Study On Establishing Chinese Fabrics And Apparel Products Standard System

Textiles and apparel industries of China are making important contributions to China's export trade every year. However some developed countries such as the United States and European countries continue to use the technical trade measures to restrict China's exports recently. In order to find advantages and gaps between Chinese and developed countries' standard systems, compared studies were done in this paper.Firstly, the standard systems, the product classification, testing items and requirements of product standards of our major trading countries (the United States, the EU and its member states, Japan and so on) were studied. And the differences between China and developed countries were found, referred to comparisons of the requirements of product standards in developed countries, the end-users' product standards and the guides of independent testing organization which basedon a user's point of view. Secondly, the differences of developed countries and some relevant useful suggestions were given based on investigating typical basic standards and method standards among ISO, AATCC or ASTM, JIS and GB or FZ.1) The deficiencies of applications and the same or similar terms in standard terminology relating to fabric defects were pointed out by analysis of ISO, ASTM and related Chinese standards and the applications in the products and method standards in China. Suggestions to modify and improve our related standards were given.2) By comparing the similarities and differences of the fabric defects inspection system (four-point system and ten-point system) between China and the United States, the suggestions to discontinue the current test methods, equal to use the advanced standards to inspect the different kinds of fabrics were pointed out.3) Different test methods of the colorfastness to hypochlorite bleach were compared and some requirements of fabrics and apparel were summed up. Suggestions on modifying the test method and the requirement of colorfastness to hypochlorite bleach in Chinese standard were given.4) Different laundering test methods were compared and requirements of ASTM product standards were referred. Specifications of fabrics should have the requirements about fabric appearance in Chinese standard which was pointed out.After above comparisons, a new trade-oriented standard system of fabrics and apparel which includes the standard of fabrics use for apparel and apparel standard in combination with requirements from developed standard was established.1. Standard of fabrics use for apparelThe classification of fabrics based on the end-use of clothing includes outer wears, middle wears, under wears, accessories and denim and so on.In the part of quality control, according to Chinese national situation, the new system will be classified to mandatory requirements, requirements of care label, quality control items and others, and functional requirements and etc.(1) Mandatory requirements include fiber content, safety requirements such as formaldehyde, pH value and flammability and so on and colorfastness to water, perspiration, crocking of dry and saliva.(2) Requirements of care label include dimensional stability of laundering, dry cleaning and pressing and finishing and colorfastness to laundering, hypochlorite bleach, dry cleaning and pressing.(3) Quality control of the main demands includes strength of breaking, tear and bursting, yarn slippage and colorfastness to crocking of wet and light. And the kinds of strength and yarn slippage have different requirements of mass per unit area. Others include colorfastness to light and perspiration and burnt-gas fumes, pilling, snagging, pile retention, abrasion resistance and smooth appearance.(4) Functional requirements include colorfastness to chlorinated water and sea, waterproof performances, durable pressing, antibacterial properties and down proof properties and so on.2. Apparel standardIt makes up of requirements of label, strength, appearance after laundering (dry cleaning) and washable (drycleanable) performance for apparel standard.(1) Requirements of label include size designation, fiber content and care label, country of origin and relevant prescriptions.(2) Strengthsof apparel include seam strength of fabrics, pockets, zipper, reinforced stress points, and anchored strength of metal accessories and decorations, and adhesive ability of interfacing.(3)Appearances after laundering (dry cleaning) include seam smoothness and crease retention.(4) Washable (drycleanable) performances cover torque of laundering (dry cleaning), dimensional stability of lining compatible with shell, print and coated fabrics durability, requirements of color block and sewing thread, and zipper and button durability and so on.