A Study On Fabric Softness By Measuring Tensile Strength While Pulling Fabric Through Pins

Fabric softness is one of the most important fabric properties. Due to the unremitting efforts of lots of researchers, Kawabata Evaluation System (KES) and Fabric Assurance by Simple Testing (FAST) become the most important instrumental approaches to test fabric handing. These two methods are both measurable fabric properties such as low mechanical stress, shearing, bending, compression and surface friction. These two systems have many strongpoints, but they are not free of drawback. For example, testing procedures are time-consuming, interpretation and analysis of the testing results are complicated, and also the equipments are costly. So does Fabric Hardness Testing Machine method Testing, which is simple, but there is just one parameter- Bending Rigidity got from the test, which can't cover all the fabric's properties. That's why we need further research on fabric softness evaluation. To find more mechanistic meaning of tensile strength and explore the feasibility of assessing fabric softness with further step, this study adopts thin fabrics with similar fabric weight and thickness to measure the tensile strength while pulling a fabric through 10 parallel pins based on Zhang's pulling force experiment technique. We designed the simple fabric clamp for tensile strength testing rig according to above test theory and fabric we used. After tests, the fabric softness ranked with tensile strength was compared to those ranked with values obtained from KES system testing, FAST system testing, Fabric Hardness Testing Machine testing result, Drapability testing, Fabric Breaking testing and subjective softness assessments. Their correlation and regression analysis were also carried out. The result shows that there is correlation between strength value and objective testing parameters, subjective evaluation ranking to a certain extent. The tensile strength of simple measurement reflects bending, thickness, Initial modulus, Drapability coefficient, woven construction and surface properties of the fabrics.