Source: Textile Review
Khadi is
Abrasion is rubbing away of component fibers andyarns of fabric. Abrasion resistance is the ability of a fabric to withstandrubbing it gets in everyday use. Rubbing may be against itself or otherssurfaces.
Many factors influence abrasion resistance of afabric. Fiber type, yarn twist and its size, fabric structure and finish aresome of the factors affecting abrasion loss.
Abrasion resistance of mill made fabric in pureand in blends have been studied by several researchers (1-5) interms of change in compression, bending behavior, weight loss etc. however, abrasionloss of khadi fabrics has not been reported anywhere.
Khadi is a handspun and hand woven fabric madeof cotton, silk, wool or mixture of these fibers or with man made fibers. Ithas a rugged texture, a unique look and feel, and is very comfortable to wear.As khadi is handspun and hand woven fabric, its yarn and fabric structure aswell as quality is different from machine spun and woven fabrics. Due to this,abrasion resistance of khadi may be different from mill made fabrics.
Experimental procedures
Material: Commercially available khadi fabricvarying in fiber content, thickness, weight and compactness were selected.Table 1 shows constructional parameters of khadi fabrics.
Varieties of cotton Khadi fabric were availablebut wool, silk and polykhadi were limited in varieties so five type of cottonkhadi and one each of wool, silk and polykhadi were selected for the study.
Two types of abradant were used- emery paper andcanvas fabric
Method : Khadi fabrics were tested for flat abrasion.
Martindale type abrasion resistance tester ofEureka Precision Company was used. It has multidirectional movements. Fabricswere first desized and scoured. 100,200, 300,400, and 500 rubbing cycles weregiven to fabrics. Percent weight loss of fabric was determined after rubbing.
Result and Discussion
Table 2 shows that as the number of rubbing cycles increased, weight loss increased in all the fabrics. Upto 100-200 rubbing cycles, very little or no loss was observed in fabric except silk. Weight loss gradually increased on increasing the rubbing cycles.
Weight loss in fabric. after rubbing occurred
due to breakdown of fibers in initial stage and their removal from fabric in
the later stage. With increasing rubbing cycles, more and more fibers came out
on the fabric surface and cut off from the surface.
Emery paper caused more abrasion damage in all fabrics than canvas fabric irrespective of fabric type. Severity of abrasion varies with nature of abradant. Emery paper was more severe in action so caused more weight loss.
Abrasion resistance of wool was found best among all the fabrics selected for the study. One reason may be high elongation and elastic recovery of wool fibers. High elongation and electric recovery of fibers are important factors for a good degree of abrasion resistance. Another reason may be thickness of wool fabric. Increased fabric thickness and large yarn diameter are related and provide marked improvement in abrasion resistance of textile structure. Wool fabric was thickest among all the khadi fabrics. (Table 1)
On the other hand silk showed maximum weight loss on rubbing. Silk fabric was thinnest among all the fabrics. It may be one of the causes of poor abrasion resistance of silk. It was made of single fine yarn. Single yarn may show poor abrasion resistance than coarse yarn. Single yarn abrasion resistance depends upon linear density.
On comparing the abrasion resistance of cotton fabrics, it was found that C3 exhibited poorest abrasion resistance in cotton group. Here also, one reason may be its thickness. Another reason may be amount of twist in yarn. Amount of twist was highest in yarns of C3 fabric. High twist stiffens yarn to a point where very little contact is made between yarns and abradant as it is unable to flatten or distort under pressure of abrasion. This in turn results in high localized pressure and easy break down of yarn. High abrasion resistance was shown by C4. It was thickest fabric in cotton group. Thick yarns resist damage from abradants where as fine yarns may abrade easily.
Effect of evenness of yarn was also found in study of abrasion resistance of Khadi fabrics. A characteristic of khadi is unevenness of texture .To impart textural effect, weft yarns of varying thickness or slub yarns are used. Great difference in yam size of tl was observed. Some weft yarns were thick, some were thin. Thread count was not balanced. This resulted in abrasion loss. Slub yarn was used in C5 which caused abreast damage to some extent.
Polyester is considered to have good abrasion resistance. Studies have reported that blending of polyester with wool or cotton improves abrasion resistance. This may be the reason that polyester cotton khadi of comparable constructional parameters (with cotton) showed good abrasion resistance.
The study revealed that abrasion resistance of khadi fabrics depends to a considerable extent on type of fiber, construction of yarn and the fabric. Abrasion resistance of textile material is influenced by interaction of several properties whose relative influence is different for different fabrics.
Reference
- Kalaoglu F, Emelo and Bulent 0 (2003).
- Influence of varying structural parameters on abrasion characteristics of SO/50 wool/polyester blended fabrics. Textile research journal. Vol 73,980-984.
- Ukponmwan, J. O. (1993). Effect of abrasion on compressional properties of fabrics. Indian textile journal. Vall 03,42- 46.
- Ukponmwan J.O. (1994). The bending properties of wet abraded woven fabric. Indian Journal of fibers and textile research. Vol 14, 229-238.
- Ukponmwan, J. O. (1994). Crease recovery analysis of abraded polyestercotton fabric. Indian Textile Journal, Vol 105.
- Vasumathi, B. V., Somshekhar T. H., Chilakwod S.K. and Shrikanth G (2004). Studies on abrasion resistance of silk fabrics. Journal of fiber and textile research. Vol 29, 69-73.
The Authors are associated with Department of Clothing and Textiles Faculty of Home Science Banasthali University
Originally published in Textile Review: July 2010
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