Evaluation of the perceived elasticity of sheepskin using a three-axis force sensor system

Abstract

Sheepskin refers to the hide taken from a sheep and is composed of a layer of skin and the attached hair. It has unique fabric handle properties, and sheepskin quality assessments generally depend on a subjective hand evaluation via sensory test. Therefore, it is necessary to measure the fabric handle of sheepskin mechanically. For this study, we focused on perceived elasticity, and attempted to clarify the relationship between the tactile sensation and the mechanical properties of sheepskin through the development of a new three-dimensional tactile sensation measurement system (3D-TSMS) to measure the compression properties in three axial directions. For compression testing, the compression parameters were calculated as follows: compression linearity ( LC), compressional energy ( WC), compressional resilience ( RC), compressional flexibility coefficient ( αmax), pressure relieving energy (Δ EPR), and continuous mean deviation ( CMD), etc. As a result of compression testing, the sheepskin samples which were highly rated for their perceived elasticity showed a convex curve during the initial compression process. In the statistical comparison analysis, LC, CMD, and Δ EPR showed a correlation to the perceived elasticity of sheepskin.