UNIT IV

Fabric Testing- Handle Properties

Fabric Stiffness - Shirley Stiffness Tester
Fabric Crease - Resistance & Crease Recovery Measurements
Fabric Drape - Drape Meter
Fabric Permeability
Fabric Air Permeability Tester and
Water Permeability Tester
Handle
Concerned with the feel of the material
Different material has diff. degree of smoothness or roughness.
Degree vary person to person

Factors Affecting Handle Properties

• Weight & Density:
• Wt / unit area or per unit volume.
• Fabric varies in Wt. from light to heavy and density from compact to
open.
• Surface friction: Harsh to Slippery
• Flexibility: Bending of fabric.
• Compressibility: Ease of squeezing of a fabric.
• Resilience: Ability of the fabric to recover from deformation in any length of
time. Deformation may be flexural, compression, extensional, or Torsional.

STIFFNESS TESTER
• It indicates the resistance of the fabric to bend
Different Methods to measure stiffness;
By the thickness of folded sample
 Cantilever test
Heart-loop - Heart loop test
Flexometer
Plano flex
Moment of rotation.
Principle
• Rectangular strip of fabric is mounted on horizontal platform and slided until the
fabric overhangs like cantilever as shown in fig.

S – Fabric Sample P – Platform

D – Datum Line L1, L2 – Index Lines
Bending Length, C
• Also called as “Drape Stiffness”
• It is the length of the fabric that will bend under its own weight to definite extent.
• Indicates the interaction between fabric weight and its stiffness.
• It reflects the stiffness of a fabric when bend in one plane under the force of
gravity
• Length of overhanging L when depressed under its own weight and the angle
between the line joining the tip to the edge of the platform Ө
• Bending length C = L f(Ө)

Flexural Rigidity (G)

• It is measure of Stiffness associated with Handle.

• It is called as Flex stiffness.
• It is calculated from the bending length and weight per sq. cm. or sq. yard of the
fabric.
Flexural Rigidity
G = 3.39W1C3 x 103 mg.cm
G = W2C3 x 103 mg.cm
Where,
C = Bending Length in cms
W1 = Weight/Sq.yard of fabric in Ounces
W2 = Weight/Sq.cm of fabric in grams

Flexural rigidity is calculated for Warp and Weft ways of fabric

Overall Flexural rigidity is the geometric mean of the above two values.
Overall Flexural rigidity
Go = (Gw.Gf)½
Gw = Warp Flexural rigidity
Gf = Weft Flexural rigidity

Bending Modulus(q)
• Maximum stress per unit area that a specimen can withstand without breaking
when bent.
• May be regarded as the “Intrinsic stiffness”.
• Comparing the stiffness of the material of different thickness values.
• For this the thickness of the fabric is measured at a pressure of 1 lb/sq.inch
Bending Modulus, q = 732 G kg/sq.cm
g13
Bending Modulus, q = 12 G x 10-6 kg/sq.cm
g23
Where,

g
1– Fabric thickness in thousands of an inch
g
2– Fabric thickness in cm
Bending Modulus is also calculated for warp and weft ways of the fabric.
PRINCIPLE
• Measurement of bending length by cantilever principle
SAMPLING
• Prepare the warp and weft way sample using a scale applied with instrument and
graduated in cms.
• Sample will be 1” wide and 6”long
• 4 samples are selected for each warp and weft direction creased portions in fabric
should be avoided in sampling
TEST PROCEDURE
• Place the specimen on the platform.
 • Place the template over the specimen so that the leading edge of both specimen
and template coincides
• Slide both the specimen and template slowly in forward direction
• Keep your eye in a position so that the index line coincides.
• Stop sliding specimen, when it cuts both the index lines
• Read and record the bending length from the templates opposite a datum line on
the platform
• Turn the specimen and repeat the procedure once again. Conduct 4 tests per
specimen

Crease Recovery Tester

• Cotton fabrics are susceptible to the formation of crease or wrinkles.
• Wrinkled fabric aesthetically looks bad.
• Resistance to creasing should be distinguished from the ability to recover from the
creases already formed in the fabric
• Among the common textile materials, the order of diminishing crease resistance is
wool, silk, acetate rayon, viscose rayon, cuprammonium rayon, cotton and flax
Crease recovery is measured quantitatively in terms of crease recovery angle by crease
recovery tester.
PRINCIPLE
• A wrinkle free rectangular specimen of prescribed dimensions is folded in half and
compressed under a load for a specified time.
• The load is then removed and the specimen is allowed to recover for the specified
time.
• The amount of recovery is expressed as the angle between the limbs of the fold,
which is called the crease recovery angle.
PREPARATION OF TEST SPECIMENS
• Ten test specimens are cut from the fabric with a template, 2” long by 1” in wide.
 • Using a pair of scissors or blade with their longer side parallel to warp and weft
threads respectively.
• The specimens cut in such a way that no two-warp
two warp way specimens contain the
same set of warp yarns and no two weft way specimens contain the same set of
weft yarn.
• The specimens should not be cut from creased, bent or other
other deformed parts of the
sample and also not from within 2 inches from the selvedges.
• Since the moisture present in the fabric influences the results the test are carried
out after conditioning
ning in the standard atmosphere.

CREASE RECOVERY ANGLE MEASUREMENT

• After the load is removed the specimen is transferred to the clamp of the
instrument.
• For this, one limb of the specimen is hold in the tweezers and the other limb is
placed in the clamp.
 • As the specimen recovers, the dial is rotated to keep the free edge of the specimen
in line with the knife-edge.
• At the end of the time period (5mm) allowed for recovery, the recovery angle in
degrees is read on the dial.
• The above procedure is repeated for all the warp way and weft way specimens and
the average recovery angle is calculated.
• The load time of creasing and creasing and recovery time may be altered to suit
different fabrics.
• The Test should include the following:
Type of fabric tested
Number of tests performed
Load applied
Time of creasing
Time of recovery
Mean crease recovery angle for
a. Warp way specimen
b. Weft way specimen

Fabric Drape
Drape is the ability of fabric to assume a graceful appearance in use
Drape is the term used to describe the way a fabric hangs under its own weight
• It has an important bearing on how good a garment looks in.
• Knitted fabrics are relatively floppy and garments made from them will tend to
follow the body contours.
• Woven fabrics are relatively stiff when compared with knitted fabrics.
• Measurement of a fabric drape is meant to assess its ability to hang in graceful
curves.
Drape Test – Cusick drape test
• A circular specimen of diameter 10 inches is supported on a circular disc of
diameter 5 inches.
• When the fabric is supported, it will assume the folded configuration due to
gravity and the shape of the projected area will not be circular, but something like
the shape in fig.

Drape Co-efficient
Drape Co-efficient- F can be calculated by measuring the following area.
Area of the specimen, AD
 Area of the supporting Disc, Ad
Actual projected area of the specimen, As
F = As-Ad
AD-Ad
ie, The ratio between the projected area of the draped specimen and its undraped area,
after the deduction of the supporting disc.
• Instead of the areas of the draped and undraped specimen, their corresponding
weight of paper projection can also be taken to calculate the drape co-efficient
F = Ws-Wd
WD-Wd
WD –Weight of the paper whose area is equal to the area of the specimen
Wd – Weight of the paper whose area is equal to the area of the supporting disc
Ws - Weight of the paper whose area is equal to the projected area of the specimen.
Small value of F means better drapability, large value means poor drapability.

Method to improve Drapability

1. By providing more float length
2. By reducing number of interlacements in the weave repeat.
3. Reducing number of picks per inch.

Fabric Permeability
Permeability to Air
– Desirable in clothing but undesirable in over coating, sail cloth, balloon
cloth etc.,
Permeability to water
– Desirable in clothing especially in innerwear but undesirable in materials
used for coverings such as tarpaulins
Water Permeability Testing
• Wetting Time test
• Spray test
• Drop Penetration Test
• Hydrostatic Head Test

Wetting Time Test

• A strip of fabric is lowered in a trough of water & removed from the water surface
from one end of the trough
• Distilled water at 20°C is used and rate of withdrawal of fabric is maintained at
8mm/min
• In beginning of test large contact angle is seen & after sometimes it reduces
• Time is noted when the contact angle drops to 90°
• Time taken to drop to 90° is called wetting time
• Very useful method in accessing water proof efficiency of fabrics
• Not suitable for cotton fabrics
• Mainly suitable for heavy wool cloth
Spray Test

• In this test, a small scale mock rain shower is produced by pouring water through a
spray nozzle
• Water falls onto the specimen which is mounted over 6” diameter embroidery
hoop & fixed at an angle of 45°
• 250 cu. cm of water at 27 ± 2°C is poured steadily into funnel
• Distance from the bottom of spray to centre of fabric is 6”.
• After spraying has finished, the sample holder is removed & surplus water
removed by tapping the frame against solid object for six times, with the face of
the sample facing the solid object
• Tapping is done at two stages, three taps at the point of frame and another three
taps at point diametrically opposite
• Assessment of water repellency is given by spray rating
• After removal of surplus water, the fabric is examined visually by matching
against photographic standards
Drop Penetration Test
• Drop penetration test is to count the number of drops required to penetrate the
fabric to the inner side when all drops falls on the same spot
• Sample is clipped on to the glass plate with a piece of filter paper sandwiched
between glass and fabric
• Frame holds the assemble at an angle of 45° directly under drop forming apparatus

• Drop forming apparatus is a fine bore glass tube to produce a certain number of
drops/min. of given size, with a constant head of water so that the size of drop &
time of drop are constant
• To ensure that the drops are fall on the same spot, draught shield are used .
• With the specimen is in position the water supply is started and drops fall into
fabric
• End point is reached when filter paper shows sign of water.
 • This can be noted in the mirror placed underneath the specimen
• Time is measured with the stop watch
• Filter paper may be impregnated with chemicals which changes color when wet
e.g., cobalt chloride turned blue or water can be tinted

AIR PERMEABILITY
Air permeability of a fabric is a measure of how well it allows the passage of air through
it. The ease of passage of air is of importance for a number of fabric end uses such as
industrial filters, tents, sailcloth, parachutes, raincoat materials, shirting's and airbags.
Air Permeability – Definition
• Air permeability is defined as the volume of air in cubic cm which is passed
in one second through 1 sq. cm. of the fabric at a pressure difference of 1
cm head of water.
Air Resistance - Definition
• Reciprocal of air permeability is air resistance, can be defined as the time in
seconds for 1 cubic cm of air to pass through 1 sq. cm. of fabric under a
pressure head of 1 cm of water.
Air Porosity - Definition
• It is defined as the ratio of air space to the total volume of fabric expressed as
percentage.
• It is a calculated value based on estimation of the volume of component fibers and
fabrics

Air Permeability Tester

• Airflow through a given area of fabric is measured at a constant pressure drop
across the fabric of 10mm head of water.
• Specimen is clamped over the air inlet of the apparatus with the use of rubber
gaskets and air is sucked through it by means of a pump.
• The air valve is adjusted to give a pressure drop across the fabric of 1 cm head of
water and the air flow is then measured using a flow meter.
• Five specimens are used each with a test area of 507mm2 (25.4mm diameter) and
the mean air flow in ml per second is calculated from the five results.
• From this the air permeability can be calculated in ml per 1 sq. cm. per second