The aims of this wide-range review concerning the hand of textiles are to present:(1) the diversity of definitions and the complexity of analysis of the hand of textiles;(2) the authors' own definition of the hand of textiles and division of techniques of its analysis. The review presents objective techniques, subjective techniques along with their physiological background, and a combination of techniques as well as a new biomechanical approach called modelling of skin. The structure of the paper is as follows:definitions of the hand of textiles, including the authors' definition; objective techniques of hand measurement; physiological approach; subjective techniques of hand measurement; combination of objective and subjective techniques; modelling techniques and the biomechanics approach for measurement of the hand of textiles; division of hand measurement techniques according to the authors. This paper gives a review of the international literature from 1930 to 2010 concerning the hand of textiles and other related subjects like skin physiology, perception though the skin, and biomechanical aspects of the skin. Due to obvious limitations the authors have chosen only those papers which seemed to have the strongest relation to the presented topic and which are at the same time the most interesting studies in the authors' opinion. KeywordsHand of textiles, subjective hand, objective hand, hand measurement techniques, model of the skin, biomechanical modelling Definitions of handThe hand of textiles is a crucial element influencing the purchase of textiles by individuals. Knowing the hand features of produced textiles and being able to analyse or predict them on the basis of textile components could provide producers and hand analysis experts with a tool which would allow individuals to be assured of final products with the best hand features, which

Range of motion (ROM) can be restricted by wearing stiff and bulky clothing. This is particularly true of firefighter suits that are constructed using fabric layers to provide thermal protection from fire. This study developed an evaluation technique to quantify the loss of mobility associated with wearing firefighters' protective suits that were deliberately selected to represent similar ergonomic design features. The ROM of 10 firefighters was measured using electro-goniometers attached to their bodies while they wore uniforms and a reference outfit, and performed specific movements. The most restrictive uniform is the Bulky suit that contained additional layers of materials in sleeves and on the knees. The Traditional Suit was more ROM restrictive than Ergonomic. The subjective evaluation of suits supported the objective assessments provided by the electro-goniometers. A 3-D body scanning technique was employed to establish a correlation between the bulkiness of firefighter outfits and subject ROM. Practitioner Summary: This study presents a methodology for measurements of range of motion (ROM) in firefighters wearing personal protective equipment (PPE). Even small differences in designs of PPE may impact firefighters' ROM, which can be detected by electro-goniometers providing measurements if they are attached along the joint to measure limb angular movement.

The aim of the study was to verify whether the construction of a specific hybrid yarn containing a ferromagnetic core and electroconductive wire introduced into woven fabric will improve the shielding effectiveness (SE) in comparison with reference fabrics made of the same raw materials but introduced into woven fabrics as plain wefts, not twisted into the hybrid yarn. Hybrid yarn made of electroconductive materials allows the creation of a set of solenoids with a ferromagnetic core made of steel yarn and a solenoid of conductive effect yarns made of copper. The woven fabric made of these yarns placed into an alternating electromagnetic field (EMF) exhibits a phenomenon where an alternating electric voltage is generated between the ends of the copper solenoid, and alternating magnetisation of the ferromagnetic core takes place. Twelve fabrics were produced, nine of which differed in the density with which the hybrid yarns were introduced as wefts, i.e. once every 25×2 tex cotton yarn, every two cotton yarns, and every three cotton yarns, and the remaining three were reference fabrics, without hybrid yarn. It was found that if measured at a frequency of 30 MHz, the fabrics containing hybrid yarns had 60% higher SE than the reference ones.

This paper describes the modelling of the structure and mechanical parameters of rope components made of natural fibers. Modern X-ray micro-tomography (Micro-CT) was employed to measure the parameters of the internal structure of the multi-component yarns making up rope and utilized as a basic model of twisted rope. The results allowed calculation of the tensions generated in the component yarns and detection of the unevenness of the filling of the component yarns by fibers, which was clearly visible in cross-section. The unevenness of twist measured as a function of distance from the center of the yarn was also detected. The unevenness of fiber distribution in the twisted element decreased its intensity, starting from the surface of the yarn and going deeper into the structure. Migration of the fibers in the frame of the circumference of the component yarns was associated with the mutual slide of single fibers