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The market for lightweight next-to-skin knitted wool fabrics requires a reliable tactile sensory or handle assessment system. In this paper, eight bipolar pairs of fabric tactile attributes to describe the tactile sensory properties of fifty-two next-to-skin knitted fabrics were evaluated by twelve experienced trained judges. Principal component analysis and partial least squares regression techniques were employed to analyse the tactile sensory data. The results showed that the most agreed tactile sensory dimension amongst the judges only occurred in the first principal component of each of the eight tactile attributes. In conjunction with the judges' loading coefficients on the agreed component, judges were selected for assessing the next-to-skin knitted fabrics. Furthermore, the relationship between the overall tactile quality and the primary tactile attributes was established using a partial least squares regression method, from which the existence of collinearity between the primary tactile attributes was constrained and the overall tactile quality was predicted with a prediction error of 0.48 subjective units on a scale of 1-10.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the significant factors important for prickle discomfort properties of commercial wool knitwear and to analyse information on variability of garments manufactured over two decades, a total of 177 purchased garments were tested.

The relationship between the attributes of the reversed engineered garments and garment comfort, as assessed by Wool ComfortMeter, was determined.

The results indicate that: mean fibre diameter had the most significant effect on prickle assessment; the coefficient of variation of fibre diameter interacted with fabric thickness in affecting prickle discomfort; and rib knit structures were pricklier than single jersey structures.

The results provide objective evidence that the consumer surveys reporting dissatisfaction with the prickle discomfort of wool are based on real consumer experiences of prickle discomfort and are not based on “prejudice” against wool garments.

The purpose of this paper is to optimize the linear densities of polyester yarn and filament for inner layer and elastane for middle layer with cotton yarn outer layer in plain knitted plated structure for hot and dry environment clothing.

Three levels of polyester yarn linear densities (11.1, 8.4 and 5.6 Tex), filament linear densities (0.8, 1.55 and 2.3 Decitex) and elastane (0, 4 and 8 percent) with 14.75 Tex cotton yarn have been used to knit 15 single jersey plated fabrics based on Box and Benhens experimental design with same loop length. Three cotton–elastane core-spun fabrics were also produced. All the fabrics were analyzed for moisture and ergonomic comfort properties and wet fabric coefficient of friction.

The increase in elastane content and yarn linear density decreases water vapor and air permeability; the increase in filament linear density decreases wicking rate and water absorbency. The optimum solution is 5.55 Tex polyester yarn of 0.8 Decitex filament as inner layer and 14.75 Tex cotton yarn as outer layer which gives good heat and moisture transfer without stickiness.

The implication of this paper is to study thinner polyester, polypropylene and polyethylene fabrics with more micro pores as skin contact layer for quicker heat and moisture transfer.

Outward wickability of sweat from the skin is the prime requirement of all skin contact layer fabrics.

It shifts the social attitude of most comfortable fabric to polyester–cotton plated for hot and dry climate.

This paper employs a more practical method for the selection of fabric.

The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of knit fabric stitch patterns, as indicated by fabric thickness variations, on moisture responsiveness for different seamless knitted wool-based fabrics.

Forty fabrics were created on a Santoni Top-2 circular knitting machine by using combinations of jersey, tuck and float stitches in combinations of wool/Nylon, wool, and spandex yarns. Physical properties of the knit fabrics as well as changes in fabric thickness during dry, wet, after 30 min air-drying and after 60 min air-drying conditions were compared. Repeated measures ANOVA tests and bivariate correlation analysis were conducted.

The results indicated that changes in moisture conditions had a significant effect on fabric thickness, and these changes differed by stitch pattern groups. Float patterns and tuck/rib patterns showed a continued relaxation of fabric thickness through all conditions, but tuck stitches and rib stitches showed a thickness recovery. Wool swatches, unlike the wool/Nylon swatches, increased their average thickness in after 60 min air-drying condition compared to 30 min air-drying condition.

This research documents the moisture responsive properties for wool based yarns, as emerging natural functional materials for seamless knitting industry, with applications in garments for activewear as well as healthcare.

The water evaporation rate (WER) is not only crucial for fabric drying, but also an important parameter affecting cooling from a body wearing sweat wetted clothing. The purpose of this paper is to predict the WERs of wet textile materials in a pre-defined environment.

The maximum water evaporation rate (WER_max) from a saturated surface in a pre-defined environment was first predicted based on the Lewis relationship between the evaporative and the convective heat transfer in this paper. The prediction results were validated by the comparisons with experimental measurements in various environments obtained in this paper and reported in the literature.

Experiment results show that the ratios of WERs to WER_max are lower than 100 percent but higher than 50 percent, which confirmed that the prediction of WER_max is reliable. The temperature decrease of the wet material surface due to evaporation was considered to account for the difference between measured WERs and the WERmax, and the WER variation among materials. The lower ratios of WERs to WER_max in the higher wind condition were speculated to be due to the greater temperature decrease caused by the increased evaporation.

It provides a reliable way to obtain both WER_max and WER (WER_max multiplied by a proper ratio), which can be useful in clothing physiological modeling to predict clothing comfort.

This study contributes to the understanding of the evaporation process of textile materials.

Clothing must also assist the body’s thermal control function under changing physical loads in such a way that the body’s thermal and moisture management is balanced, and a microclimate is created next to the skin. One of the factors which affect moisture transport in a fabric is a fibre type. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to blend the natural hollow and low density fibre, milkweed, with cotton fibre at different proportions and to analyse and compare the influence of milkweed blend proportion on moisture management properties of rotor yarn fabrics with 100 per cent cotton fabric.

In the present study, cotton/milkweed blended rotor yarns were produced by using S-4 cotton variety and milkweed fibres in three different blend proportions such as cotton/milkweed 80/20, 60/40 and 40/60 along with 100 per cent cotton yarn with yarn count of 20 Ne. The single jersey knitted fabrics were produced with similar constructional parameters and then the fabrics were then scoured, bleached and neutralised as per the standard procedure. The fabrics have been analysed for its various moisture management properties using moisture management tester (MMT) and are statistically analysed.

The results indicate that, all the C/M blended fabrics have been classified as “moisture management fabric” and 100 per cent cotton fabric has been classified as “Fast absorbing and Quick Drying Fabric”. The overall moisture management capacity of C/M 40/60 fabric is excellent and could be used for summer, active and summer wear applications. One-way ANOVA analysis carried out at 95 per cent confidence level showed that the results are statistically significant. The pair-wise strength and association between various moisture management indices was analysed using Pearson correlation coefficient and observed that OWTC and OMMC was found to be positively and linearly related to each other.

The authors are confident that the cotton/milkweed blended yarns can be used as an inner wear and sportswear applications owing to the higher moisture regain and hollowness of milkweed fibre combined with the low packing density of C/M blended yarns which leads to overall improvement in moisture management properties of fabrics.

This paper traces the evolution of objective measurement of textile hand and comfort from Pierce through modern methodology and approaches. Special emphasis is given to discuss the contribution of the Kawabata Evaluation System (KES) towards advancing the state of objective measurement. Laboratory case studies are used to show how data generated by the KES and other instruments can be integrated into a comprehensive approach that attempts to explain human comfort response to garment wear in terms of fabric mechanical, surface and heat and moisture transfer properties.

This study aims to provide information on how to monitor the temperature setting of a heating device in order to implement a heating unit successfully in the smart clothing by observing voluntary heating behavior of wearers.

Subjects wearing base layers and additional clothing were asked to turn on and off the switch when wanted in the cold environmental chamber. Tolerable range of skin temperature (TST) depending on the location of body was obtained by observing the temperature at the time when the heating device was turned on and off during a rest–running–rest protocol.

The TST was 32.8–49.4 °C and decreased to 31.3–37.6 °C around abdomen and back waist, respectively. Changes in the wearers' voluntary control behavior were observed depending on the individual's level of cold-sensitivity and activity level of rest and running. TST was 35.8–49.4 °C (Rest 1: rest before exercise), 40.0–42.0 °C (Running) and 35.3–43.2 °C (Rest 2: rest after exercise) for cold-sensitive group, whereas it was 32.8–36.2 °C (Running) and 34.4–45.7 °C (Rest 2: rest after exercise) for cold-insensitive group.

In this study, results with detailed body locations and wearer's thermal sensitivity provide practical references for the implementation of a heating device to the comfortable multilayered smart clothing.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the influence of assembly type on the hand property of the polyester-knitted materials containing different amounts of elastane fibre.

The hand property of control textile materials specimens as well as assembled ones applying both adhesive bonding and sewing was evaluated analysing the typical pulling curves as well as the individual hand parameters, which were determined using the device KTU-Griff-Tester. The complex hand criterion Q was calculated for the complete assessment of both textiles and their assemblies’ hand by one numeral value.

It was shown that the fabric structure and assembly type have a significant influence on the knitted materials hand property. The complex hand criterion Q varied from 0.068 to 0.186, depending on the material structure, and it was decreased up to 42.6 per cent due to textile assemblies.

The determined research results are significant not only for clothing science but also leads to the improvement in clothing quality in fashion industry suggesting more ergonomic and original constructional decisions for clothes’ design, selection of most suitable assembly type and its place in overall garment area, which is very important for the development process of the slim fitted sportswear featuring with a very complicated construction, usually worn under intensive body movements causing rubbing effect to the skin.

Knitted fabrics should not only be elastic but also have perfect hand, thus making them to feel comfortable. But hand property of assembled textiles had not been investigated previously. Novelty and originality of this research was the objective and simple evaluation of the hand property for both knitted materials and their assemblies taking into account the overall skin sensorial comfort of a garment.

This paper aims to present comfort properties of bamboo-silk and cotton-silk Kota Doria fabrics.

Two types of Kota Doria fabrics were manufactured: one from the mixture of silk and bamboo yarns and the other from the mixture of cotton and silk yarns. Air permeability, thermal resistance and moisture management properties were determined.

Air permeability of bamboo-silk fabric was higher than that of cotton-silk fabric, whereas thermal resistance was less. Moisture management of both the fabrics was almost the same.