Chinese Silk Factory

The stages in a silkworm’s life.

Cocoon sizes

Plants the silkworms eat.

Silkworms and the special leaves they eat.

The moths that lay the silkworm eggs.

The cocoons were attached to bamboo strips.

The silkworms build their cocoons close together.

The cocoons fall to conveyer belts where they are sorted.

The sorting station.

They separate single cocoons from doubles.

Cocoon Cooking

Cocoon cooking machines

Silk Reeling

Silk reeling machine

The cocoons float by and the workers pull a string from each cocoon.

The remains of the pupa are removed.

Automatic silk reeling

The automatic reeler doesn’t need the workers to grab the threads.

Creating a spool of silk.

8-10 cocoons are needed to make the correct thickness for each thread.

The silk thread is in rolls at the top of the machine.

The workers make sure everything runs smoothly.

The silk thread is collected into larger spools.

Re-reeling

Re-reeling machine

Only 5 meters of fabric can be woven every day.

This is where the weaving is done.

Silk material is woven from hundreds of threads.

Weaving machine

Stretching the double cocoons.

Adding layer on top of layer.