Measurement of fabric comfort
- Measurement of fabric comfort include fabric permeability tests, drop test, water-repellency tests, moisture tests, down-roof tester, hand feel test, rain/pray tests, sewing quality, appearance test, and much more fabric parameters are included in this test.
Fabric softness tester
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| Fabric softness tester |
A fabric softness tester is used in the leather industry and in the textile industry for coated fabrics and other soft materials.
Deflection of the specimen is clamped above an aperture of known diameter and is measured when subjected to a specific load applied by a pin of a smaller diameter.
The deflection is read on the analogue or digital gauges.
This instrument is available in analogue (graduated in 0.1 mm divisions) or digital (displaying figures to 0.01 mm or 0.0005 inches) versions.
Fabric touch tester or Fabric hand feel tester
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| Fabric touch tester |
The fabric touch tester is used to measure smoothness, and softness, and achieve the feel of the value of the fabric sample.
In the case of fabric comfort measurement, this instrument is mainly used to estimate the softness value of the test material and objective evaluation of sample feeling or touch performance.
(However, this instrument is also capable of testing a sample of the elastic/viscoelastic / plasticity, bursting, compressibility, thickness and basis weight, and other performance indicators with the help of various accessories jointed with this instrument.)
For this test, a circular sample with an 11.38 cm diameter is prepared.
To achieve more appropriate results for the test, more than three samples are prepared.
Then this specimen is placed into the instrument at the testing area.
The main components of the instruments are a rotor and a vibration sensor.
The other sensors are also used to collect additional data and control instrument functions.
For the measurement, the sample rests on the rotor, when the rotor starts to rotate to reach the final position of testing.
This instrument has sensors that measure the pressure in the range of 100mN to 600mN.
During the test, mutual contact happens between the rotor and the sample that causing the sample to vibrate.
When the vibration sensor receives the vibration signal, it transmitted signals to the analysis component.
The analysis component prepared the data, that feed into the computer.
Computer analysis of the data through complex calculations.
The parameters are measured by synchronizing further parameters and customer pre-entered (the maximum you can use 68 different parameters) to calculate the value of softness.
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| Fabric comfort measurement |
Further reading
Questions -
- How fabric comfort is measured?
- What is a fabric softness tester?
- What is a fabric touch tester or fabric hand feel tester?
- How does the fabric touch tester work?
References
Booth, J. E. :. (n.d.). Principles of textile testing an introduction to physical methods of testing textile fibres, yarns, and fabrics. London: National Trade Press Ltd,1961. from https://www.abebooks.co.uk/Principles-Textile-Testing-Introduction-Physical-Methods/19989810376/bd
Cenote, M. (2015). Google Books. In The SAGE Guide to Key Issues in Mass Media Ethics and Law (pp. 847–858). SAGE Publications, Inc.
Ferreiro López-Riobóo, J. I. (2015). Long-term (2001–2012) study of a proficiency testing scheme for textiles. Accreditation and Quality Assurance, 20(4), 239–245. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00769-015-1128-1
A measure of comfort. (n.d.). Innovationintextiles.com. from https://www.innovationintextiles.com/testing-standards/a-measure-of-comfort/
Bishop, P. (2008). Testing for fabric comfort. In J. Hu (Ed.), Fabric Testing (pp. 228–254). Elsevier.
Writer - DSPAT Team
