Evaluation of physical and mechanical characteristics of three-thread fleece knit fabric for their structural changes

Md Kaikobad; Md Faisal Mahmud; Abdullah Sayam; Suman Chandra Paul; Md Musa Ali Reza; Md Omar Faruque; Nazmul Alam Apel; Md Emdad Sarker

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e21588

Evaluation of physical and mechanical characteristics of three-thread fleece knit fabric for their structural changes

Heliyon. 2023 Oct 31;9(11):e21588. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e21588. eCollection 2023 Nov.

Authors

Md Kaikobad^{1

2}, Md Faisal Mahmud^{1

3}, Abdullah Sayam^{1

4}, Suman Chandra Paul^{1

5}, Md Musa Ali Reza^{1

6}, Md Omar Faruque^{1

2}, Nazmul Alam Apel⁴, Md Emdad Sarker¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Fabric Engineering, Bangladesh University of Textiles (BUTEX), Dhaka, Bangladesh.
² Department of Textile Engineering, Green University of Bangladesh (GUB), Dhaka, Bangladesh.
³ Department of Textile Engineering, Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology (AUST), Bangladesh.
⁴ Department of Research and Development, Epyllion Group (Textile Division), Gazipur, Bangladesh.
⁵ Department of Textile Engineering, City University, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
⁶ Department of Textile Engineering, International Standard University (ISU), Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Abstract

The aim of this research is to explore the variations that can arise when three-thread fleece (3- TFL) fabric is manufactured with the same yarn type, count, stitch length, knitting machine gauge, and diameter but in different structural configurations. The physical and mechanical properties of 3-TFL fabrics vary depending on their structural construction, which has a significant impact on their intended usage. For this study, four distinct types of three-thread fleece fabric structures were developed titled straight, three-butt diagonal, four-butt diagonal, and double tuck 3-TFL. Fabric weight, bursting strength, shrinkage percentage, spirality, pilling, stretch and recovery percentage tests were performed on the produced samples and the results were interpreted statistically. The ANOVA study revealed a strong association between the fabric design and its properties. Although all variants of fleece fabric showed better dimensional stability, the double tuck 3-TFL fabric demonstrated a relatively high dimensional change. In addition, double tuck 3-TFL fabric showed higher fabric weight, better pilling grade, and less spirality, whereas 4-butt diagonal 3-TFL fabric exhibited higher bursting strength. This research will assist commercial knit fabric producers in the textile industry to understand the effect of structural variations on fleece fabric qualities.

Keywords: Dimensional stability; Fleece fabric; Pilling; Spirality; Structural variation; Tuck stitch.