PRODUCTION OF

SILK FROM
COCOONS
DR. KUNTAMALLA SUJATHA GUDIMALLA PRASHANTHI
PROF OF SERICULTURE HEAD, DEPT OF ZOOLOGY
DEPT OF SERICULTURE, LB COLLEGE
KAKATIYA UNIVERSITY WARANGAL
WARANGAL, TELANGANA TELANGANA
The production of cocoon for their filament is called sericulture. The
species Bombyx mori is usually cultivated and raised under controlled
conditions of environment and nutrition.

The life cycle of silk worm encircled in the four stages namely egg, larva,
pupa and the moth.

The silk worm which feeds on mulberry leaves forms a covering around it
by secreting a protein like substance through its spinneret.

This stage is called cocoon, the desirable stage for the silk producers.
 FILATURE OPERATIONS
The cocoons raised by the farmer are delivered to the factory called a filature
where the silk is unwound from the cocoons, the strands collected into skeins.
The filature operations consist of the following stages.
A. Sorting cocoons: The cocoons are sorted accordingly as the color, size,
shape and texture affects the final quality of the silk. Cocoons may range from
white and yellow to greyish.
 B. Softening of the Sericin: Silk filament is a double strand of fibrin held
together by a gummy substance called sericin or silk gum. After the cocoon
has been sorted, they are put through a series of hot immersions so as the
sericin must be softened to permit the unwinding of the filament as one
continuous thread.
 C. Reeling the filament: Reeling is the process of unwinding the silk
filaments from the cocoon and combining them together to make a thread of
raw silk. As the filament of the cocoon is too fine for commercial use, seven to
eight strands are usually reeled at a time to produce the desired diameter of
raw silk which is known as “reeled silk”. The useable length of reeled filament
is 300 to 600 meters.
 Baling: the silk filament is reeled into skeins, which are packed in a small
bundles called books, weighing 2 to 4.5 kg. These books are put into bales
weighing about 60kg in this form raw silk is shipped to silk mills all over the
World.
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