Comparison of the Wearing Sensation for Small-breasted Women's Mold Brassieres according to Type of Polyurethane Foam

Abstract

We investigated the subjective comfort of mold brassieres for small-breasted women in terms of mechanical properties and thickness of polyurethane(PU) foams used. Experimental mold brassieres were manufactured using various PU foams with different thicknesses. To analyze the relationship between comfort and the mechanical properties and thickness of the foams, small-breasted women in their twenties performed a subjective evaluation of the experimental brassieres. Our results showed that small-breasted women preferred a mold brassiere with a thickness of 27mm, which is made of the softest foam with the lowest density of those we tested. Tensile strength, tearing strength, and indentation force deflection at 65% compression showed significant negative correlations with wearing comfort in the correlation analysis between subjective sensation and mechanical properties. Therefore, when designing mold brassieres for small-breasted women, we recommended using PU foams those are about 23-27mm thick and have low tensile strength, tearing strength, and indentation force deflection at 65% compression.