Band 8, Heft 3

Strength of the fabric is an important property that decides and influences all other performance properties of the fabric. But though we all understand the importance of the strength of the fabric in daily wear, a systematic approach is required to correlate various strength properties with that of the yarn and fabric construction parameters. We are all aware of the effect of the individual factors like twist, count and cover factor on the strength behaviour of the fabric. However it is necessary to study the effect of all these parameters in combination with each other to ultimately influence the strength of the fabric. Such a study is also useful for designing of the fabric, depending upon the end use and the customer requirement as it is gaining importance in the recent fierce competitive scenario. In this study we have evaluated the strength properties of the fabric with respect to tensile, tear and bursting strength and correlated the results with respect to the yarn count, Twist Multiplier and picks per inch of the fabric using regression equations.

The performances and properties of the fine hairs from the coats of several domestic and wild mammals, namely the "speciality animal fibres" used for manufacturing high quality, luxury textiles, are influenced by the domestication process, heritability, hybridisation, nutrition, and life environment. In this work, the fibre morphology and cell structures of fibres from wild, domestic and crossbred goats were studied, with the aim of investigating the relationships with the thermal behaviour of the crystalline fraction of the fibres. Scanning Electron Microscopy investigation confirmed that exposure to thermal excursions and nutritional stresses lead to finer hair, associated with lower rate of growth, yielding strong orientation and elongation of the cuticle cells in the direction of the fibre axis. Transmitted Light Microscopy and Differential Scanning Calorimetry revealed specie-specific differences in the internal structure of the fibre cortex, probably related also to moisture during the process of hair keratinisation.

The present study was conducted to develop a credible approach to determine the quality of ring spun and slub yarns by virtue of criteria incorporating combinations of the fundamental fiber characteristics. Critical yarn parameters are to be investigated. The values of these tested properties were introduced into a database that ranked the quality of the yarn against industry standards. The paper investigates the possibilities of using the global optimization superimposed diagram response surface methodology in order to identify the spinner feasibility conditions across the customer yarn quality requirements. The spinner approach consists of optimizing the yarn count and twist. We have also studied the customer approach to optimize the yarn responses simultaneously by the use of the desirability functions. The response optimizer searches for a combination of input variables that jointly optimize the set of the responses by satisfying the customer requirements for each response in the set.

This work is mainly focused on the characterization of physical, low-stress mechanical and surface properties (such as bending rigidity, shear rigidity and air permeability) of plasma coated wool fabrics. A thin film was deposited on fabric samples by means of plasma polymerization of hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDSO) and differences between such plasma-treated and untreated fabrics were evaluated, analysing possible influences of operating conditions (particularly discharge power and deposition time) on the trends of the studied properties.

Special technical textiles are used in papermaking to support, transfer, and dewater the paper web. These textiles, paper machine cloths, have many essential functions connected to their position on the paper or board machine. Mechanical wet pressing uses press felts, whose porosity and resiliency are important for effective dewatering. Water is squeezed out by two overlapping paper machine rolls, which form a nip. After squeezing, the porous felt should be void and return to its original thickness to ensure efficient dewatering. Friction forces are also present at the nip, since abrasive interfaces occur between the cloths and the rolls by pressure, heat, and movement. Thus in time, the harsh papermaking process wears out the press felt, deteriorating its quality. At high machine speed, defects in press felts, rolls, or other parts of the nip environment can cause runnability problems such as noisy run, that is, vibration in the pressing section, decreasing paper quality and output capacity. This study sought for a new way to simulate the ambiguous nip phenomenon on laboratory scale and to find out a way to predict this noisy run problem. A dynamic test method, the Hopkinson Split Bar, was used to define the ease with which strike energy passed through from the upper roll to the lower roll and the damping of strikes by new and worn felt samples. In our study, the elasticity of the press felt was strongly linked with the ageing time. Decreased elasticity lets a nip impulse more easily through the press felt.

RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) is a wireless communication technology that is used in physical markers (RFID tags) to mark products. RFID is being increasingly applied in everyday life and thus is competing with widely used bar codes. RFID technology can be used to build systems aimed at automatic identification of tagged objects. In production- commerce plants in the textile sector it can enable strict control over both production and storage/sale processes. The best thing about RFID technology is that it is functional, with no need to 'see' the tag by the interrogator. When a tagged object enters the reading zone of an interrogator, the interrogator signals the tag to transmit its stored data to the controller via radio waves. Unlike bar codes technology, RFID can be much more effective in the process of production and storage of certain objects. Undoubtedly, both production and commerce companies in the textile branch will significantly benefit from RFID applications.