extrusion through a spinneret. |
| Spot Weave | A woven construction in which patterns are built in at spaced intervals through the use of extra warp and/or extra fill yarns are placed in selected areas. These yarns are woven into the fabric by means of a dobby or Jacquard attachment. |
| Spun Yarn | "A yarn made by taking a group of short staple fibers, which have been cut from the longer continuous filament fibers, and then twisting these short staple fibers together to form a single yarn, which is then used for weaving or knitting fabrics." |
| Spunbond | Nonwovens made from a continuous mat of randomly laid filaments. The filaments are bonded together by heat and pressure or needlepunching. |
| Spunbonding | The process used to manufacture spunbonded nonwovens. |
| Spunlaced fabric | A fabric manufactured by spunlacing. |
| Spunlacing | A process for bonding a nonwoven fabric by using high pressure water jets to intermingle the fibres. |
| Spunlaid fabric | A fabric produced by laying freshly formed synthetic filaments into a web. |
| Spunmelt | "A nonwoven structure made by extruding molten polymer through spinnerets to form fibres. Spunmelt processes are used in the manufacture of spunbond nonwovens, meltblown nonwovens and combinations of the two." |
| Sputtering | "A process in which atoms, ions and molecules are ejected from the surface of a target material when it is irradiated by an ion beam. One application of sputtering is to exploit the conditions in which the ejected particles re-form on another substrate as |
| SSMMSS | A nonwoven structure consisting of spunbond/spunbond/meltblown/ meltblown/spunbond/spunbond layers. |
| Stain resistance | The ability of a fabric to withstand permanent discoloration by the action of liquids. This property depends partly upon the chemical nature of the fibre but may be improved by proprietary treatments. |
| Staple fibre | "Short fibers, typically ranging from 1/2 inch up to 18 inches long. Wool, cotton, and flax exist only as staple fibers. Manufactured staple fibers are cut to a specific length from the continuous filament fiber." |
| Staple fibres (man-made) | "Man-made fibres of predetermined short lengths, usually prepared by cutting or breaking filaments of the material into lengths suitable for their intended processing route." |
| Stent | A narrow tube commonly used to keep blood vessels open in the arteries. |
| Stitchbonded fabric | A fabric made by stitchbonding. |
| Stitchbonding | "A process in which a series of interlooped stitches are inserted along the length of a pre-formed fabric, an array of cross-laid yarns or a fibre web. Proprietary systems include Arachne, Malipol and Maliwatt." |
| Strain | The change in length per unit length of a material in any given direction. |
| Striated | "An effect applied to a yarn to give the appearance of striations-lines of colour or fine parallel scratches or grooves, as on the surface of a rock over which a glacier has flowed." |
| Subcontracting | An arrangement whereby one business (subcontractor) manufactures all or part of a specific product on behalf of another business (main contractor) in accordance with plans and technical specifications supplied by the main contractor. The main contractor h |
| Subgrade intrusion (geotextiles) | Localised penetration of a soft cohesive subgrade and resulting displacement of the subgrade into a cohesionless material. |
| Sublimation | A process in which a substance is changed directly from a solid into a gas or vapour without first melting. |
| Substantivity | "The attraction between a fibre and a substance (such as a chemical finish) under conditions whereby the substance is selectively extracted by the fibre from the application medium (for example, water)." |
| Surah | "A light weight, lustrous twill weave constructed fabric with a silk-like hand. Surah is the fabric of ties, dresses, and furnishings. It is available in silk, polyester, and rayon." |
| Sueded fabric | A fabric finished in such a way as to imitate suede leather. |
| Superconductor | A material that can conduct electricity or can transport electrons from one atom to another with no resistance-usually at temperatures near absolute zero. |
| Survivability (geotextiles) | The ability of a geotextile to perform its intended function without undergoing degradation. |
| Syndiotactic | Polymer which has alternating stereochemical configurations of the groups on successive carbon atoms in the chain. |
| Synthetic fibre | "A man-made fibre made from a polymer that has been produced artificially, in contrast to fibres made from naturally occurring polymers such as cellulose." |
| Synthetic fibres | "Man-made fibres made from a polymer that has been produced artificially, in contrast to fibres made from naturally occurring polymers such as cellulose. The term synthetic fibres is also used to refer to synthetic filaments." |
| Synthetic filaments | "Man-made filaments made from a polymer that has been produced artificially, in contrast to filaments made from naturally occurring polymers such as cellulose." |