Abstract
Textile fabrics vary considerably in their properties according to their method of manufacture, in addition to the influence of the proper ties of the constituent fibres. The possibilities open to the designer are greater with woven and knitted fabrics than with non-woven fabrics, but all types of fabric can offer advantages in some directions. The traditional fabrics based on yarns were designed to have flexibility, in addition to high strength, whereas non-woven fabrics behave more like conventional engi neenng materials in that an increase in strength normally results in an increase in stiffness. The reason for this is that there are less mechanisms of deformation possible in non-wovens because of their production from fibre webs without the intermediate formation of yarns.
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