Handle Evaluation And Optimization Of Shrink-resistant Worsted Fabrics

The directional friction effect caused by the cuticles on wool fibers' surface is the main reason for the shrinkage of wool fabrics.Anti-felting finishing not only reduces the shrinkage,but also inevitably changes the mechanical properties and surface properties of wool fibers,thus affecting the handle of the fabrics.Worsted fabric is a kind of high-end wearing textile,the handle of that is an important factor that effects consumers' consumption decisions.In this paper,the Kawabata Evaluation System(KES)and PhabrOmeter were used to indicate the handle of the worsted fabric treated with different anti-felting finishing and the correlation of different evaluation indexes of those two methods were compared.At the same time,the orthogonal test was used to optimize the soften treatment condition to improve the handle of the shrinkage-resistant worsted fabrics.It provided a reference for selecting the suitable shrinkage-resistant finishing method that endows worsted fabric with proper handle and optimizing handle of that.The effects of chlorine scaling,resin treatment and chlorine scaling + resin treatment on wool fibers were analyzed through measuring the linear density and tensile,crimping,compression and friction properties.KES was used to test the mechanical properties and calculate the hand values of worsted fabrics treated with different anti-felting finishing,including chlorine scaling on top,resin treatment on top,chlorine scaling on fabric,resin treatment on fabric,chlorine scaling on top + resin on fabric.The optimum conditions of silicone softener and cationic softener were selected by orthogonal test to optimize the handle of the worsted fabric treated with chlorine scaling on top,whose total hand value is the lowest among 5 samples.The effect of two kinds of softeners on the handle of worsted fabric was compared and analyzed.The PhabrOmeter attributes and KES results of 34 worsted fabrics were compared and investigated through Pearson correlation analysis.The results were as follows:(1)The crimping elasticity and tensile properties of wool fibers were decreased by chlorine scaling.The wool fiber treated with both chlorine scaling and resin finishing,compared with that only treated with chlorine,had higher yield strength,crimping elasticity and crimping recovery and lower the initial tensile modulus,which indicated that it had better elastic deformation ability.The compression resistance and compressive elasticity of the fiber assemblies treated with different anti-felting finishing are in descending order: chlorination +resin,resin finishing and chlorine descaling.The directional friction effect of chlorination +resin finishing wool fiber was minimum.(2)After,the fabric sample of this experiment is suitable for women's winter suit fabric through calculation.The worsted fabric treated with chlorine scaling on fabric had the highest smoothness and the best comprehensive handle,and the total hand value is 6.68.The fabric treated with resin finishing on top had the highest fullness and the lowest stiffness,with a total hand value of 6.65.The worsted fabrics with chlorine scaling on top and that combined with resin treatment had the lowest total hand value,relatively higher stiffness and lower smoothness and fullness.The finishing process can make up for the loss of stretch and compression elasticity to some extent and endow fabric with elastic handle.(3)Compared with CROSOFT NCS cationic softener,SOFINOLWS-6685 silicone softener had a better effect on improving the handle of worsted fabric treated with chlorine scaling on top,making the total hand value increase from 5.46 to 6.57.The bending rigidity and hysteresis of the fabrics softened by CROSOFT NCS were higher than blank samples and the evenness was not desirable.(4)Principal factor analysis was used to extract 3 principal factors from the 16 mechanical properties tested by KES system.The contribution rate of these factors were softness-elasticity factor,tensile characteristic factor and surface uniformity factor in descending order,and the cumulative contribution rate was 72%.There were significant correlation relationships between the scores of the three factors and the calculated results of KES hand values,indicating that these two evaluation methods were consistent.Some attributes of PhabrOmeter had certain correlation with KES hand values.The softness and smoothness of PhabrOmeter were significantly correlated with the fullness,smoothness and total hand value of women's winter suit fabric in KES,and the correlation coefficients were over 0.7.There was no significant correlation between the stiffness of PhabrOmeter and KES style values.The peak value and integral area of load-displacement curve of PhabrOmeter were significantly correlated with stiffness of KES system.