Effect of repeated laundering on wicking and drying properties of fabrics of seamless garments

Abstract

Good moisture transport and drying properties are quite important factors for garments worn next to the skin, especially sportswear, underwear, etc., and seamless technology, in comparison to circular knitting technology, may offer higher flexibility in designing such garments with optimized comfort properties. Accordingly, seamless garments were knitted at three stitch lengths (i.e. slack, medium and tight) using a plaiting technique. In doing so, Ne 40/1 yarns from cellulosic fibers (namely cotton, viscose and bamboo) were employed as face yarn whereas 33 denier 34 filament nylon, which was intermingled with 17 dtex spandex yarn, was utilized as the plaiting yarn. They were piece dyed under commercial conditions. After that, half of them were subjected to a repeated laundering process (five cycles) and then flat-dried. Liquid transporting and drying properties of the fabrics of the garments were measured and the data obtained were evaluated using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) as well as independent t-tests and the results were discussed comparatively. Finally, the relative importance of liquid transfer parameters was evaluated by using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method based on seamless garment requirements. Final ranking of the garments was discovered according to the relative closeness value determined by the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) method in order to be able to offer the best option from all of the feasible alternatives suggested with the work.