Woven Terry Fabrics

Manufacturing and Quality Management

Jitendra Pratap Singh,Swadesh Verma

• Éditeur: Woodhead Publishing
• Année: 2016
• ISBN:
  9780081006870
• Sujet: Technology & Engineering
• Sous-sujet: Materials Science

Woven Terry Fabrics: Manufacturing and Quality Management encompasses all aspects of terry fabric production, from raw material choice and weave design to technological developments, dyeing, and quality evaluation. Nothing feels more luxurious and comforting than wrapping myself or one of my children in a thick, soft, fluffy towel after bathing says Lindsey, a healthcare administrator and mother of two children in Boston. Consumers pay an average 15 USD for a bath towel. So, it has become a luxury item today. To meet the demand of growing population, the terry fabric industry has grown to a large extent. Lots of technological developments have taken place in this field.

• Provides an excellent overview of the best production methods, quality control systems, latest research, and process parameters
• Offers in-depth information on all aspects of production
• Covers comprehensively, for the first time, the whole process from raw material through to finished fabric
• Includes coverage of technological developments

1

Overview of terry fabrics, properties, application and care

Abstract

The quest behind the evolution of the terry fabric along with its special characteristics has been discussed in this chapter. The current form of terry fabrics has been achieved through a continuous development process. Its application is not limited to absorbing water but has gone far away towards the world of luxury and care and become an integrated part of our life.

Keywords

Mechanical comfort; Water absorbency; Pile warp; Compression; Bulk

1.1 Introduction

The fabrics that are in contact with skin should have high compressibility and softness properties. These properties are necessary for better mechanical comfort. Water absorbency is important for the fabrics used for surface drying or quick water transfer from the wet surface. Therefore, it may be an even more important property for the fabrics to be used next to skin. If the wet surface is human skin, the fabrics used for the water transfer must provide mechanical comfort and have water absorbing capacity. Looking at the abovementioned requirements, cotton fibre seems to be most promising material to produce such a type of fabric. Yarns produced using cotton fibre provide better absorbency characteristics. Textile technologists have optimized the yarn structures for achieving even more water absorbency. Further engineering modification has been tried in the fabric constructions and then in the fabrics weave. So many special weaves (like Hukaback, etc.) were developed to meet the requirements. The basic engineering aspect utilized in these developments was to increase the length of free-floating yarn ends on the fabric surface.

It has been observed that the fabrics that have fewer cross-section point per unit area, exhibit higher water absorbency.

The greater demand for the water absorbency led to the development of looped fabrics. In these fabrics, there has been an attempt to increase the float length of the yarn up to the desired extent, which led to the modification of the weave and structure. These fabrics have loops protruding from their surface. This has been achieved through various techniques, which will be discussed in the latter chapters of this book.

The terry pile is a warp pile structure that has loops on its surface that are formed by certain warp ends. The fabric consists of one series of weft thread and two series of warp threads, the ground and the pile. The ground and the pile threads are separately beamed and tensioned; the former produces with weft the ground cloth from which the loops produced by pile warps are projected. The loops may be formed on one side or on both sides of the cloth. The properties and performance of terry fabric is primarily determined by the construction, configuration, and density of loops formed on the fabric. The looped warp pile fabrics are generally made of linen and cotton yarns, and used for towels, bath mats, bed covers, dressing gowns, automobiles, and gloves, etc. Terry fabrics are the most widely used fabrics of the home textiles—the assortment of bath and sauna products (Fig. 1.1).

Fig. 1.1 Showing just a part of the terry fabric world.

Today's world is market driven in which quality plays the most crucial role for acceptance of any kind of product and even more so in case of textiles. Textile materials and their applications have experienced a dramatic transformation in the last few decades. Fabric performance can be judged in two ways. One type is utility performance, such as strength, colour durability, shrinkage resistance, etc. Beyond this the consumers' attention turns to higher-level performance factor, such as improved quality from the standpoint of appearance and comfort. Fabrics are rejected too early in their lifetime only because they lose their functionality and aesthetic appeal. Assessment of most of the utility parameters is carried out by using well established equipment and standard procedure. These results are reproducible and free from controversy. The evaluation of fabric quality performance with respect to their functionality and aesthetic appeal is, however, more difficult than the evaluation of utility performance.

Terry fabric is such an important type of fabric that it has taken a very important place in our day-to-day lives right from socks to hats, handkerchiefs to beach towels, foot mats to bed sheets, baby cloths to bathrobes, hand gloves to heat insulators, etc. [1]. Terry fabrics belong to the group of pile fabrics in which an additional yarn is introduced to form a loop, called a pile, to give special function and distinct appearance. These fabrics can be produced by both weaving and knitting, but the woven terry fabric, which was the first method invented, still holds the major share. This is because the properties of woven terry fabric are far better than knitted terry. Apart from the methods employed in the manufacture of terry fabric, other factors such as the fibres used, yarn characteristics, weaving characteristics, loop density, loop geometry, and after weaving treatments play important role in determining the terry fabric properties and performance.

Terry fabrics are known for their high water absorbency and water retaining capacity. Static and dynamic water absorption, water retaining capacity, wicking, rate of absorption, etc., have been studied for the fabric and yarn characteristics by various researchers [2,3]. High water absorbency is the prime reason behind the development of terry fabric as no other available structure can fulfil this requirement. Lot of factors related to the absorbency of terry fabric have been investigated by many researchers. Zero twist yarn, low twist yarn, wrap yarn, porous yarn, etc., have been used for terry fabric as pile yarn with the main purpose of absorbency improvement and have gained success. Still the hunt is on for new ways to improve the absorbency of terry fabric. How does terry fabric absorb high amounts of water? Loop is the main structural difference between terry fabric and non-terry fabric. Does the number of loops alone affect the absorbency if it is made of same yarn? Probably the loop geometry may affect the absorbency and water retaining capacity of terry fabric. Recent research [1] has established the relationship between loop geometry and absorbency of terry fabric. Hopefully the recent findings may divert the attention of the manufacturer to produce or change the loop shape to achieve high absorbency with the same pile yarn.

The functionality of terry fabrics is primarily determined by its absorbency. In case of terry fabrics, absorbency behaviour refers to both the water absorption of the fabric and also the total water retention ability of the fabric. Apart from absorbency, mechanical comfort of fabric is becoming more demanding as users are getting more quality conscious. The overall appearance of the fabric determined by geometry of loop has also become a major criterion for selection of towel fabric. Unfortunately, assessment of these properties is not being carried out in routine manufacturing practice, mainly due to absence of standard equipment and test procedure. Although, some methods have been devised for determining absorbency of pile fabrics, the results obtained by those methods lack reproducibility; particularly in manufacturing and commercial applications. Fabric manufacturers and traders still rely on water sprinkle test, which is highly subjective and lacks reproducibility. Other functional tests like surface smoothness, softness, and overall feel of the cloth to skin are yet to be carried out by using standard instruments and procedures. Aesthetic measurement from a psychological comfort point of view has never been tried. The delay of these developments can be attributed to the fact that the towel is used for a short duration and also the cloth is not used as formal wear. However, due to economic growth and growth of consumer awareness, there is a demand for high-quality towelling [4]. It is well known that, unless some objective measurement techniques are introduced and reproducible results are obtained for various functional properties of a towel, it would be difficult to use engineering design principles to produce high-quality towels.

The structure of pile fabric is divided into two layers: one is pile layer and the other a backing layer. The former is constituted of pile yarns, and of weft and warp yarns. As both sides of pile fabrics are covered with the pile layer and the middle forms the backing layer, the characteristics of pile fabrics may be determined by both the pile and backing layer. The pile layer plays a major role as it is the layer that comes in contact with the user's skin. The pile yarn properties, pile layer properties, such as loop density, loop height, pile ratio, etc., are important factors that govern the functional and aesthetic properties of fabric.

A large variety of terry fabrics are available in terms of different loop height, pile ratio, loop density, pile yarn count, fibre mix in pile, washed, dyed, surface properties, absorption rate, absorption capacity, etc. While manufacturing the terry fabrics, it is very important to control all of the abovementioned construction parameters to ensure their aesthetic and functional properties. With improvement in living standards, the aesthetic characteristics of terry fabric have gained equal importance as that of functional properties. The effect of various fibre, yarn, and fabric parameters on absorbency has been studied by several researchers over the years; however, their effect on aesthetic properties has been evaluated recently by Behera and Singh [4]. Since the importance of the aesthetic properties has been increasing due to a changing world, this problem needs to be addressed so that the design and manufacture of good-quality terry fabric could be feasible.

Terry fabrics are normally worn/used next to skin. The compression and frictional properties of the fabric decide the feel of the cloth. The reaction of body's sensory organism to these fabrics needs to be studied using some scientific methods simulating the stresses actually involved during the use of the cloth. Although some research work [5,6] has been traced where the effect of some factors on these properties has been evaluated, they don’t seem to be sufficient for complete characterization of the fabric, as the measurement conditions applied were far from the actual. More recent research [7] identified the key factors that influence compression and frictional properties of terry fabric during actual use. These parameters must be studied in detail and some numerical expression should be established to understand their relation more accurately.

The properties of terry fabric depend not only on its raw material, but also on its structure. There are some other factors, such as surface characteristics, pile geometry, pile orientation, loop length, pile density, variation in loop height, pile tilting angle, and loop shape that must be studied for their influence on friction and compression properties of terry fabrics. Singh and Behera [7] investigated and identified the key structural parameters that influence the properties and behaviour of terry fabrics.

The handling of non-terry fabric has been established as a substitute to mechanical comfort and has been measured by KES instruments for more than 30 years. Pile fabrics have many features such as good touch, good absorbency, good air permeability and their hand has been estimated manually by skilled workers in terry fabric factories [8]. Looking at the recent usage of the terry fabric, demand for the quality fabric has increased drastically. Most of the quality characteristics are evaluated using subjective methods, which has poor reproducibility although, these quality attributes are governed by some measurable mechanical properties, as in non-terry fabrics. So these mechanical properties had been identified and hand equations have been developed to evaluate terry fabrics in order to obtain quantitative results that could help to understand the structure–property relationship of the fabric [9]. The understanding of structure–property relationship would definitely help in fabric engineering.

The functional and aesthetic characteristics of terry fabric are predominantly governed by the geometrical profile of the loop. The geometrical configuration of loop is primarily determined by yarn characteristics. A substantial amount of research work has been carried out to reveal the relationship between yarn properties and fabric properties. Loop geometry, which is the peculiarity of the terry fabric, has been ignored by most researchers. It would be interesting to know how the yarn properties are related with the loop geometry. How does the loop geometry affect the aesthetic and functional properties of terry fabric? Is there any method one can investigate and find out the answer to these questions? These are some questions whose answers are necessary but they are not available in the literature. The relationship of loop geometry, pile orientation and other such parameters with compression and the surface parameters of terry fabrics could be established objectively by the application of modern image-processing techniques and related computation methods.

Since the use of terry fabric has been extended to luxury goods, its surface texture and appearance characteristics have gained high importance. The customer wants high-quality terry fabric not only in terms of functional properties but also of aesthetics. Fabric appearance in general is evaluated by subjective methods, which lacks reproducibility. Moreover, colours and patterns are subject to individual preferences. Other attributes are dependent on fabric construction and their mechanical properties; not all mechanical properties have greater influence on fabric appearance, because not all of them necessarily have a direct influence on visual perception. The tactile properties of terry fabric have been studied to a small extent, but the aesthetic properties have not been studied yet. Thus a realistic approach to the evaluation of fabric appearance needs tim...

Table des matières

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• Acknowledgements
• Woodhead Publishing Series in Textiles
• 1: Overview of terry fabrics, properties, application and care
• 2: Evolution of terry fabrics
• 3: Raw materials for terry fabrics
• 4: Yarns for terry fabrics
• 5: Winding yarn for terry fabrics
• 6: Warping for terry fabrics
• 7: Sizing the terry warp
• 8: Weaving of terry fabrics
• 9: Wet processing
• 10: Shearing and printing of terry fabrics
• 11: Cutting, sewing and packing
• 12: Modern quality management systems
• 13: Properties and performance of woven terry fabrics
• 14: Hand evaluation of woven terry fabric
• 15: Aesthetic characteristics terry fabrics
• 16: Compression and surface characteristics of terry fabrics
• 17: Absorbency and serviceability of terry fabrics
• 18: Producing high-quality terry fabrics
• 19: Troubleshooting in terry fabric production
• Index