WATER REPELLENCY OF THE FABRIC

Water repellency: The water repellency of the fabric is the ability to resist the fabric to absorb the moisture. The factors affecting the water repellency are given below:

GSM, yarn count and construction of the fabric: The fabric having higher GSM does not always repel more water than lighter GSM fabric. The water repellency of fabric is directly associated with the airspace present in the fabric. The higher GSM fabric having the lowest possible airspace poses better water repellency. If the heavyweight fabric has more air space than lightweight fabric, the lightweight fabric will show better water repellency because of the lowest air space present in it. Generally, in the heavyweight fabrics, the end to end or pick to pick gap minimizes up to the lowest possible level, hence the heavyweight fabric shows better water repellency.

The water repellency of fabric has great concern with the yarn count and construction of the fabric.

If the two fabrics have equal threads per square inch, then the fabric woven with coarser count will show improved water repellency. If two fabrics have similar warp and weft count, then the fabric having more threads per square inch will show better water repellency. This thing happens due to airspace present in the fabric. Thus we can say that the water repellency of the fabric is inversely proportional to the airspace present in the fabric.

Type of material used: the material having hydrophobic nature always shows better water repellency. The synthetic fibres have better water repellency than natural fibres. The continuous filament yarn shows improved water repellency in comparison of synthetic spun yarn. The monofilament yarn always poses better water repellency than multifilament yarn.

The degree of yarn twist: the degree of yarn twist also influences the water repellency of the fabric. As the amount of twist increases, the airspace also decreases in the yarn. Now the yarn becomes more compact. In this way, the increased degree of yarn twist helps to improve the water repellency of the fabric.

Weave: the weave of fabric has a great impact on the water repellency of a fabric. If two fabric has all fabric parameters except weave, then the fabric having plain weave will show better water repellency than satin or twill weave because of the minimum possible air space present in the plain weave fabric.

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