Elasticity of woven fabrics made of polytri-methylene terephthalate/ polyethylene terephthalate bicomponent filaments

Abstract

Polytri-methylene terephthalate (PTT)/polyethylene terephthalate (PET) filaments are self-crimping, highly elastic polyester bicomponent fibers. In this paper we studied the influences of important structural variables on the elasticity of woven fabrics made of PTT/PET weft filaments by testing 33 samples with different weave structures, PTT/PET contents, weft densities, and yarn twists. Fabric elasticity is described by two parameters: fabric strain and resilience in tensile testing. The experimental results indicate that twill and satin weaves have greater potentials in obtaining high elasticity than a plain weave. Fabric elasticity increases with the increase of the PTT/PET content in the weft yarn, but the change becomes insignificant after the PTT/PET content exceeds 66.7%. Increase in weft density has a negative effect on fabric elasticity, while the weft twist limits crimp formation of PTT/PET filaments and thus undermines the fabric’s elasticity noticeably. The PTT/PET filaments in fabrics can only realize about 6% of the elastic potential of the original PTT/PET filaments, because the crimp configurations of the filaments are dictated by not only the shrinkage differential of the two components, but also the weave structure and the yarn twist.

Keywords

Crimp configuration fabric elasticity polytri-methylene terephthalate/polyethylene terephthalate bicomponent filament weave structure

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