Objective Evaluation of Durable Press Treatments and Fabric Smoothness Ratings

Abstract

In this research, we validate an imaging system for automatic grading of fabric smoothness, developed at Texas Tech University. This system consists of a sheet-of-light, laser-line projector; a smart CMOS camera; a moving platform; and a PC. Its purpose is to provide the textile industry with a tool for rapid, objective evaluation of fabric smoothness after home laundering. The validation study involves two cotton fabrics treated with increasing amounts of a textile-finishing agent to impart durable press properties. The UATR-FTIR is used as a rapid and nondestructive technique to determine the amount of the crosslinking agent linked to the cellulose after the required laundering cycles. To demonstrate the potential of our newly developed imaging system, we extract five features from the acquired images and relate them to AATCC grading and to the amount of finish as evaluated by FTIR. Our results demonstrate that this new wrinkle measurement technology has the potential to discriminate between different levels of fabric treatments and different fabrics.