Research On Preparation And Characterization Ofmultiple-layer Moisture Gradient Fabric Based On Laminating Method

Demand for functionalized fabric grows steadily as people's living standards being raised day by day. Moisture gradient fabric has become one of the fields that attracted researchers' interests due to its excellent ability to conduct swear. However, most research focus on developing one way moisture conducting knitted fabric and there were not enough reports on laminated fabric composed of both knitted and woven fabric.In this study, laminated fabrics were prepared by bonding knitted fabric treated by hydrophobic agent and woven fabric treated by hydrophilic agent with self-made adhesive(by combining polyester composite adhesive, isocyanate and GLA-75 at content ratio of 100: 30: 20). Moisture Management Tests(MMT), wicking test and contacting angle test were carried out to comprehensively investigate the one way moisture conducting ability of laminated fabric. By adjusting three factors during laminating process: adhesive usage, roller rotating speed, laminating pressure, certain kinds of laminated fabric were prepared. MMT and peeling test were conducted to characterize these fabrics and the laminated fabric which possesses best one way moisture conducting ability was secured by comparing those testing results.Washability of laminated fabrics were studied by testing the one way moisture conducting ability with MMT method after laminated fabrics were washed for certain times. And the influence of material and fabric structure on moisture conducting ability of laminated fabric were studied by comparing testing results of MMT and wearability.Results show that moisture gradient fabrics laminated by knitted fabric and woven fabric were prepared successfully through functionalizing treatment and laminating process. The optimal hydrophilic finishing process is that the hydrophilic agent concentration is set at 20 g/L with the liquor ratio of 1: 20. While the optimal hydrophobic finishing process is that the hydrophobic agent concentration is set at 2 g/L with the liquor ratio 1: 10. In addition, both fabrics were heated at 160 ?for 5min after hydrophilic or hydrophobic process. The laminated fabric prepared under these two optimal processes has the best one way moisture conducting ability, both of its moisture absorbing ability, sweat conducting ability and comprehensive quick drying ability reached 5th grade(the highest level) according to MMT standards. The optimal laminating process is that the adhesive usage is 20 g/m2, the roller rotating speed is set at 4.5 m/min, the laminating pressure is set at 0.6 MPa and the laminated fabric is baked at 160 ?for 5min. The moisture absorbing speed of the upper layer of the laminated fabric prepared under this optimal process reached 39.5756 %/s, and its diffusion rate was 18.8328 mm/s, which indicate that this laminated fabric possesses good moisture diffusing ability and moisture absorbing ability. Indexes related to one way moisture conducting ability of laminated fabric dropped slowly as washing times increased. After being washed for 50 times, the one way conducting index of the laminated fabric which possessed the highest one way moisture conducting ability decreased by 28.15% and its dynamic liquor-conducting index dropped by 13.18%. One way moisture conducting ability of laminated fabric improves as its thickness increases, while this increase may also raise both heat and moisture resistance of laminated fabric. However, the material quality and structure of single layers of laminated fabric would influence those properties at a lower level.