Impact of lycra filament on extension and recovery characteristics of cotton knitted fabric

Abstract

The effect of lycra fil ament and full relaxation finisH on the extension at peak load. immediate recovery , delayed recovery, permanent set and resiliency of cotton-Iycra blended knitted fabric has been studied. It is observed that for lycra blended fabric, the immediate recovery, extension and resiliency are higher but delayed recovery and permanent set are lower than those of 100% cotton fabric. Effect of full relaxation treatment is found to be useful in case of all-cotton fabric . On th e appli cation of external load, both Iycra and non-Iycra fabrics show higher extension at peak load along course direction than that along the other directions of fabric . However, the biased direction of 100% cotton fabric shows significantly higher immediate recovery and resiliency but lower delayed recovery and permanent set. In general , with repeated load cycles. the extension at peak load increases marginally but immediate recovery and resiliency change considerably during initial number of cycles. Laundering reduces the extension at peak load, immediate recovery and resilienc y, whereas del ayed recovery and permanent set become hi gher.