Volume 22, Issue 2

In the current social and economic world context, Chinese trade relations represent a challenge for all partners. The article provides an overview of bilateral trade, especially export, between the European Union (EU) and China in the apparel and accessories industry, most performance parts of the bilateral relations from the textile industry. The research is highlighting the major trends of export relations for this industry during 2001–2019. The author presents the evolution of articles of apparel and accessories exports in the EU and China, emphasizing the major tendencies for each of them. Further are developed benchmarks of Romanian contribution to the relationship between EU and China. The methods used present a multi-method approach, utilizing primary and secondary research through exploratory data from the official website regarding the apparel industry, as EU Statistics, International Trade Centre, and others. The main result of the paper shows that at the European level, one of the most important objectives for the apparel industry is to assure EU–China trade feasible barrier export instruments to develop efficiently the bilateral exports.

A baby stroller allows the transportation of a child over long or short distances. The materials used to produce the stroller make it heavy for users, which creates difficulties when lifting the stroller. The goal of this project was to design and fabricate a three-dimensional (3D) fabric structure that can be used as part of a stroller seat to improve its mechanical and physical properties. The idea of implementing a woven 3D system allows the development of an egg-shaped or shell-like structure as part of a stroller seat. The combination of double-woven material and honeycomb polypropylene (as the reinforcing material) was used to create a 3D composite structure. Single and double layers of polypropylene honeycomb sandwiched within layers of linen flax fabric were used to prepare the composite samples. Subsequently, tests on mechanical and physical properties, such as density, flexural strength, and tensile strength, were carried out. Analysis of the results showed that the composite with one layer of honeycomb has half the density of polyvinyl chloride.

The design of workwear has significant effects on worker performance. However, the current workwear for coal miners in Northern China is poor in fitness and thermal comfort. In this study, new workwear (NEW) for coal miners was developed with the design features providing better cold protection and movement comfort performance, as compared with a commonly worn workwear (CON). To evaluate the effectiveness of NEW, we conducted human trials which were performed using simulated work movements (i.e., sitting, shoveling, squatting, and crawling) in a climate chamber (10°C, 75% RH). Physiological measurements and perceptual responses were obtained. The results demonstrated that the local skin temperatures at chest, scapula, thigh, and calf; mean skin temperatures,; and thermal comfort in NEW were significantly higher than those in CON. NEW also exerted an improvement in enhancing movement comfort. We conclude that NEW could meet well with the cold protective and mobility requirements.

Textile and clothing sector possesses a significant place in Turkish manufacturing industry as well as in exports, investments, gross national product and employment; also maintains its locomotive sector position in development for a long time with its established production potential and labor force. However, there are serious issues about the unionization of workers in the sector. On one hand, this situation causes an increment in social and economical issues of workers and enterprises and on the other hand, it damages democracy within the enterprise. In this context, this study aims to suggest tangible solutions by revealing the economical and social differences between unionization and non-unionization in the sector. Besides, the study differs from other studies and contributes to the literature due to its two-sided research structure (workers and employers) and analysis of unionization in textile and clothing sector in terms of economical and social aspects. In accordance with the aim of the research, two separate surveys are conducted for textile and clothing enterprises, which operate throughout Turkey, and for unionized and non-unionized blue-collar workers of these enterprises. The obtained data are analyzed by using descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis, and independent samples t-test. As stated by the research results, the perspectives of unionized and non-unionized participants differ with regard to positive and negative aspects (both economical and social aspects) of being a union member.

The glass fiber reinforced resin matrix composite I-beams were designed and formed via a type of novel bending pultrusion processing technique, and the three-point bending tests were carried out to analyze the mechanical bending performances. The obtained results show that the main failure mode of the composite I-beam under the bending load is the upper structure (top flange) cracks along the length direction of the fibers, and the cracks simultaneously propagate downwards in the vertical direction. The bifurcated cracks can be found at the junction area between the top flange and web. In addition, the main bending failure mechanism of the composite I-beam includes the matrix cracking, propagation of cracks, and final fracture failure. In particular, noting that when the crack reaches the I-shaped neck position, the lateral bifurcation occurs, and the resulting secondary cracks further extend in two directions, which leads to the serious damage between the top flange and web, and the ultimate fracture failure occurs.

Conductive cellulose fibers may find application in producing antistatic materials and fibrous electronic elements for smart textiles (textronics). In this paper, we present a method of fabrication of cellulose fibers modified with the reduced graphene oxide (rGO) and graphene oxide (GO). The fibers were obtained by using N-methylmorpholine-N-oxide (NMMO) as a direct solvent, adding dispersion of GO during the cellulose dissolution process. In the next step, the GO enclosed in the fibers was reduced for ca. half an hour at 90°C with the excess of water solution of hydrazine to obtain fibers containing rGO. The viscosity of the spinning solution increased when GO was added; however, the difference is important at low shearing rates but decreases at high shearing rates, similar to that used in the process of fiber spinning. Cellulose fibers containing 3, 4, 6, and 10% w/w of rGO were obtained. Fiber morphology was studied using electron microscopy. The results of the electrical properties’ measurements showed that the conductivity of modified fibers strongly depends on the concentration of rGO. At 10% rGO conductivity was 9 x 10 −3 S/cm. The mechanical properties of the obtained fibers were slightly changed by the presence of GO and rGO. Tenacity and elongation at break decreased with the increase in the content of GO and rGO in the fibers but remain at an acceptable level from the textiles processing point of view.

The sportswear industry has a growing market globally. In the sportswear retail market, where the primary focus is on providing customers the product, but provision of the necessary ancillary service also takes place, the service quality and its relation to customer satisfaction and customer loyalty are important. With an attempt to find out this relationship, the data for this study was obtained from 251 people living in Turkey. The service quality was described as a second-order construct with the dimensions proposed in SERVQUAL scale. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were used to analyze and validate the model. The findings showed that the service quality, together with the relevant dimensions, tangibles, reliability, and assurance, has an influence on the customer satisfaction but not on the customer loyalty. Nonetheless, it was confirmed the customer satisfaction has an impact on the customer loyalty.

This paper presents a novel magnetic twisting device with a coaxial double rotor based on non-contact transmission characteristics of magnetic drive technology. When the twisting device rotates one cycle, the yarn can get triple twists. This means the new device can twist three times more than what the traditional single twist does. The structure of the magnetic twisting device is designed according to the twisting principle. The influence of main structural parameters on the magnetic torque is analyzed. To optimize the maximum transmission torque and the minimum magnet volume, the multi-objective optimization design model for the twisting device is established. Main parameters such as the relative angle of active disc assembly and passive disc assembly, the thickness of magnet, and the average radius of the magnet distribution are optimized by NSGA-II algorithm. Optimization results show that the proposed structural optimization design of a twisting device based on the magnetic drive has excellent performance and is effective for industrial application.

During the technological processing of staple fibers into yarn drafting, waves are formed which increase the irregularity of yarn linear density and consequently affect the yarn quality. Even a correctly performed technological process does not allow one to completely eliminate yarn faults (thin and thick places, neps) and yarn irregularity. All the yarn imperfections distinctly become apparent in flat textiles made of such a yarn. The quality of the yarn produced should be assessed already in spinning mill, using the results obtained to conclude on the quality of woven or knitted fabrics. Modern metrological laboratories in spinning mills possess Uster Tester 5 (UT5) apparatuses that not only assess the yarn quality with respect to the irregularity of linear density, faults (thin and thick places, neps), or hairiness, but also using the test results obtained make it possible to create a digital image of the predicted appearance of a flat fabric made of the yarn tested. This article presents a computer-aided method of the analysis of the woven and knitted fabric images obtained from UT5 that allows one to assess the significance of particular yarn parameters in the predicted appearance of flat fabrics.

The research in this paper aims to set up a new consumer profile definition method based on fuzzy technology and fuzzy AHP. The result of the study could be applied to garment recommendation systems for a special consumer. Consumer profiles are chosen as research objects. The fuzzy technology and fuzzy AHP are applied in this research, which aims to provide a new method of using fuzzy technology and fuzzy AHP to define consumer profiles. We define tall–short and fat–thin by fuzzy technology and set up the weights of consumer profile by fuzzy AHP methods. The fuzzy technology and fuzzy AHP are applied for building consumer profiles that can be used for a consumer-oriented intelligent garment recommendation system.

Recently, there is an increasing interest in design of circular weft jacquard because of the pursuit of fashion and comfort. Aiming at the complexity of the computer-aided design method of the existing circular weft-knitted jacquard fabrics, which is not conducive to the rapid design and intelligible for designers, a design method was proposed to transform pattern notation into knitting diagram efficiently, which was based on knitting rules and its creation as a set of jacquard modules. Knitting characteristics of jacquard fabrics were studied as a precondition. On this basis, the design procedures of jacquard modules were analyzed and illustrated by taking tricolor bird's eye backing jacquard as an example. Jacquard modules with various jacquard effects were designed and stored in a jacquard module database. To mathematically describe pattern notation, knitting diagram, and jacquard module, two-dimensional matrixes were established by the method of mathematical modeling, and a corresponding algorithm for the transformation of the pattern to knitting information according to the knitting rules of jacquard modules, which can be applied to ordinary jacquard fabrics was summarized. The project of tricolor circular weft-knitted jacquard with bird's eye in the reverse and four-color air-layer jacquard were taken for instance to verify the models and algorithm. The results obtained show that the approach can efficiently and conveniently realize the designation and machine-knitting of weft-knitted jacquard fabric, which provide a theoretical basis and notation of modeling for the computer-aided design of circular weft-knitted jacquard fabrics.

In order to investigate the effect of washing water pH on textile damage for delicate garments, the study was conducted such that a customer survey was first applied to randomly selected users to analyze domestic washing machine using habits of Turkish consumers. Based on the findings of the survey, the experimental study was designed in two successive phases to investigate the dimensional and mechanical behavior of certain types of delicate textiles against varying washing conditions by taking in particular, water properties, namely pH, hardness, and temperature into account, and accordingly to determine the optimized washing conditions for such textiles. Firstly, tergotometer was employed as a washing machine simulator. Within the light of the results obtained, the experimental work of the second phase of the study was conducted, which involved a domestic washing machine as a real-life scenario. All of the results, including the correlation between the data sets obtained from the tergotometer and domestic washing machine trials, were statistically analyzed using Minitab 17. The study produced some important findings regarding the effect of washing water pH on delicate textiles, in addition to an algorithm for improving the present washing program, minimizing textile damage for mainly wool and silk garments.

Warning clothing for children should meet several requirements in the field of safety and functionalities. Technical and technological development has brought many different benefits. One of them are active light sources that can be used to improve the visibility of the user of given clothing products in situations, where the risk of being invisible is high. Therefore, the transformable clothing with the use of side emitting polymer optical fiber increases the child visibility in the traffic compared to the situation, when the safety was guaranteed only by reflective materials. The scientific problem to be solved was the design of transformable clothing, followed by the integration of traffic light systems with transformable children's clothing, which should increase the child's safety on the road. Transformability, as a feature of the product, should not interfere with the child's visibility. At a later stage of work, visioility tests on the transformable children's clothing set prototype were carried out according to the proposed research methodology. The visibility of system has been assessed both from the point of view of the arrangement of traffic light elements as well as their optoelectronic parameters, such as illuminance, the color of the optical fiber cover, and so on.

The properties of viscose\TiO 2 and viscose\TiO 2 \germanium dioxide (GeO 2 ) are investigated and compared. The elemental mapping analysis using a field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) shows the excellent distribution of nanomaterials, while the energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) confirms its existence. The 500 s cycle of rubbing test indicates that the abrasion resistance of treated samples improves significantly. In addition, the doping of nano GeO 2 enhances the strength of the treated samples. Furthermore, the thermal behavior of the treated samples, characterized by differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), results in a higher crystallization temperature and doping GeO 2 increases the thermal properties of viscose in comparison with nano TiO 2 . The study of ultraviolet blocking indicates that doping GeO 2 can improve the transmission of ultraviolet even from TiO 2 .

Graphical Abstract Abstract The effect of sodium lignosulfonate (LS) treatment on nylon fabric for enhancing its ultraviolet protection ability has been studied. Various concentrations of LS were applied on nylon fabric using the exhaust method and the treatment was optimized using Box–Behnken response surface design. The ultraviolet protection factor (UPF) is achieved, as high as 62.13 with one such LS-treated nylon fabric. The LS-treated nylon fabrics were characterized using FTIR, FESEM, Energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), and Thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA) instruments. The UPF and color-strength (K/S) values are significantly increased with an increase in the concentration of LS without any loss of tensile properties and thermal stability. The LS treatment has excellent wash fastness.