Dr.
Bichang’a
3. Fabric testing
Fabric is the most important raw material for garments. It incurs around 70% of the garment cost
and nearly 100% of the exposed area. Fabric has to pass through maximum checks as the cost
increases as it moves forward in the manufacturing process. A faulty fabric, if not screened out at
the receiving phase, would involve further cutting, stitching, finishing, and packing costs.
Therefore, it is ideal to check fabric at the source to save also on the transportation cost and time,
in the case of faulty fabric. Another common practice, in local purchase, is to inspect the fabric
right after it is received in the warehouse of an apparel manufacturing facility. A third party
inspection may be involved where the prepared fabric has to be shipped to other countries.
The finished fabric may involve raw material irregularities that may become more apparent after
dyeing and finishing. It also includes yarn defects like thick and thin places. In addition weaving
or knitting imperfections occur, such as miss picks, broken ends, and miss stitches. Dyeing and
printing process irregularities also impart adverse effects to finished fabric. Other testing
requirements relate to shrinkage, skewness, strength, elasticity, pilling and abrasion, stiffness,
weight of fabric, fabric quality, among others. Therefore, it is necessary for garment
manufacturing that the provided fabric is free of all previous processing irregularities and that it
complies with garment performance standards.
Testing is important, mainly for customer satisfaction of the textile product as well as to ensure
product quality for the market in which the textile manufacturer competes. Testing is also
important in order to control the manufacturing process and cost.
Different Types of Fabric Testing:
Visual inspection and Grading of fabric:
This is the most common test for deciding whether the fabric lot should be accepted or not and is
based on visual inspection of the finished fabric. The fabric roll is loaded on one side of the
inspection table that is equipped with the appropriate type and intensity of light. The fabric runs
across the inspection table at a certain speed and an expert checks visually for predefined faults.
A certain number of points are allocated, depending on the dimension, severity, and nature of the
faults, for a single meter of the fabric being inspected. More than one standard grading system
exists. A four-point system, for example, is one in which the inspector allocates a maximum of
four points to an individual meter inspected, according to predefined criteria. The total points are
then counted over the roll length.
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The procedure is repeated for all rolls taken in a selected sample from the whole population of the
fabric lot. At the end, the total points and total length inspected are calculated. The results are then
expressed in points per 100 linear units (meters or yards) of fabric. The decision to accept a fabric
lot is made on the basis of the pre-settled mutual understanding of supplier and customer. For
example, a result of 30 points per 100 linear meters will result in the rejection of the lot, if the
supplier agreed to provide fabric at 20 points per 100 linear meters.
Fabric color test
Garment manufacturers usually check fabric color against preapproved fabric swatches supplied
by the customer. The fabric swatches are developed in the pre-production phase. Once the color
swatches have been approved after multiple trials the supplier is a sked to follow those approved.
The supplier is expected to follow the same recipe as was used in dyeing the swatch fabrics.
Therefore, it is more appropriate to check the fabric shade at first, last, and inner points of a single
roll. Another common fault relating to color shade is the variation across fabric width. This fault
typically arises when dealing with wider width fabrics like home textiles. Checking the shade
from the left, center, and right of the fabric width gives appropriate information regarding
variations.
Tear Tests
Tear strength is an important parameter which is required during the exposure of the cloths in the
severe environmental conditions. It is usually the most common kind of strength failure of fabrics
in use. Tear strength is an important parameter regarding the industrial fabrics which are exposed
to rough handling in use such as tents. In case of outdoor clothing, overall and casual dresses
tearing strength is an important characteristics. Tearing strength can be defined as the force
required to propagate an existing tear in the fabric. The test is used mainly in woven fabrics as the
test is unidirectional and the woven fabrics have unidirectional yarns. Tearing strength is expressed
in Newton (N). Different tear tests are performed in order to measure the tear tests; basic principle
of testing is the same, only the geometry of the specimen is different. Rip tear test is the simplest
test. A cut is introduced in the centre of a strip of specimen and by the help of jaws of tensile
strength tester two tails are pulled apart and the tear strength is evaluated.
Bursting Strength of Fabric
It can be defined as the force required to rupture a woven/knitted fabric by dilating it with a force
which is applied perpendicular to the plane of the sample, under slandered conditions. The
working principle of the machine which is used for this test method is Constant Rate of Elongation
(CRE). The sample is securely clamped to the machine without any kind of tension on the ball
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burst attachment. The ball burst test is used to test the bursting strength of fabrics. A specimen of
fabric taken from either a fabric roll or garment is placed between grooved plates of the testing
equipment and fastened by means of screws. A polished and hardened steel ball attached to a
pendulum actuating clamp of the machine is forced through the fabric, at right angles to the fabric
plane, until the rupture occurs. The force reading gives the bursting strength of the fabric. Bursting
strength is expressed in Newton.
Abrasion resistance
Abrasion is the wearing away of any part of a material when rubbed against any other material.
Clothes produced from fibres with high breaking strength and abrasion resistance can be worn often
and for a longer period of time before showing any sign of physical wear. For instance, nylon has
extremely high abrasion resistance hence it is normally widely used in outer actions while acetate
is characterized with poor abrasion resistance hence does not last longer whenever used as internal
lining of coats and jackets. Abrasive resistance is simply a test for textile durability.
Air permeability
The air permeability is the volume of air passing a fabric under pressure. Alternatively, air
permeability of any material can be defined as the air passing at right angle through a known area
of the specimen in a unit time under a prescribed air pressure differential between the two surfaces
of a specimen. For some products such as curtains require high air permeability while other
products like gas filters and parachutes require very less air permeability. Air permeability is
expressed in meter cubic per square meter of fabric at stated differential pressure between two
surfaces of fabric. There are two types of air permeability tester for textiles, Frazier air
permeability tester and Shirley air permeability tester. The reference standard test method is
ASTM-D737.
Figure 1: air permeability tester
The main variables affecting air permeability of a fabric include:
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❖ Fibre content: more fibre content hence more crimp leads to lower air permeability.
❖ Yarn size: the heavier the yarns in the fabric, less the air permeability.
❖ Yarn twist: less twists, higher air permeability.
❖ Fabric thickness: thicker fabrics have lower air permeability.
❖ Fabric yarns per inch or stitches per inch (density): the greater the density, the lower the
air permeability.
❖ M u lti ple layers: more layers, lower air permeability.
Tensile strength and Elongation test of fabric:
Fabric in garments has to bear a number of forces throughout its performance life. A fabric,
therefore, must satisfy the minimum level of strength to satisfy customer needs. The standard test
involves checking more than one parameter of the fabric. For testing tensile properties, a test
specimen of the fabric is clamped in the jaws of a tensile testing machine and a force is applied
until the specimen breaks. The maximum amount of force exerted by the machine, recorded from
the machine scale, gives the breaking force. A tensile tester is depicted in Figure 2.
Figure 2: tensile tester
Subtract the specimen’s initial length from its length at breaking point. The difference expressed
in percentage gives the elongation measurement. The method is applicable to most woven and
nonwoven fabrics, knitted and stretch fabrics being an exception. There are two methods of fabric
tensile testing: strip method and grab method.
The strip test is a tensile test in which the full width of the test specimen is gripped in the tensile
grip jaws of a universal testing machine. During this test, tensile force is applied on the fabric
specimen until it ruptures. Mechanical properties to analyze include the force at rupture and the
elongation (expressed as percentage) at maximum force and/or at rupture.
A grab test is a tensile test in which the center part of the specimen width is gripped in the tensile
grip jaws. Due to the way the sample is gripped, edge effects, which may cause inaccurate data
for fabrics, are eliminated. Similar to the strip test method, tensile force is applied to4 |the
P afabric
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specimen until rupture and maximum force is recorded. Fabric specimens most often tested using
the grab method are woven and non-woven textile fabrics.
Fabric (weight) areal density test:
Fabric mass per unit area is a very important consideration in the selection of fabric for a particular
end use. Garments made of fabric with higher areal densities are not used in the summer season,
and vice versa. To determine the mass per unit area of a certain fabric a standard specimen is
prepared first. This is weighed and the results are expressed in mass per unit area. The standard
test method is ASTM-D3776.
Water Repellency (Spray Test)
The tendency of any material to resist wetting is called its water repellency. In this test water is
sprayed on the stretched fabric sample from 150 ±2 mm height under controlled conditions. A
wetted pattern is produced whose size is dependent on the water repellency of the specimen. The
wetted sample is compared by the standard spray ratings to evaluate the water repellency of it.
Breaking strength: is the force required to break a fabric when it is under tension force. Breaking
elongation refers to the increase in length that occurs when a fabric breaks. Some of the main
factors affecting fabric breaking strength include fibre content, yarn type and size, yarns per inch
and type of weave. Breaking strength is measured in Newton (N) while elongation is expressed in
percentage (%). Breaking strength is measured for both warp and weft yarns of the fabric. In most
cases, warp yarns withstand higher breaking strength than weft yarns. This can be associated with
size/starch added to warp yarns to make them stronger to withstand mechanical abrasion during
weaving process. Breaking strength test is important in various end uses, for instance, automotive
safety belts and parachute harness. Secondly, breaking strength is important in testing the effects
of destructive forces upon a woven fabric such as laundering, abrasion and sunlight.
Pilling propensity: Pilling is the formation of small balls of fibres (called pills) on the surface of
the fabric especially when there is rubbing or an abrasive action on the surface of the fabric.
Usually, pilling occurs during normal wear and when clothes are in the dryer. During this test,
evaluation should be made taking into consideration the size, number and visibility of the pills and
the type and degree of other surface changes.
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