What is "carding"

Carding \Card"ing\, a.

1. The act or process of preparing staple for spinning, etc., by carding it. See the Note under Card, v. t.

2. A roll of wool or other fiber as it comes from the carding machine.

   Carding engine, Carding machine, a machine for carding cotton, wool, or other fiber, by subjecting it to the action of cylinders, or drums covered with wire-toothed cards, revolving nearly in contact with each other, at different rates of speed, or in opposite directions. The staple issues in soft sheets, or in slender rolls called slivers.

Card \Card\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Carded; p. pr. & vb. n. Carding.] To play at cards; to game.
--Johnson.

"wool-dressing," late 15c., verbal noun from card (v.1).

n. A piece of wool rolled by a carder (carding machine). vb. (present participle of card English)

Carding is a mechanical process that disentangles, cleans and intermixes fibers to produce a continuous web or sliver suitable for subsequent processing. This is achieved by passing the fibers between differentially moving surfaces covered with card clothing. It breaks up locks and unorganized clumps of fiber and then aligns the individual fibers to be parallel with each other. In preparing wool fiber for spinning, carding is the step that comes after teasing.

The word is derived from the Latin carduus meaning thistle or teasel, as dried vegetable teasels were first used to comb the raw wool. These ordered fibers can then be passed on to other processes that are specific to the desired end use of the fiber: Cotton, batting, felt, woollen or worsted yarn, etc. Carding can also be used to create blends of different fibers or different colors. When blending, the carding process combines the different fibers into a homogeneous mix. Commercial cards also have rollers and systems designed to remove some vegetable matter contaminants from the wool.

Common to all carders is card clothing. Card clothing is made from a sturdy flexible backing in which closely spaced wire pins are embedded. The shape, length, diameter, and spacing of these wire pins is dictated by the card designer and the particular requirements of the application where the card cloth will be used. A later version of the card clothing product developed during the latter half of the 19th century and found only on commercial carding machines, whereby a single piece of serrated wire was wrapped around a roller, became known as metallic card clothing.

Carding machines are known as cards. Fiber may be carded by hand for hand spinning.

Carding a mechanical process that aligns cotton, wool or other fibers in the manufacture of textiles.

Carding may also refer to:

• Carding (fraud), a range of credit card fraud activities
• Carding (police policy), an intelligence gathering policy of the Toronto Police Service
• Carding Mill Valley, a small valley near Church Stretton, England
• Hole carding, advantage technique in the game of casino 21
• Carding, the use of signals in contract bridge
• Carding, in North America, requesting a customer to show an identity document as proof of age
• The Canadian Athlete Assistance Program, also called "the carding program", a program where elite athletes in Canada receive funding from the government

Carding, which is officially known as the Community Contacts Policy, is an intelligence gathering policy of the Toronto Police Service involving the stopping, questioning, and documenting of individuals when no particular offence is being investigated. The information collected is kept on record in the Field Information Report (FIR) database for an unspecified period. The Peel Regional Police employ a similar practice, known as a “street check” and that any personal information gathered from an individual in a street check can be entered into a database that Peel police maintains.

In summer of 2014, the Service discontinued the use of physical hard copy cards (TPS 306 Form), officers were directed to enter the information captured during community engagements into their memobook as Community Safety Notes (CSN), which may be retained for a maximum of seven years.

Carding is a term describing the trafficking of credit card, bank account and other personal information online as well as related fraud services. Carding activities also encompass procurement of details, and money laundering techniques. Modern carding sites have been described as full-service commercial entities.