Assessment of the Impact of the Surface Modification Processes of Cotton and Polyester Fabrics with Various Techniques on Their Structural, Biophysical, Sensory, and Mechanical Properties

Abstract

This article presents research on the assessment of the impact of surface modification of cotton and polyester fabrics using four techniques (flocking, layer by layer, screen printing and thermal-transfer printing) on their structural, mechanical, biophysical, and sensory properties. Depending on geometry and raw materials of the fabrics, the clothing made of them it is characterized by certain biophysical properties which are intended to protect the human body against external factors, but also against excessive sweating and overheating or cooling down. The aforementioned properties of the modified textiles were determined with: optical microscopy, microcomputed tomography, a tensile testing machine, sweating guarded-hotplate, air permeability tester, and the Kawabata evaluation system. Based on analysis of obtained results, it can be concluded that flocking reduces air permeability the most (−77% for cotton fabric and −99.7% for polyester fabric), and total hand value (−58% and −57%) and increases water vapor resistance the most (+769% and +612%) while the screen printing increases the thermal resistance the most (+119% and +156%) compared to unmodified textiles. It can be concluded that, when modifying textile substrates, the area of modification and their size on clothing products should be carefully selected so as not to adversely affect the feelings of potential wearers.