Textile Adviser: FABRIC PILLING TEST BY TUMBLE TYPE PILLING TESTER

FABRIC PILLING TEST BY TUMBLE TYPE PILLING TESTER:

Fabric pilling:

When the fabric surface gets rubbed due to routine activities of the user, the balls or pills formation takes place on the fabric surface. The fabric pilling resistance is measured by a fabric. This pilling resistance tells us about the ability to resist the pills formation on the fabric surface.

There are many instruments available that are used to measure the pilling resistance of a fabric. The most commonly used method of measurement of pilling resistance is given below:

Tumble type pilling tester:

It is a very simple instrument. There a box gets mounted on each side of the instrument. These boxes get rotated by a gearbox and electric motor fitted with the instrument. A revolutions counter meter is also mounted on this pilling tester. A pre-decided number of revolutions can get fed to this counter meter. This machine gets started by bringing the on/off switch to the on position. When the number of revolutions reaches to feed number, the machine gets stop automatically.

The abrasion pads get fitted inside each box. These pads get fitted to all six inside surfaces of each box. There is a hinged door for keeping the fabric samples inside the box.

Testing procedure :

The testing procedure of pilling resistance of a fabric is given below:

Apparatus used:

1 - Tumble type pilling tester

2 - specimen marking template

3 - Rubber tubes

4 - Scissor

5 - Gum tape

6 - fabric sample

7 - fibre brush

Preparation of specimen:

A specimen is prepared with the help of a special template provided with a pilling tester by its manufacturer.

The fabric is spread on the flat surface, then the template is placed over the fabric. Specimen marking is performed with the help of the template. Now specimen is separated with the help of scissors. The external fibres are removed with the help of a soft fibre brush from the specimen.

Specimen mounting on rubber tubes:

As you are seeing in the picture of specimens after cutting, each specimen is stitched leaving a stitching margin. Now a tube of specimen gets resulted after stitching. The stitching side is changed by bringing it inside the specimen's tube. This fabric tube is mounted over the surface of the rubber tube as shown below figure:

The edges of the tubes are sealed by gum tape to prevent the fraying of the threads from the specimen.

The specifications of the rubber tube are given below:

Rubber tube length - 150 mm
The outer diameter of the rubber tube - 32mm
Wall thickness of rubber tube - 3.2 mm
The hardness of the rubber tube. - 55 to 60-degree shore

Pilling testing:

These rubber tubes covered with fabric are placed inside the boxes, where abrasion action takes place. The boxes get rotated continuously. The tubes fall on the rubbing pads. 18000 cycles are fixed in counter meter. When the counter meter reading reaches prefixed reading, the machine gets stopped automatically.

Now we take out the all rubber tubes from the boxes. The fabric is removed from each tube. This fabric is rated for pilling resistance result in the tested fabric.

The level of pilling is rated on a 1 - 5 scale. A rating of 1 is considered as very poor and a rating of 5 is considered as no pilling in the fabric.

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