Correlation between fabric specifications and fabric hand characteristics for warp knitted fabrics

Abstract

Fabric hand is an indispensable characteristic for the selection of fabric and product development and the buying consideration to the manufacturers and consumers respectively. Fabric hand value reflects the subjective physiological and psychological perception of human by touching the materials and has direct influence on the sell market of textiles and garments. Such importance makes fabric hand as an attractive issue to many researchers and its continuity has not been ceased. This thesis is thus written for further study on fabric hand attributes, especially for warp knitted fabrics. A sample size including 105 types of warp knitted fabrics produced by synthetic fibers (polyester, polypropylene and nylon) were selected as the research object. Traditional subjective evaluation and two objective measurements Kawabata Evaluation System for Fabric (KES-F) and PhabrOmeter system were employed to obtain the fabric hand properties related with stiffness, smoothness and softness. Correlations between physical parameters like weight per unit area and thickness and different types of mechanical parameters such as bending rigidity, extensibility, compression and surface roughness were also observed. Further attempts had been made to calculate the linear significance of fabric hand values drawn out by those measurement methods. Statistical interpretations were used to descant the relationships of fabric parameters and hand characteristics. Specifications of warp knitted fabrics showed significance on fabric tensile, shear, bending and compression properties. Fabric thickness and weight were also found to be correlated with the mechanical behavior and hand attributes of warp knitted sample. KES-F system and subjective assessment preformed satisfactory significance with the physical properties of warp knitted fabrics. However, PhabrOmeter system was measured to have relatively smaller significance than that of KES-F system.