Chapter 4

Fabric handling properties

• Fabric end uses: industrial, household and apparel.

• Fabrics for industrial- can be chosen on straight forward
performance characteristics such as tensile strength,
extension and resistance to environmental attack.
• However, fabrics for apparel: appearance(lusture) and
handling properties(, smoothness, roughness, stiffness,
limpness and draping) are required.
1
 Cont…

• Fabric handle:- term given to properties assessed by touch or

feel, depends upon subjective assessment of the fabrics by a
person upon the sense of touch.

 smoothness
Hardness
Roughness
Stiffness
Drapability
 Cont…

•smooth, rough, stiff or limp depend strongly on the

type of fabric being assessed,
•B/c of subjective nature of these properties attempts
have been made over years to devise objective tests

•Fabric stiffness and drape were some of the earliest

properties to be measured objectively.
 Fabric drape

• It is the way a fabric hangs under its own weight.

• refers to the fluidity or rigidity of the fabric, which has an

effect on how the fabric falls and creases.

• It shows what a garment looks like in our body.

 Cont…

• Good draping leads to the fitting of a fabric over a

surface without undesirable wrinkling or tearing.
• A fabric with good drape is very flowy, i.e. hangs
straight down in many small creases and folds.
•  Silk, satin-almost always have high drape

5
 Cont…
• On the other hand, a fabric with low drape is quite rigid. It
hangs down in fewer wide creases and has a greater volume
when held up because of these stiff creases. If you place it
over the body or an object, it conforms only slightly to the
shape below it because the stiffness holds it in its own shape. 
• Denim, courduroy and upholstery fabric are almost always
have low drape.
 Cont…

• drapability is an important factor from aesthetic point of view

• The quality of ‘drape’ is important to a designer as it

influences garment's appearance.
• draping qualities required differ completely depending on its
end use, therefore a given value for drape cannot be classified
as either good or bad.
• e.g. knitted fabrics are relatively floppy and garments made
from them will tend to follow the body contours.
7
 Cont…

• When a fabric is draped, it deforms with multidirectional

curvature.

• Draping qualities are related to fabric bending stiffness

and shear properties.

• Factors such as fibre content, yarn structure, fabric

structure and type of finish affect the drape behavior.

8
 Methods for testing fabric drapeability

 Peirce’s cantilever method,

 Rotrakote-CUSICK drape tester,
 Fabric Research Liberating method (FRL drapemeter)
(Japan),
 3D body scanner
• The cantilever method and FRL drape meter only reflect a
fabric’s two-dimensional characters, and as fabric drape is
actually a three-dimensional phenomenon, they are now less
widely used. 9
 The CUSICK drape tester

• is a simple instrument which uses a parallel beam of

light to cast a shadow from a circular piece of fabric,
supported by a smaller circular disc.
• The area of shadow is measured and compared with
the area of the sample

10
 Cont…

• In the drape test, specimen deforms with multi-

directional curvature and consequently the results are
dependent to a certain amount upon the shear
properties, bending stiffness(mainly) of the fabric.
 Cont…

• In the test a circular specimen is held concentrically

b/n two smaller horizontal discs and is allowed to
drape into folds under its own weight. A light is shone
from underneath the specimen and the shadow that
the fabric casts is traced onto an annular piece of
paper the same size as the unsupported part of the
fabric specimen.
 Cont…

• The stiffer a fabric is, the larger the area of its shadow
compared with the unsupported area of the fabric.
• To measure the areas involved, the whole paper ring is
weighed and then the shadow part of the ring is cut away
and weighed.
• The paper is assumed to have constant mass per unit area
so that the measured mass is proportional to area.
 Cont…

• So drape coefficient (F) can be calculated in a simple way:

• 3 standard diameters of specimen used for d/t types of fabrics

14
 Cont…

It is intended that a fabric should be tested initially with a

30cm size specimen in order to see which of the above
categories it falls into. 15
 Cont…

• When test specimens of different diameter are used,

the drape coefficients measured from them are not
directly comparable with one another.
 3D body scanner

• The 3D body scanner is another adaptation of the

computer-aided capture of drape characteristics.
• A circular piece of fabric is hung over a circular disc,
which allows the fabric to drape as in a CUSICK
drape tester.
• Two scanners (one rotated 90° from the other) take
around 12 seconds to capture the complete
configuration of the draped sample 17
 Cont…

• The captured data is then processed using the

Geomagic TM software to generate a 3D surface of
the scanned object.
• The drape coefficient along with other useful drape
parameters can be extracted from the processed data

18
 Fabric Bending and stiffness

• Resistance to bending or flexural rigidity is defined

as flex stiffness

• Stiffness: is the tendency of fabric to keep standing without any

support.

• These properties can influence the aesthetic appearance as well

as comfort of a fabric.

• bending length is a measure of interaction b/n fabric weight &

stiffness in which a fabric bends under its own weight .
 Cont…

• also known as flexibility of the fabric.

• Hence defined as falling length, when a fabric falls under its
own weight to a specific length, having specific angle.
• It is an important character of the fabric which governs its
applications
• high bending length = stiffer, less drape, and less flexibility.

• Fabrics with high bending length cannot be used as aesthetic

fabrics as they are not much comfortable due to their stiffness.
 Cont…

• As different fibers have a different shape factor, some are

circular, other can be kidney bean or any other shape, the shape

factor of a fiber tells the flexural rigidity of the fibers.

• The flexural rigidity tells us how much the fiber is stiff to the

bending or flexural deformation.

• fibers having high values of shape factor have a good rigidity

and the fibers having a low value of shape factor have a good

softness character.
 Factors influencing bending length
Yarn properties
• The count of yarn.
• Filament or staple spun yarn.
Weaving parameters
• Weave design, Cover factor, GSM, Ends/inch and the
picks/inch
Wet-processing parameters
– Softeners used during finishing process.
– Any other finishes applied during the finishing process.
– Coupling agents used.
 Methods for testing fabric bending and stiffness

• 3 methods are often used to test the stiffness of fabrics:

– Cantilever test
– hanging loop test and
– pure bending test conducted on a KES-FB2 bending tester.

• These methods are more suitable for testing woven

fabrics than for testing knitted ones.

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 cantilever stiffness test method

• A form of the cantilever stiffness test is often used

• The test measures bending stiffness of a fabric by allowing horizontal

narrow strip of the fabric is clamped at one end to bend to a fixed angle
under its own weight.
 Cont…

• In the test a rectangular strip (25 mm wide ×200 mm

long) supported on a horizontal platform is clamped at
one end and the rest of the strip is allowed to overhang
and bend under its own weight.
• bending length (C) is read in mm when the tip of the
specimen reaches a plane inclined at 41.5 degrees.
• The higher the bending length is , the stiffer the fabric.
25
Shirley Stiffness factor
•200mm x 25mm specimen
•bend to a fixed (41.5º) under its own weight

1. Bending length(C) – measured from Shirley Stiffness

tester
2.

3.
 Hanging loop method

• Fabrics that are too limp

• stiffness measured by forming them into a loop and allowing

it to hang under its own weight.

• L - strip length, lo = undistorted length of loop, i.e. the

distance between grip to the farthest point.

• After hanging, due to their own weight distance becomes “l”

• Stiffness is calculated from the difference, ‘d’ = l – lo

 Stiffness of fabric

1.Using Shirley stiffness tester

• The higher stiffness is the higher bending
length(C)
2. Circular bend stiffness tester
 Fabric crease resistance

• Crease: is a fold in fabric introduced unintentionally at some

stages of processing.
• a complex effect involving tensile, compressive, flexing and
tensional stresses.
• Crease recovery: is a fabric property which indicates the ability
of fabric to go back to its original position after creasing
• crease recovery angle:- is an indication of the ability of a fabric
to recover from accidental creasing.
Deformation by creasing of fabric has two components:
displacement of fibers and yarns relative to one another
stretching of the fibers on the outside of the curve

•smaller radius of curvature- more likely fibres are actually

stretched rather than the curvature being accommodated by fibre
displacement.
 Factors that affect crease resistance

type of fibre and its construction.

– Some fibre types such as wool and cultivated silk have a

good resistance to creasing whereas

– cellulosic materials(cotton, viscose and linen) - very poor

resistance to creasing.
 Cont…

elastic recovery of the fibers,

• in particular whether the stored elastic energy is sufficient
to overcome the friction that resists the movement of the
yarns and fibres.
 Cont…

The elastic recovery of the fibres is dependent on the time-

related effects
 the time the crease is maintained(loading time)
 the time allowed for recovery.
• There is an initial rapid recovery which takes place after
removal of the restraint followed by a much slower rate of
recovery which decreases with time.
•The recovery with time of two identical samples, one creased
for 1 min and the second creased for 10 days

•Improvement in crease recovery as a function of recovery time

for two different loading times: 1 min and 10 days.
 Cont…

Resin finishes applied during production in order to improve

their crease resistance.

 Crease resistance testing was originally developed to test

the efficiency of such finishes.

 Shirley crease recovery tester

• Measures crease recovery angle, w/c is related with crease

resistance i.e. ability of a fabric to recover from creasing.
 Cont…

• a small fabric specimen is folded in to two and placed

under a load for a given length of time to form a
crease and it is then allowed to recover for a further
length of time and the angle of the crease that remains
is measured.
 Methods
There are 2 methods for crease recovery angle

1. BIS method: 2. Marks and spancer method:

• 20 specimens- 10 warp, 10 • 12 specimens - 6 warp and 6
weft weft
• Half face to face and half back • Half face to face and half back
to back to back
• specimen size -50mmx 25 mm
• specimen size - 40mmx 15
• Load 2kg weight on specimen
mm
for 1min
• Load 10N weight on specimen • Recovery time 1min
for 5min • Keep dial at 20° at start
• Recovery time 5min
 Fabric friction

• Related to resistance, roughness

• in industrial textiles(Textile belts used in m/c and automobiles)
• When an object slides resting on a surface, a force is required
to start the object moving.
• Once the object is moving, the force required to keep it
moving is lower than the original starting force.
• The force that resists movement of an object in any direction
is known as the frictional force.
 Cont…

• Frictional force that opposes to initiate movement

limiting friction (static friction)

• frictional force that opposes movement when the object is in
motion sliding(dynamic friction)

•The frictional force is governed by two main factors:

the nature of the surfaces in contact

the force that holds the surfaces in contact(normal force)

 Methods of testing fabric friction

Two main ways are generally used to measure fabric friction

First method:-a block of mass m is pulled over a flat rigid
surface which is covered with the fabric being tested.
• The line connected to the block is led around a frictionless
pulley & connected to an appropriate load cell in a tensile testing
machine.
•This can measure force F required both to start the block moving
and also to keep it moving, thus providing the static and dynamic
coefficients of friction from the relation:
Friction apparatus
• The coefficient of friction which is measured is specific for the
two materials in contact so that the choice of material for the
block is important.
• The block used may be a solid construction of a known material
such as wood or steel or it may be covered in fabric.
• A factor that can affect fabric friction measurements is the
presence on the fabric of finishes such as softeners which
reduce the fabric friction.
 Cont…

second method:-the inclined plane

• a block of mass m initially resting on an inclined plane
covered with the fabric to be tested.
• The apparatus is arranged so that the angle of the plane can be
continuously adjusted until the block just begins to slide.
• At this point the frictional force F is equal to the component of
the mass of the block parallel to the inclined plane:
 Cont…

• F = mg sin
•N is equal to component of the mass
perpendicular to the inclined plane
N = mg cos
•As coefficient of friction, µ = F/N
Therefore:µ = mg sin 
mg cos 
= tan 
• This procedure as described, measures the coefficient
of static friction.
• The coefficient of dynamic friction may be measured
by giving the block an initial impetus and determining
the angle at which motion just continues.
• The end of this chapter

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