Sensory Measurements of the Main Mechanical Parameters of Knitted Fabrics

Abstract

Mechanical parameters such as bending rigidity, thickness, compressibility, and coefficient of friction are measured by a sensory method for a series of plain and rib weft knitted structures made from cashmere and polyester textured yarns. The values estimated by the sensory method are found to be in fairly good agreement with the values measured on the KES system. The results of our work indicate that by using a standard and controlling the handling manner, sensory assessments can be as successfully quantified as instrumental measurements. However, detectable differences in each mechanical parameter vary with the sensory assessment, depending on the property being considered. The sensory measurement of fabric thickness yields the most consistent and accurate results. Other parameters such as the bending rigidity, compressibility, and coefficient of friction are also reasonably estimated. In addition, the effectiveness of the sensory measurements is also discussed in terms of knit construction and fiber type.Fabric mechanical properties are tested in two waysinstrumental and sensory. Objectively, they can be tested by instrumental systems such as KES and FAST. The objective tests are accurate, precise, and repeatable, but they are not always used for routine quality control in industry and in trading mainly because of their high cost. Therefore, sensory methods are still widely used for routine textile testing and are currently drawing much greater attention, though they are unstable, uncertain, and lack quantitativeness. In his study, &dquo;Subjective Textile Testing&dquo;, Slater [9] emphasized that sensory tests in which a standard comparison is available are usually more likely to correlate well with objective measures. Further, he suggested that for better subjective testing, theoretically sound methods such as ranking or paired comparison should be used because they are reliable and provide a measure of a specific parameter or property.Among sensory tests, sensory colorimetry is a wellestablished method. The use of a few color standards has been proven to be effective in sensory colorimetry. Whence, the proper method for measuring the mechanical properties should follow the same direction as colorimetry, that is, use of a standard.Studies on the quantitative measurements of mechanical properties by the sensory method are almost nonexistent, except for the method proposed by Matsuo et al.[8] for woven fabrics. Published reports about knitted fabrics are also nearly nonexistent. Therefore, the objective of our work is to quantitatively measure the mechanical parameters of knitted fabrics using a sensory test and to verify its effectiveness. In addition, we believe it will be interesting to find which properties of knits have objectivity in tactile assessments and how accurate those assessments are. ExperimentalFour sets of fabric samples were knitted and used in this work-cashmere plain weft, cashmere rib, PET plain weft, and PET rib. The fabrics of each set provided variations in cover factors and yarn thick...

Human wetness perception of fabrics under dynamic skin contact

“…The mechanical and surface properties of fabrics have been studied in the context of end-users choice and satisfaction, leading to a series of investigations looking at the relation between objective and subjective assessments (Alimaa et al 2000;Cardello et al 2003;Sular and Okur 2007). On the other hand, in the current study fabric texture properties will be evaluated to assess whether these influence the tactile cues underlying skin wetness perception.…”

Pressure-Thickness Relation and Compression Mechanism of Plain and Rib Knitted Fabrics

“…In this study, the compression energy, WC, was taken to characterize the compressibility of knitted fabrics. In our study [7] " Sensory Measurement of Main Mechanical Properties of Knitted Fabrics", we found that sensory softness/hardness was consistently correlated with only WC among the other existing, instrumental parameters such as WC/ TMAx and relative strain, EMC.…”

Mechanical and tactile properties of plain knitted fabrics produced from rayon Vortex yarns

“…The average estimate of the evaluator preference was calculated according to a standard paired-comparison test. 16 There was a significant difference of smoothness between the samples ( Figure 12). According to the evaluators' assessment for smoothness, the fabric R4 from ring-spun yarn Ry4 had the smoothest surface, and fabric R5 made from open-end yarn (Ry5) had the roughest surface among the samples.…”