No abstract

At present, much attention is focused on developing clothing fabrics with advanced functionality without compromising their visual, mechanical, or comfort properties. A fabric’s ability to prevent the penetration of electromagnetic radiation is an interesting added feature. In the published literature, there are many references describing the development and investigation of electromagnetic shielding textile structures using different electrically conductive additives. However, little attention has been given to the aesthetic and comfort properties of these special fabrics. Moreover, the availability of everyday fashion containing electromagnetic radiation protection is very limited. For this study, woven fabric made from a mixture of traditional fibers and extremely thin discrete stainless steel fibers developed in the authors’ previous research was used as a substrate. The fabric was digitally printed to provide an interesting design effect suitable for use in clothing and for making clothes for everyday wear. The main objective of this work is to determine whether digital printing is a suitable tool for changing the color and pattern of this metal fiber-containing fabric. The individual goals are (a) to examine the fabric’s color fastness to washing and (b) to investigate whether the surface modification of the fabric adversely affects its functionality. Results show that it is possible to change the color and pattern of metal fiber-containing fabric by digital printing easily, whereas the associated decrease of porosity causes an increase of this special fabric functionality. The electromagnetic shielding effectiveness of the fabric after printing is around 33 dB for frequency 1.5 GHz. However, washing has a negative effect, causing both the electromagnetic shielding ability decrease (to 27 dB for frequency 1.5 GHz after 20 washing and drying cycles) and color fading (the color fastness grade is around 1–2 after 20 washing and drying cycles). Furthermore, the basic transport properties of printed electrically conductive fabric are compared with those of fabric made from traditional material and positive results are found. The incidence of pilling after washing is also evaluated, whereas the first pills are observed after the eighth washing and drying cycle. Finally, clothing prototypes that could be prepared from printed fabric are presented.

No abstract

AbstractThis research aims to evaluate the properties of cotton single jersey knitted fabrics (SJKF) produced from cotton/spandex yarns at different Lycra states. So, four different SJKF were produced, namely 100% cotton, cotton with additional Lycra (full-platted), core, and dual-core-spun (DCS) yarns with the same loop length. The thermal comfort properties, fabric recovery, total hand value (THV), moisture management parameters, and air permeability were measured. The experimental results showed that the use of DCS yarns in the SJKF improves the fabric elastic recovery by 100%. The obtained values of air permeability, THV, and overall moisture management capacity of stretched SJKF are lower than 100% cotton fabric sample. Thermal absorptivity of core and dual-core samples increased by 27% and the water vapor permeability decreased by 18% compared to 100% cotton fabric sample.

Consumers expect high-performance functionality from sportswear. To meet athletic and leisure-time activity requirements, further research needs to be carried out. Sportswear layers and their specific thermal qualities, as well as the set and air layer between materials, are all important factors in sports clothing. This research aims to examine the thermal properties of sports fabrics, and how they are affected by structure parameters and maintained with different layers. Three inner and four outer layers of fabric were used to make 12 sets of sportswear in this study. Before the combination of outer and inner layers, thermal properties were measured for each individual layer. Finally, the thermal resistance, thermal conductivity, thermal absorptivity, peak heat flow density ratio, stationary heat flow density, and water vapor permeability of bi-layered sportswear were evaluated and analyzed. The findings show that sportswear made from a 60% cotton/30% polyester/10% elastane inner layer and a 100% polyester outer layer had the maximum thermal resistance of 61.16 (×103 K·m2 W−1). This performance was followed by the sample made from a 90% polyester/10% elastane inner layer and a 100% polyester outer layer, and the sample composed of a 100% elastane inner layer and a 100% polyester outer layer, which achieved a thermal resistance value of 60.41 and 59.41 (×103 K·m2 W−1), respectively. These results can be explained by the fact that thicker textiles have a higher thermal resistance. This high-thermal-resistance sportswear fabric is appropriate for the winter season. Sportswear with a 90% polyester/10% elastane inner layer had worse water vapor resistance than sportswear with a 60% cotton/30% polyester/10% elastane and a 100% elastane layer. Therefore, these sports clothes have a higher breathability and can provide the wearers with very good comfort. According to the findings, water vapor permeability of bi-layered sportswear is influenced by geometric characteristics and material properties.