The effect of fabric movement on washing performance in a front-loading washer II: under various physical washing conditions

Abstract

Fabric movements in a front-loading washer were observed at various conditions with respect to the type of fabric, the number of sheets, the fabric size and the wash spin speed in order to examine their effect on washing efficiency. Fabric movements were categorized into sliding, falling and rotating, which were expected to be influenced by the balance among the centrifugal force, the frictional force and the gravitational force. With increasing the number of sheets, the fabric size and the wash spin speed, fabrics had a tendency to move a longer distance along the drum wall, and thus the most frequent movement shifted from sliding or falling to rotating. The fabric movement patterns during the washing process that were varied according to the washing conditions had a direct effect on washing efficiency. The complex movement pattern, which showed the movements of sliding, falling and rotating by turns during the washing process, exhibited higher washing efficiency than the single movement pattern that represented only sliding or rotating repeatedly.Washing is a series of processes that removes soils from clothes through the combination of washers, detergent and water. Washing solution penetrates the clothes to remove soils or facilitate the removal of them. In addition, the mechanical force of the washer is applied here to remove the soils. 1,2 Therefore, an overall understanding between physicochemical and physical factors is necessary to accurately understand the washing mechanism that is determined by the interaction between physicochemical and physical factors attributable to textiles, soils, water, detergent and washers. However, studies until now on washing were mainly focused on physicochemical mechanisms, 3-8 such as detergent composition, 9-13 soil type, 14-17 water quality, 18-21 washing time and temperature. Studies on the mechanical actions and fabric movement in washers are severely lacking, and thus needed. [22][23][24][25][26][27] In preceding studies, Park et al. 24 revealed that among fabric properties, weight, drape coefficient and water content had large effects on fabric movement in a front-loading washer, and proposed a fabric movement prediction model using such fabric properties. Furthermore, Yun et al. 25 investigated the effects of fabric movement on washing performance, and found that washing efficiency was higher when there was more diverse movement of fabrics in a front-loading washer. The preceding studies of Park et al. 24 and Yun et al. 25 were significant in that they observed and analyzed the fabric movement in a front-loading washer and revealed the correlation with fabric properties. However, there were limitations in that they could not reflect the actual washing conditions. Accordingly, in this study, the type of fabric, size of fabric, number of fabrics and the wash spin speed were differentiated to observe the fabric movement in conditions more similar to actual washing conditions.

Research on micro‐damage behavior of wool fabrics drying in domestic dryer

“…However, compared with 10 drying cycles, pilling grade slightly improved after 15 drying cycles, probably owing to the protruding fibers being broken off by drying‐abrasion. Specially, drying abrasion significantly weakened the strength of the bulk fibers responsible for the integrity of the fabric, and thus leading to the performance of wool significantly improving, since weak surface fibers would be unable to anchor pills (Wan et al, ; Yun & Park, ). After that, increasing drying cycles increased pilling.…”

“…It is known that fabric movements during drying are a combined result of fabric migration, fabric friction, fabric shape transformation, and restoration, which are influenced by the mechanical forces including the centrifugal force received from drum, frictional force between the drum wall and fabrics, and gravitational force (Deans, ; Yun & Park, ). It is therefore necessary to analyze the movement and forces of fabric to understand damage mechanism of fabric during drying.…”

“…The magnitude of the forces on the fabric can be ranked as rotating< sliding < falling for the following reasons: sliding happens when the fabric slides over the lifter during counter‐clockwise rotation. In this movement, the fabric is mainly subjected to friction force between the lifter and fabric and between fabric surfaces, and the distance of fabric movement is relatively short, and the force received by fabric is smallest (Yun & Park, ; Yun, Park, & Park, ); falling occurs when the fabric spins with the lifter and then falls to the bottom of the drying drum. In this movement, the force acting on the fabric is mainly gravity, and distance of fabric moving is the longest, and thus the force acting on fabric is relatively larger than the slide movement.…”

“…This is indicated by a flush fiber cross-section as shown in Figure 3c. The fabric is also subjected to bending and twisting deformations during drying (Yun & Park, 2015). These deformations can lead to fiber splitting as shown in Figure 3c Figure 4d shows more severe fabric damage compared to after 5 drying cycles (Figure 3).…”

Protocol to assess the quality of transmission lines within smart textile structures

“…Similarly, in another study, the impact of detergent on conductive threads was investigated. Lee et al [37] and Yun et al [38] also described the forces acting in the washing process. Different forces acting in the washing process were examined and it was concluded that mechanical damage is the most impacting stress and this stress is enhanced in the presence of other stresses acting in the wash process.…”