Sunday, March 3, 2019

MOISTURE ABSORBENCY OF THE FABRIC

Moisture absorbency:  the moisture absorbency of a fabric is a very important property of the fabric because it is directly associated with other properties of the fabric. The ability of a fabric to pick up the moisture. When a fabric comes into direct contact of moisture, it starts to absorb moisture. The rate of pick up the moisture and amount of absorbed moisture differ for different fabric. The consumer can compare the moisture absorbency of two different fabrics as follows:
Take two fabric swatches of the same size and weight. Take a beaker and fill it with distilled water. Drop the first fabric swatch in the beaker and record the time when the fabric gets completely wet. As the fabric starts to dip into the water record the time again. Now repeat this process with another fabric swatch. Now make a comparison between the two fabrics. The fabric, which is taking less wetting and dipping time, will show better moisture absorbency.
The factors affecting the moisture absorbency are given below:
The degree of yarn twist: the amount of the yarn twist plays a very important role in the moisture absorbency of the fabric. A low twist yarn always has more air space in it. As the amount of twist increases, the yarn becomes more compacts and the airspace in the yarn is also decreases. Due to the reduction of airspace in the yarn, the moisture absorbency also reduced. Thus we can say that the moisture absorbency of the fabric is inversely proportional to the degree of yarn twist.
Count and construction of the fabric: the effect of the count and construction of the fabric can be understood with the help of the following examples:
Suppose that there are two fabrics A and B.
And both have been woven with a similar count.
Fabric A has greater threads per square inch (EPI and PPI) than fabric B.
In this case, the fabric A poses poor moisture absorbency because airspace in this fabric is decreased.
If two fabrics have similar threads per square inch (EPI and PPI), then the fabric woven with fine count yarn shows better moisture absorbency because the airspace in this fabric is increased.
Note: now these days, the spinners have developed air rich yarn, which gives improved moisture absorbency of the fabric. This yarn is also known as hollow yarn.
The weaver can improve the moisture absorbency of the fabric without changing the count and construction of the fabric with the help of this air rich yarn.
Type of material used: the type of material also plays a decisive role in the moisture absorbency of the fabric. Since we know the synthetic materials are hydrophobic in character, therefore synthetic material always poses poor moisture absorbency. The yarn made of long staple and fine fibres poses better moisture absorbency of the fabric. The fabric made of spun yarn has better moisture absorbency than filament yarn because of much air space present in the spun yarn. The multifilaments yarn has better moisture absorbency than monofilament yarn.
Weave: the weave of the fabric also has a high impact on the moisture absorbency of the fabric. Since we know that the plain weave has minimum airspace due to short float length, therefore it gives poor moisture absorbency. The satin and twill weaves show improved moisture absorbency due to bigger float length and airspace.

                                          THE END

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