The aim of this study was to analyze the bioactivity of gelatin nanofiber membranes based on electrospinning different concentrations of sesamol nanoparticles. Sesamol (Ses) can be encapsulated with zein and chitosan to form nanoparticles (Ses-NPs). Then, Ses-NPs were mixed into gelatin nanofiber membrane (G-Ses-NPs-NF) by the electrospinning method. The results showed that Ses provided the nanofiber membranes with antioxidant and antibacterial activities. When the concentration of Ses was 1.125 mg/mL, 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2′-azinobis-(3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulphonate) (ABTS) radical scavenging rates were 80.36 ± 0.62% and 91.00 ± 0.38%, respectively. In addition, G-Ses-NPs-NF can inhibit Escherichia coli (E. coli), Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Candida albicans (C. albicans). Additionally, when added with zein-chitosan and gelatine, the functional nanofiber membrane exhibited sustained-release capabilities. Therefore, G-Ses-NPs-NF can be considered as a material with good biologically activity, which has research value in the development of functional food and other fields.

A thin metal plate called a drop wire is placed on warp yarns during a weaving process in order to stop the loom in case of a broken warp yarn and to fix it. Drop wires are placed on each warp yarn to ensure the flow of warp yarns at a certain tension level and to stop the loom when a warp yarn is broken. In some cases, the drop wire may not fall due to dirtiness or abrasion of the drop wire and the weaving process continues with a broken warp yarn which is an unwanted situation. In this study, an alternative method to detect broken warp yarn is proposed based on contact image sensor. Therefore the need for drop wires is eliminated. The contact image sensor is not at full scale of the weaving machine, it can only acquire a linear image only a small portion of the total warp yarns, therefore a carrier module is implemented on the machine to carry the sensor and cover all the warp yarns. A complete image is then formed at the end of each cycle, and the total number of warp yarns is evaluated. If this value is less than the expected number of warp yarns, a broken warp yarn is detected, and the system generates an alarm. The system is implemented on an industrial scale weaving machine and the warp yarns are detected with 99% performance.

The environmental production of handmade carpets considering the application of natural materials; fibers, dyes, and mordants helps us benefit from the advantages of using renewable sources of raw materials. Metal salts are frequently employed as mordants to improve the fastness qualities. This article aims to investigate the yellow appearance of handmade carpets achieved by applying biomordants instead of metallic ones through spectral and colorimetric analysis. This method involved using reseda as a natural dye, yellow and black myrobalan as biomordants, and alum as a metallic mordant. After pre-mordanting and dyeing of the wool yarns, the achieved colors, color strengths, and key fastness properties were compared. The findings showed that using biomordants leads to appropriate color strengths and fastness qualities in addition to expanding the color gamut. Gratefully, the outcomes of current research guarantee to achieve the yellow appearance in Iranian handmade carpets through totally the novel eco-friendly procedure.

Active heating in extremely cold weather clothing would be useful to save the life of an injured or sick person due to low metabolic rate. A fully dressed thermal manikin is useful in evaluating the performance of the active heating ensemble. The thermal manikin tests are time-consuming and could be done only after making the complete ensemble. An experiment that is designed to evaluate the performance of an active heating fabric fixed to a set of layers of extreme cold climate clothing using a guarded hot plate instrument would save a lot of time as it skips the processes of garmenting and subsequent evaluation on the thermal manikin. In this work, a guarded hot plate placed inside a cold chamber is used to investigate the external heating required for the prolonged comfort of the wearer at various sub-zero ambient temperatures, clothing insulation and metabolic heat. A plain woven active heating fabric sandwiched between a knitted fabric and nonwoven of different insulation/thickness is used to perform experiments. The external heat required to keep the test plate (representing the human skin) at 307 ± 1 K (34 ± 1 °C) is measured at different experimental conditions. Further, a one-dimensional numerical model based on coupled conduction–radiation heat transfer with heat generation was developed and validated with experimental results. The experimental temperature profiles match well with the numerical temperature profiles at different locations, justifying the numerical methodology adopted in this work. This suggests that the developed numerical model would also be useful to estimate the required active heating as per the wearer’s requirement and an available power source. Both the experimental and numerical results suggest that the external active heating required to maintain test plate (skin) temperatures within the human skin comfortable range is a function of ambient temperature, metabolic heat and clothing (nonwoven) insulation.

This paper presents the finite element simulation of stress distribution features of 3D layer-to-layer angle-interlock woven composite undergoing three-point bending cyclic loading. With the finite element analysis model, a microstructure shell element model of the woven composite at yarn level was established to calculate the fatigue behaviors and stress distribution during cyclic loading. The stress distributions in the warp, weft yarns, and the resin regions have been calculated to show the stress difference in the woven composite. It has been observed that the warp yarns share the most part of the stress or loading, i.e. the strength warp yarn is more important than that of the weft yarn for the fatigue design. In addition, the stress distributions at the locations where the weft yarns crossover the warp yarns have been investigated. The stress degradations of the top and bottom surface of the woven composite panels were also compared with those in experimental and good agreement was found. With the stress distribution in the woven composite, the method of improving the fatigue damage tolerance was expected to be developed.

Research has shown a technical description of a blend for most woollen carpet applications can be met with objective measurements, namely mean fibre diameter, fibre length after carding, wool bulk, proportion of medullation, base colour and vegetable matter content. The compressional property of wool as reflected in bulk is strongly related to mean fibre diameter and mean fibre curvature. Both these measurements can now be measured simultaneously with recently developed electronic instrumentation. While the processing implications of changes in mean fibre diameter are well understood, the processing implications of changes in objectively measured mean fibre curvature have not been investigated in detail. A total of 360 New Zealand Romcross type fleeces shorn from yearling sheep, with an individual range in mean fibre diameter of 23.2–40.6 μm and an individual range in mean fibre curvature of 34–115°/mm were used. The individual fleeces were sorted to create five, similar-sized, wool-processing lines with the following specifications for mean fibre diameter and mean fibre curvature. Lot 1: low fibre diameter/high fibre curvature (30.2 μm, 72°/mm); Lot 2: high fibre diameter/high fibre curvature (33.5 μm, 70°/mm); Lot 3: medium fibre diameter/medium fibre curvature (32.1 μm, 64°/mm); Lot 4: low fibre diameter/low fibre curvature (31.1 μm, 58°/mm); and Lot 5: high fibre diameter/low fibre curvature (34.5 μm, 51°/mm). Each processing lot was scoured, combed to reduce the proportion of short fibre within each lot and spun into yarn on the semi-worsted system. Mean spindle speed at break (50 fibres in cross-section) and yarn breaking load were greatest for Lot 4 and lowest for Lot 2. Increasing fibre diameter and increasing fibre curvature resulted in less unevenness within the yarn and a decrease in neps. Coarse highly crimped fibre produced the bulkiest yarn while the finer straighter fibre produced the lowest bulk yarn. Potential wearability of knitted garments using yarn spun from each processing lot was assessed using standard knitted squares. Increasing fibre diameter and increasing fibre curvature resulted in greater relaxation shrinkage in length, while decreasing fibre diameter and increasing fibre curvature resulted in increased extensibility in width. Overall resistance to felting shrinkage increased as crimp and diameter increased. There was no difference in pilling between the processing lots. The presented results indicate that increasing fibre curvature in Romcross type sheep as may occur through selection or crossbreeding associated with improving lamb production, will have a beneficial effect on the performance of products made from their wool.

The shape memory polyurethane (SMPU) fabrics were knitted with different SMPU fiber contents for the investigation of its bagging behaviour in this paper. The bagging deformation and recovery of these SMPU-knitted fabrics were determined at different temperatures to evaluate its temperature sensitivity. Our experimental results show that the bagging behavior of the SMPU-knitted fabrics is highly correlated with the amount of SMPU fibers knitted inside the SMPU fabrics. The switching temperature of the SMPU-knitted fabrics is found to be above the phase transfer temperature of SMPU. A comparison between Lycra and SMPU-knitted fabrics is also conducted to validate the shape memory bagging behavior of SMPU-knitted fabrics.

Stimuli responsive hydrogels (SRHs) are smart materials with reversible changes in their properties through the environmental stimulus variations. Although SRHs have been used in various medical applications such as sensors, drug release systems and, etc., they are still being actively researched on other sectors such as functional textiles and smart clothing. One of the best methods to produce textiles with more functionality is smart finishing of textile by surface modifying stimuli responsive hydrogels. In this paper, literatures on SRHs applications, methods and application of some SRHs on textile have been thoroughly discussed.

In this paper, a kind of airflow-twisting devices which can produce the twist by the high vortex airflow is employed for improving the twist propagation process of ring-spinning system. Firstly, three different kinds of yarns Ne20, Ne40, and Ne60 are spun in this modified ring-spinning system with five different airflow pressures and two different swirling directions, including anticlockwise and clockwise, and the qualities of spun yarns, including hairiness, strength, evenness, and number of snarling characterizing the yarn residual torque, are measured. Secondly, the images of spinning triangles are captured by using a high speed camera system OLYMPUS i-speed3, and the mechanism of the effects of vortex airflow on yarn qualities is discussed by analyzing the fiber tension distributions in the spinning triangle. It is shown that for the ‘Z’ twist spun yarn, the spinning triangle decreases with the increasing of clockwise airflow pressures, whereas the triangle becomes more and more symmetrical with the increasing of anticlockwise airflow pressures. Meanwhile, the comprehensive qualities of spun yarn are improved with the increasing of both directions of airflow pressures to a certain extent. However, the hairiness and strength of spun yarn will be mainly improved with clockwise airflow, whereas yarn residual torque mainly reduced with anticlockwise airflow.

In this study, fabrics with different plain, tuck and float stitch combinations in three different tightness levels as tight, medium and loose are produced from combed ring spun cotton yarn. It is aimed at determining the effect of fabric structure on liquid absorption, transport and permeability properties, which are important factors in the people’s perception of wear comfort. The air permeability, wicking ability and moisture management measurements of the produced fabrics are made. It is determined that the increase in the fabric tightness decreases the air permeability and increases the wicking ability especially in 60 min measurements. The fabric tightness has also different effects on different knitting types in terms of moisture management properties. It is observed that structures with float stitches show high wicking ability and moisture management properties in terms of plain, tuck and float stitches combinations.