Investigation of dimensional stability of knitted fabrics

ABSTRACT INVESTIGATION OF DIMENSIONAL STABILITY OF KNITTED FABRICS ÇORUH HOSRAFO?LU Ebru M. Sc. thesis, Textile Engineering Department Supervisor: Prof. Dr. ALİ KİREÇÇİ January, 2004 Knitting is the most frequently used method of fabric construction. The popularity of knitting has grown tremendously within recent years because of the increased versatility of techniques, the adaptability of the new manmade fibers, and the growth in consumer demand for wrinkle-resistant, stretchable, snug fitting fabrics, particularly in the greatly expanding areas of sportswear and other casual wearing apparel. Today, the usage of knitted fabrics ranges from hosiery, underwear, sweaters, slacks, suits, and coats, to rugs and other home furnishing. However, some serious problems were appeared within. One of the most important problems is dimensional deformation on fabrics after laundering process. In this study, the dimensional stability, breaking strength and breaking elongation tests made on knitted fabrics, which were made of different knit structure. In these tests some parameters such as type of fiber, yarn counts, yarn structure(ring/rotor), plied yarns and fabric structure were taken into account after subsequent washing and drying processes and the results were compared each other. From the test results it was clearly seen that fabrics which were made of synthetic yarns in comparison cotton yarns, double plied and coarser count yarns in comparison with single plied and fine count yarns, ring spun yarns in comparison with rotor spun yarns have better strength and fabric dimensional deformations with respect to the other test samples. Key words: circular knitting, dimensional stability, shrinkage, quality control, knitting faults. m