Effect of Lyocell Blend Yarn and Pile Type on the Properties of Pile Loop Knit Fabrics

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates some physical properties of pile loop knit fabrics. Several fabric parameters, such as pile type (pile loop and cut-pile loop fabrics), fiber type (100% cotton and 50/50% cotton/lyocell blend), fabric tightness (slack, medium, and tight), relaxation (dry relaxation and wash and dry relaxation), are changed. The effects of these parameters on the physical properties of the fabrics, such as dimensional, drapeability, abrasion, and spirality, are analyzed. To determine their relationship and significance, a bivariate correlation analysis and an analysis of variance are conducted. The presence of lyocell and cut-pile loop fabrics increases the lengthwise shrinkage and widthwise extension after repeated wash and dry cycles. Fabric thickness decreases with the presence of lyocell and decreases fabric tightness. Lyocell blend and ground-face fabrics have lower drape coefficients. Spirality tends to increase with the presence of lyocell and pile loop fabrics. Fabric abrasion behavior is also studied.

Pile loop knit fabrics are widely used by the apparel industry for sportswear and bathrobes due to their good comfort, touch, and aesthetic properties. Although there are many studies related to the dimensional, mechanical, and aesthetic properties of single-jersey and double-jersey fabrics [4,5,8,11,15,16,18,20-22], few studies have considered single jersey pile loop fabrics [1-3,12]. Anand and Lawton [2,3] studied pile-loop knit fabric and presented several empirical models to predict dimensional parameters such as course density, wale density, and stitch density. They reported that the dimensional parameters of pile loop knit fabrics are largely controlled by the stitch length in the ground structure and the state of relaxation. In another study, the same researchers [1] investigated the performance of several knit fabrics, such as pile loop knit, 1×1 knit/miss, and 1×1 cross-inlay, when used as dust filters. Kim et al. [12] analyzed the effect of chemical splitting on the mechanical properties and water absorption of a split-type nylon/polyester microfiber pile knit under various alkaline hydrolysis treatment conditions. They reported that hydrolysis parameters and sodium hydroxide concentration affected the weight loss of hydrolyzed pile knits and their mechanical properties.

Due to the lack of much information on pile loop knit fabrics, their mechanical, aesthetic, and comfort properties deserve to be investigated. Therefore, in this study, we determine the effect of several parameters such as pile type (pile loop and cut-pile loop fabrics), fabric tightness (slack, medium, tight), relaxation (dry relaxation, wet and dry relaxation), and the presence of lyocell (100% cotton, 50/50% cotton/lyocell blend) on the dimensional, drape, spirality, and abrasion properties of the fabrics. Using a bivariate correlation analysis and analysis of variance, we examine the relationship between parameters and statistical significance.

Lyocell is being more widely used due to its comfort and eco-friendly properties, similar to cotton. Most studies of …