Drape Meter Research Articles

Analysis of Polygonal Computer Model Parameters and Influence on Fabric Drape Simulation.

Contemporary CAD systems enable 3D clothing simulation for the purpose of predicting the appearance and behavior of conventional and intelligent clothing in real conditions. The physical and mechanical properties of the fabric and the simulation parameters play an important role in this issue. The paper presents an analysis of the parameters of the polygonal computer model that affect fabric drape simulation. Experimental research on physical and mechanical properties were performed for nine fabrics. For this purpose, the values of the parameters for the tensile, bending, shear, and compression properties were determined at low loads, while the complex deformations were analyzed using Cusick drape meter devices. The fabric drape simulations were performed using the 2D/3D CAD system for a computer clothing design on a disk model, corresponding to real testing on the drape tester in order to allow a correlation analysis between the values of drape parameters of the simulated fabrics and the realistically measured values for each fabric. Each fabric was simulated as a polygonal model with a variable related to the side length of the polygon to analyze the influence of the polygon size, i.e., mesh density, on the model behavior in the simulation. Based on the simulated fabric drape shape, the values of the areas within the curves necessary to calculate the drape coefficients of the simulated fabrics were determined in the program for 3D modelling. The results were statistically processed and correlations between the values of the drape coefficients and the optimal parameters for simulating certain physical and mechanical properties of the fabric were determined. The results showed that the mesh density of the polygonal model is an important parameter for the simulation results.

Portable digital drape meter with a unique sensor-based measurement system

Measurement of draping behaviour of cloth/soft moulded sheet is carried out using ammonia- based instrument. The measurement requires much time, and human intervention. So, measurement of draping behaviour is unpopular, though, it is a most important property parameter in fashion industry. In the present work, a desk top type automatic digital drape meter with a unique sensor-based measurement system has been developed. The measurement time could be reduced to 5.0 min as compared to 180–210 min for conventional system. Human intervention has been completely eliminated for data acquisition and processing. Calculated value of draping behaviour is displayed digitally. The instrument is ergonomically designed and no chemical is required. Weight of the instrument is 16.0 kg. The fabrication cost of the instrument was US $ 3,200.00 only.

Study of Fabric Movement and Influenced of Drape Measurement Based on Image Processing Using MATLAB

Generally, Drape meter for assessment of fabric drape is used in textile industry. In this paper, Image processing technique for measuring drape profile of apparel fabric has been studied and developed using MATLAB as well as modeled the fabric movement influenced of the fabric strength fort a certain mass. A modified method based on conventional drape meter was researched to determine drape parameter. Drape coefficient was selected to compare the conventional result (a standard device used in industry based on SNI ISO 08- 1511- 2004) and image processing result. In this research, a very good correlation has been found both conventional and image processing technique.

Comparative analysis of drape characteristics of actually and virtually draped fabrics

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to compare real fabric drape images and virtual fabric drape images created by a commercial software. To achieve an in-depth comparison, actual and virtual drape shape properties were considered under three categories: drape area, number of nodes and shape of folds. The results of this research are expected to be useful to improve the reality and accuracy of fabric and garment.Design/methodology/approachFive different fabrics were selected for this study. Fabrics’ mechanical properties were tested by fabric assurance for simple testing method, while drape properties were measured by a Cusick drape meter. A commercial garment simulation was used to generate virtual fabric drapes. Real fabric drape images and virtual fabric drape images were analyzed by an image analysis software and results were used to calculate drape properties. Regression analysis was performed to compare real fabric drape and virtual fabric drape properties.FindingsDifferences between real fabric drape and virtual fabric drape were stated clearly. Simulation software was found to be insufficient to reflect drape area. However, simulations were quite successful corresponding to the number of nodes. Only one simulation had +2 nodes than its actual counterpart. This study showed that area and node shape representations of simulation software should be improved while node numbers are sufficiently represented.Research limitations/implicationsThere are alternative 3D garment simulation software available to the fashion business. All these companies are working on to improve their simulation reality and accuracy. Some of them are also offering various equipment to measure the fabric properties. In this study, Optitex 3D Suite was selected as the simulation software due to several reasons as explained in this paper. However, other simulation programs might also be employed to perform virtual fabric drapes. Furthermore, in this study, the drape images of five woven fabrics were compared. The fabric selection was done according to a pre-test and consequently similar fabrics were determined to be the subject of the study. However, the more the number of the fabrics, the better the comparison and eventually the better the assessment of simulation success. Therefore, it is prospected to test more fabrics with versatile fabric properties for further studies.Originality/valueDrape shape was observed from three perspectives: drape area, node numbers, and node shapes. Dealing the problem from these perspectives provided an in-depth comparison of real and virtual drapes. In this study, standard deviation of peak angles was used to explain node distribution that is new to the literature to the authors’ knowledge.

Varying fabric drape by 3D-imprinted patterns for garment design

Drape is one of the most important properties of fabric, which significantly influences the appearance of a garment or technical textile. Being closely related to stiffness and other mechanical parameters, drape is also influenced by seams and other modifications of the pure textile fabric. In most investigations, the drape coefficient according to Cusick is used to measure drape, using a special drape meter, which allows to quantitatively describing the textile’s behaviour in terms of drape coefficient, number of nodes, etc. This article gives an overview of possibilities to modify fabric drape by printing different geometrical patterns on textile fabric. Their geometry and distance also influence on fabric drape. The resulting differences in a real garment using a skirt as an example will show the impact of 3D printing on garment drape.

Cotton type fabric drape prediction

Fabric drape can be defined as a phenomenon of crease-forming when the fabric is put under pressure of its own mass, but without the influence of external forces. The drape ability of material has a direct influence on appearance and functionality of the garment. Recent findings in this field indicate that researchers have mostly been defining the phenomenon of draping on the basis of the mechanical characteristics of textiles. This paper presents the method that aims to to predict the draping parameters, where drape is defined in dependence of structure and construction parameters of woven fabric. Drape characteristics are tested on drape meter. Drape coefficient was determined by “cut weight” method. Variety of raw and finished fabrics for apparel are used, in order to explain how the changes of structural and constructional characteristics affect the woven fabric draping. Based on the results it is presented the equation that can be used to predict draping of woven fabric. The obtained results are aimed to provide drape parameters depending on the parameters of the structure and the construction of woven materials

A Simple Method for Measuring Fabric Drape Using Digital Image Processing

Drape is an important property, which affects the aesthetic appearance of fabrics used in garments in this study, a simple, easy and precise method for measuring fabric drape using the image processing technique was demonstrated. The study was conducted using a range of knitted and woven fabric samples. The fabrics were conventionally evaluated using the German drape meter instrument. The average drape coefficient of each fabric sample obtained through the conventional drape meter technique was compared statistically with that obtained through the new proposed digital technique. The results agreed with those obtained from the image processing technique with a high correlation coefficient (r=0.9970). Drapeability assessment has been done on the basis of changes in drape coefficient (DC), drape parameters, node parameters and structural parameters. Also, a method of expressing drape, node and structural parameters relating to the drape coefficient of fabrics has been developed. This method involves the area of polygon area. Two regression models were proposed for both conventional and digital image techniques and for all fabrics using the multiple linear regressions. The regression results were analyzed in terms of correlation coefficients. These regression models are shown to predict the drape coefficient accurately.

Evaluating drape shape in woven fabrics

A search of the scientific literature for the period 1950–2013 retrieved 36 different drape indicators. Despite the large number of indicators currently available, the drape ratio (%DR) continues to be the most widely used, even though it has proved inadequate to explain drape shape. In order to assess their actual performance, the 36 currently existing drape indicators were determined in a total of 37 commercial drapery, woolmaking, shirtmaking and lining woven fabrics spanning a wide range of composition, aerial weight and weave type using a digital Cusick drape meter. A correlation analysis between indicators, and subsequent suppression of duplicity and collinearity, revealed that seven were mutually correlated. A principal component analysis of the results revealed an underlying structure consisting of three common factors which allowed the indicators to be classified into three different groups according to drape intensity (a), severity (b) and shape symmetry and variability (c). Cluster analysis was additionally used to examine the results in graphical form and exposed three clusters coinciding with the three factors of the underlying structure. A criterion for distinguishing fabrics with an identical drape ratio in terms of drape shape based on sequential application of four of the seven initially selected indicators was developed and experimentally validated.

Prediction of Drape Coefficient by Artificial Neural Network

Abstract An artificial neural network (ANN) model was developed to predict the drape coefficient (DC). Hanging weight, Sample diameter and the bending rigidities in warp, weft and skew directions are selected as inputs of the ANN model. The ANN developed is a multilayer perceptron using a back-propagation algorithm with one hidden layer. The drape coefficient is measured by a Cusick drape meter. Bending rigidities in different directions were calculated according to the Cantilever method. The DC obtained results show a good correlation between the experimental and the estimated ANN values. The results prove a significant relationship between the ANN inputs and the drape coefficient. The algorithm developed can easily predict the drape coefficient of fabrics at different diameters.

Volume Based Measurement of Fabric Drape using Surfer Software and Studies on Effect of Influencing Factors

The human being needs more comfort on clothing than its color, design and appearance. Drape is one of the important factor influencing the aesthetics and comfort of fabrics. In the initial days fabric drape was measured by using Cusick’s drape meter. Due to technology development and up gradation several instruments were developed by many researchers. In this research work one such latest technology was used to measure fabric drape in three dimensional way using SURFER software. Here, the instrument used for measuring fabric drape was slightly modified from the Cusick Drape meter. The perforated circular disc was placed over the sample to measure the xyz coordinates of sample on radials range from 9.5cm to 14.5cm at each 5o intervals. The civil engineers use XYZ coordinates to measure the surface the of land profile (either hill or valley) using software. The same concept was followed to measure the profile of drape in three dimensional way using SURFER software. The xyz values are fed as input to the software and it generates contour lines, 3D view, vector lines, drape volume and drape profile area as output. The drape coefficient was computed from the volume of drape profile and analyzed to study the effect of six different seams, seam directions and number of stitches with two different stitch densities. The seam type, number of stitches (single/double), their interaction density * number of stitches and stitch density * seam have significant effect on volume based drape coefficient. The calculated volume (obtained from average radius and height) is compared with volume generated by SURFER software method and it was found that there is significance difference exists.

Effect of Seams on Drape of Fabrics

Drape of the fabric is its ability to hang freely in graceful folds when some area of it is supported over a surface and the rest is unsupported. Drape is a unique property that allows a fabric to be bent in more than in one direction, When two-dimensional fabric are converted to three-dimensional garment form. In the present study, the effects of sewing of different seam were selected on different fabric and their behaviors were studied. In this study drape of ten fabrics are analyzed with three types of seams and three stitch densities. Sample without seam is a control sample and drape of seamed samples are compared with control sample to analyse the drape behavior of seamed fabrics. This paper presents a fundamental drape analysis of seamed fabrics using drape meter. Drape behavior is determined in terms of drape coefficient. The effect of seams on the drape coefficient and Drape profile has been made. Drape coefficients significantly differs between the fabrics and also between the seam stitch density combinations. Investigating drape on seamed fabrics can improve fabric end use application. Key words: drape, computer aided design, seam, stitch density, Design of Experiments

Prediction of fabric drape using the FAST system

In this study, we investigated the relationship between the fabric drape coefficient from the drape meter and mechanical properties tested on the fabric assurance by simple testing system (FAST). Different kinds of woven fabrics with two kinds of weave (plain and twill) were tested. Three regression models are proposed for each type of weave and for all fabrics using the multiple linear regressions. The regression results were analyzed in terms of correlation coefficients, T and p-values. A neural model is proposed using the neural networks and it is compared to the regression one.

Time Dependence of the Drape Coefficient of Fabrics

Fabric drape is an important parameter for the aesthetic appearance of fabrics. It can be measured using Cusick's drape meter, where the drape coefficent is obtained with a laborious cut‐and‐weigh method. Presents a method using image analysis for measuring the drape coefficient. With this method, time dependence of the drape coefficient is investigated, and is expressed in a model. Using this model, the drape coefficient obtained with the cut‐and‐weigh method can be calculated.

THE STIFFNESS OF KNITTED FABRICS:

Gives a review of the various methods which have been developed to measure the stiffness of fabric and describes a new method. This new approach enables the testing of knitted fabrics which are difficult to test using the cantilever system. The inter‐operative reproducibility of the new instrument is compared with that of the cantilever method and the drape meter. Also reports inter‐laboratory comparisons on woven fabric and on knitted fabric, the latter having been measured on a KES‐F system.