Rolls leaving the factory, 2014Rolls on retail sale, 2019Specialty cloth; velvet, cloth with sparkles, etc.
A bolt is a piece of cloth woven on a loom or created by a knitting machine,[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] as it is processed, stored and/or marketed. Consequently, its dimensions are highly variable – flexible and dependent upon the manufacturing, machinery, quantity, size, thickness and quality of the product.[8] It is a unit used in manufacturing, transport and inventory.[9] It is also used as a descriptor for wallpaper, which uses different fabrication machinery.[A] Being encompassing, it is by its nature a generic and ambiguous term of convenience and context, used to describe fabric and wallpaper.[10][11]
In modern production
Textile manufacturing is about converting fiber into yarn, yarn into fabric, and finally, the fabric into clothing and other useful products. At every stage, production activity is managed by unique batches. When it comes to fabric, a set of bolts or rolls forms a batch,[12] representing the production.[13]
Manufacturing
The yarn is processed by knitting or weaving, which turns the yarn into cloth. The machine used for weaving is the loom. and knitting is another method of cloth manufacturing.
Bolts[B]are the rolls of cloth manufactured by a loom or knitting machine, which moves through subsequent processes of textile finishing.
Loom
Looms are equipped with devices that can measure the length of the bolt during manufacturing on the machine itself.[17]
Packing and trading
Cloth merchant were marking the end of bolts with notations.[18] This practice is continued in the industry to avoid mixing.
Garment manufacturing
After fabric inspection, the bolts are layered manually or fabric-spreading machines for relaxing and cutting with patterns.[19][20]
The length of a bolt varied according to the type of material measured.[21][8] The length is usually either 40 or 100 yards (37 or 91 m), but varies depending on the fabric being referred to; for example, a bolt of canvas is traditionally 39 yards (36 m).
The width of a bolt is usually 45 or 60 inches (110 or 150 cm),[22] but widths may include 35–36 inches (89–91 cm), 39 inches (99 cm), 41 inches (100 cm), 44–45 inches (110–110 cm), 50 inches (130 cm), 52–54 inches (130–140 cm), 58–60 inches (150–150 cm) and 66 inches (170 cm), 72 inches (180 cm), 96 inches (240 cm), and 108 inches (270 cm). For more on breadths of bolts, see narrow cloth.
The word has been long-lived. For example, Herman Melville used it casually in Moby-Dick.[23] It is also the standard linear measurement of canvas for use at sea: 39 yards (36 m).[24]
^Wallpaper is not necessarily fabric. It uses different fabrication machinery.[10] Wallpaper is packaged in single, double or triple bolts or rolls. Lengths and widths vary depending on the manufacturer and product. There are two competing systems: American and Euro (Metric). The former contains about 25% more than the latter. Each bolt contains a label that indicates the dye lot, pattern number or run number.[10]
^Encarta opines that in textiles, it means "a rolled length of woven goods or wallpaper."[14] Bolt has been defined as “A bolt of cloth is a long wide piece of it that is wound into a roll round a piece of cardboard.”[15] Bolt "in the sense of bale" is a noun. E.g., "bolts of black silk" with synonyms that include: amount, bale, packet, quantity, reel, and roll.[16] The foregoing list only scratches the surface of synonyms for Bolt as it relates to fabrics.[9]
^ ab"How Many Yards On a Bolt of Fabric? (Fabric Bolt Dimensions)". sewingiscool.com. September 21, 2020. Retrieved December 23, 2020. Typically, a bolt of fabric contains anywhere between 30 and 100 yards of fabric. However, a lot also depends on the type [and thickness] of fabric in question. For example, a bolt of the canvas is generally 39 yards. Widths may include: 35–36 inches (890–910 mm) [up to] ... 108 inches (2,700 mm)
^batch production is used in the textiles and clothing industry for producing fixed quantities of identical products, either for stock or order. For example, a designer-maker might make a batch.
Textiles Technology
Lesley Cresswell · 2004
[1]
^Large bolts of fabric are loaded on a moveable frame called a spreader . ... can create problems during spreading and must be left to relax overnight to assure accurate pattern size after cutting .
Manufacturing Technology
John R. Lindbeck, Molly W. Williams, Robert M. Wygant · 1990
Page 219
^Melville, Herman (1851). "All Astir" . Moby-Dick; or, The Whale (1st US ed.). Not only were the old sails being mended, but new sails were coming on board, and bolts of canvas, and coils of rigging; in short, everything betokened that the ship's preparations were hurrying to a close.
Rowlett, Russ (May 31, 2001). "How Many? A Dictionary of Units of Measurement". University of North Carolina. Archived from the original on December 20, 2016. Retrieved December 20, 2016. a commercial unit of length or area used to measure finished cloth. Generally speaking, one bolt represents a strip of cloth 100 yards (91.44 meters) long, but the width varies according to the fabric. Cotton bolts are traditionally 42 inches (1.067 meters) wide and wool bolts are usually 60 inches (1.524 meters) wide. Thus a bolt of cotton is 116.667 square yards (97.566 m2) and a bolt of wool is 166.667 square yards (139.355 m2).
