Sueo Kawabata

A guide line for manufacturing “ideal fabrics”

This paper reports the recent progress in the ideal fabrics project that started in 1996. The aim of this project is to initiate the engineered manufacturing of “ideal fabric”. Ideal fabric is the fabric which satisfies the three conditions, good hand, good appearance of suit, and mechanical comfort for wear. The objective evaluation method of these three properties has been developed, and these objective method and fabric mechanics theories are fully applied to this project. Some ideal fabrics have been manufactured as the guideline for manufacturing ideal fabrics in the future. These trial fabrics are now being commercialized to assess the response of consumers.

Clothing engineering based on objective measurement technology

Engineered manufacturing of high quality garments has long been a target of textile technology. There are three main factors for manufacturing high quality garments. They are: the selection of good fabrics for the garments; the process control of garment manufacturing; and the performance and correct adjustment of manufacturing machines such as sewing machines. In recent years, objective evaluation technology of fabric quality has been developed, and many researchers are now moving toward the engineered design of fabric quality based on this objective evaluation technology. The present authors are also conducting research on these three factors on the basis of the development of objective evaluation technology. This paper consists of two parts. The first part is a brief introduction about the investigation of the first and the second factors, which have been investigated by the authors. The second part presents our recent research on seam pucker problems. This problem is a machine‐materials interaction problem, and the mechanical properties of sewing thread and fabric are closely connected in this problem.

Engineering Properties of Spider Silk

Abstract With an unparalleled combination of strength and toughness amongst materials, spider silk is the model for engineering materials. This chapter reviews the unique structure and the distinctive engineering properties of spider silk. The tensile behaviors of spider silk including the stress-strain behavior under tension and viscoelastic behavior are presented. The time-dependent elastic behavior is modeled by a quasilinear viscoelastic model to describe the sigmoidal shape stress-strain relationship for both Nephila clavipes and Argiope aurantia spider silk in spite of the difference in maximum stress and strain levels. The torsion and compression properties of spider silk are also included in this chapter. It has been shown that spider silk shows significantly higher toughness than the state-of-the-art fibers in tension and in transverse compression. Higher shear modulus was also observed for the spider silk compared to other liquid crystalline fibers such as Aramid fibers. In addition, the engineering properties of regenerated spider silks are also introduced.

An experiment on human sensory measurement and its objective measurement

Presents a report on a recent experiment on the evaluation of seam pucker level by the objective method. Explains that human beings measure physical quantity and quality by means of subjective methods. Fabric hand evaluation is an example of this type of evaluation and an example of a relatively complex measurement with many relating physical variables. The measurement of seam pucker is a much simpler measurement than fabric hand evaluation, as only the fabric geometry along a seam line is visually observed and evaluated. This simplicity, however, is useful when investigating the human objective judgement of a geometrical phenomenon. Suggests that this investigation may be applied directly to the development of an objective system of seam pucker level.

The objective evaluation of blanket hand and durability

The purpose of this study is to investigate an objective method of evaluating the tactile comfort of blankets by a method of connecting the mechanical parameters of blankets to subjective evaluation. The two methods are preliminarily investigated as follows: (1) Transformation equations for the fabric hand of suiting, KN‐101‐W for primary hand values and KN‐301‐W for THV, are applied, with the mean and standard deviation applied to these equations replaced with new values for the blanket population. (2) A new prediction equation is constructed for deriving THV directly from the mechanical parameters and thermal properties. The prediction accuracy of method (2) is a little higher than that of (1). The durability of blankets during repeated use and repeated dry cleaning determined by the initial performance of blankets is also investigated.

Recent Progress in the Objective Measurement of Fabric Hand

There are many materials which are used close to humans and cause interactions between the material property and human sensibility. Polymers are such materials, a typical example being clothing material made of organic fibers (Figure 7.1). Although the strength and durability of the material are important in utility performance, the fitting of material properties with humans is more important with clothing material.

Fatigue of high strength fiber caused by repeated axial compression

We report a method for measuring the axial compression characteristic of high strength fibers. This is a technique for loading compression force on a fiber by winding it on a plastic rod at an angle of 45 degrees. The fiber was fixed to the rod with an adhesive. The aramid fiber, the carbon fiber, and the E-glass fiber were examined in this research. The relation between the compression fatigue and strength of the fiber became clear by this technique.

Fabric hand property of Polish linen fabrics for ladies’ outerwear

Recently, the Polish National Fiber Research Laboratory provided linen samples. In addition to these Polish fabric samples, we also collected linen fabric samples which were made in Japan and throughout Europe. We have investigated hand properties of various linen fabrics, and identification of the Polish linen fabrics quality from those of other linen fabrics. The fabric hand of Polish linen fabrics is unique, it possesses a hand just between wool‐like and cotton‐like fabrics. We have clarified that the Polish linen fabrics are suitable for hari‐type and tailored type silhouette designs for women’s wear, and the fabrics are well‐suited for finishing garment appearance.

A structural theory of power‐net applied to biaxial extension

Power‐net is an extensible fabric and has a net structure. The biaxial extension property of this fabric is analysed and compared with experimental results obtained by a biaxial tensile tester.

Assessment of the quality of ladies’ garment fabrics – a preliminary report

In order to establish an objective method of evaluating ladies’ garment fabrics by connecting the mechanical properties of ladies’ garment fabrics to subjective evaluation, subjective assessments were examined by judges who work at textile mills or in the textile trade. We examined a method of deriving objective equations, a total hand value (THV) equation and a total appearance value (TAV) equation. The THV equation was derived directly from the mechanical properties of the fabrics and the TAV equation was derived from three mechanical parameters which are related to the beauty of garment appearance. In the case of the THV objective equation, the accuracy of regression was high within the same groups of judges; however, in the case of the TAV objective equation, accuracy was slightly low. Because there were few subjects and that caused deviation, the accuracy of prediction was slightly low; however, the objective evaluation was adequate.