Structural Design and Performance of Cut-Resistant Fabrics with Concave–Convex Arrays

Abstract

As the risk of social security increases, it is crucial to develop flexible protective materials that combine flexibility with high protective performance. Ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) was selected as the raw material, and four types of flat-knitting cut-resistant fabrics were ultimately designed and prepared from a three-dimensional longitudinal dimension and concave–convex array structure based on rib knitting. A series of experiments must be conducted on fabrics in order to study the law of protection performance of different structural fabrics. They were thus subjected to comprehensive evaluation and theoretical analysis of cut resistance. The results demonstrate that the four structural fabrics exhibited resilience in abrasion tests, withstanding over 100,000 cycles without failure. A weighting algorithm was employed to determine the comprehensive cutting resistance of the S1, S2, S3, and S4 structural fabrics, resulting in values of 1939.9 gf, 2298.6 gf, 2577.1 gf, and 2822.2 gf, respectively. Therefore, S1 reached class A4, which is sufficient to address a medium cut hazard. Similarly, S2, S3, and S4 reached class A5, which is adequate to address a high cut hazard. The obtained fitting equation, with uniform yarn fineness T as the dependent variable, demonstrates that the cut resistance improved as the concave–convex density level increased.