Wear Life of Easy-Care Cotton Fabrics

Abstract

In this paper an attempt has been made to identify the physical properties of an easy-care 100% cotton fabric that can correlate with the end-use performance of garments made out of this fabric. For this purpose, two independent sets of data have been analyzed. From the first set of data the performance of the twelve plain-weave fabrics of different counts and constructions, but resin-finished and cured under similar conditions, have been obtained in terms of the number of wear-wash cycles that shirts made out of these fabrics could withstand before showing the first sign of damage. In the second set of data, from the literature, which included 400 experimen tal fabrics of different weaves and constructions, the performance has been obtained in terms of the number of laundry cycles that cuffed trouser legs could withstand before showing the first sign of damage. Preliminary studies on these data indicate that, in spite of the complexity of the phenomenon of wear, it is possible to draw conclusions on the wear performance of a fabric from a knowledge of its initial tear strength and elongation; further, there is no need to include the laboratory assessment of abrasion resistance. However, the values of the regression coefficients do not exhibit any trend with the weave or weight per unit area of the fabric. This suggests the need to identify other fundamental parameters that are related to the fabric wear life.