Evaluation of Surface Characteristics of Fabrics Using Tactile Sensor

Abstract

Weave, yarn density, yarn count, fiber material and so on of woven fabrics greatly affect their surface characteristics. Surface characteristics of a fabric are important factor for consumers and textile producers in order to evaluate its fabric hand. However, there is no simple system to easily measure its surface characteristics. This study uses a simple tactile sensor that can measure the friction coefficients of fabric surfaces and tries to evaluate their surface characteristics from obtained values. We traced surfaces of plural fabrics that differ in yarn, weave and yarn density with the tactile sensor, and measured variation of the friction coefficients with respect to the trace distance. This study introduces some evaluation values from the measured variation of the friction coefficients and compares them with results by KES, which is the ordinary system to evaluate surface characteristics of a fabric. As a result, the study confirmed that proposed method easily evaluates the geometrical and frictional properties of woven fabrics as their fabric hand, and also can estimate the yarn density of woven fabric by analyzing the oscillation period of variation of friction coefficient.