Tactile sensory analysis applied to silk/cotton knitted fabrics

Abstract

Currently, textile industrialists have to consider the sensory aspect in their design and manufacturing specifications. To describe the sensory quality of products, sensory evaluation does exist and is widely used in the food and cosmetics areas. These methodologies have been successfully transposed to tactile evaluation of textile fabrics for different textile materials: plain weave fabrics with different post‐treatments and non‐woven are used for medical gowns and drapes. In our study, we have asked our trained panel composed of nine assessors to score a list of already defined sensory attributes for different knitted fabrics made of silk/cotton blends. The spinning parameters which have been changed are the type of silk fibre (three types), blending techniques – intimate and draw frame blending – and the silk content. All these parameters can more or less influence the tactile perception of the final knitted fabric. In this paper, the results of our analysis are presented and discussed in order to answer questions such as: “Are these two fabrics different?”, “What kind of difference is there?” or “What are the sensory characteristics of these fabrics?”. The concrete steps of the evaluation will be presented and specifically the training and performance analysis of the panellists who were obliged to adapt their evaluation procedures to small knitted samples. The protocols used to carry out fabrics description and comparisons when all assessors cannot evaluate all the products under study will also be detailed.