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75D/72f and 100D/96f polyester yarns were knitted to develop three kinds of fabrics with different densities (large, medium and small) on circular knitting machine (gauge E18). It was found that the strength of the fabrics increased with the increase of loop density, and the initial modulus of the fabrics also increased. In order to obtain better strength and lower initial modulus, the washing and heat setting process of the fabric were studied and explored. The strength and initial modulus of the three density fabrics of the two yarn specifications decreased after pre-washing. Finally, the lowest initial modulus (0.36 MPa at warp direction and 0.22 MPa at weft direction) were found in sample (sample no. 3–3) made of 75D filament in longest loop length under 140 °C heat setting. The weft strength and warp strength were 9.54 MPa and 5.28 MPa respectively.

Chemical protective clothing is widely used by emergency teams in certain industries and such as fire-fighting and medical protection fields. Due to the differences of assessment, specific requirements for target products, and test methods, the relevant standards for such clothing vary greatly. By analyzing standards on chemical protective clothing, this study summarized their differences in assessment items and test methods for basic performances such as seam strength, leak tightness, permeability by liquid/gas chemicals, resistance to ignition, liquid repellency and penetration by liquids.

Warp-knitted spacer fabrics are generally used for sportswear, functional clothing, protective clothing, and other applications. This article studied the heat and mass transfer properties of polyester warp-knitted spacer fabrics from low thickness (2 mm) to high thickness (20 mm), from low mass (247.34 g/m2) to high mass (1,585.9 g/m2), and surface structure in plain or mesh construction. Water vapor permeability, air permeability, water absorption, and thermal insulation property were conducted to evaluate the spacer fabrics. The results revealed that with increasing volume density the water vapor permeability of spacer fabrics decreased, but the water absorption ratio increased. The water vapor permeability of fabrics increased when thickness decreased and volume density increased. It was further found that spacer fabrics with mesh worn nearby the skin and plain structure worn far from the skin could facilitate water vapor and air transmission. The difference of 8.82% for water vapor permeability and 14.19% for air permeability were found between testing mesh side up and down for the spacers (2.56 and 3.37 mm), respectively. Thermal insulation ratio was highly and significantly correlated with heat transfer coefficient at −0.958 and with thickness at 0.917. Thermal insulation ratio is highly and significantly correlated with air permeability at 0.941.

The six types of weft knitted fabric in plating structure were made by cotton, polypropylene and polyester with different number of filaments. The fabrics were tested by moisture management tester, vertical wicking and drying test. It was found that the large water absorption difference and the large filament density difference between the inner and outer side of fabric could result in the better water absorption and drying ability. The fabric with polypropylene yarn (75D/48f) at inner side and cotton yarn (40 Ne) at outer side had best moisture management property evaluated by MMT. While the fabric with polypropylene yarn (75D/48f) at the inner side and polyester yarn (75D/144f) at the outer side had highest vertical wicking and drying rate.

Both face and back sides of cotton weft-knitted fabrics in five knitting structures (plain, rib, interlock, single pique, and double pique) were investigated based on modified water drop test (meth...

Purpose The current studies on the clothing silhouette are very limited. The purpose of this paper is to propose an innovative framework to intelligently identify the womenswear silhouette with the latest computer technologies. To clearly define the womenswear silhouette, an accurate numerical definition is proposed. Design/methodology/approach The study first processes and segments the useful parts on the static catwalk image data files following existing graphic extraction approaches. Six basic alphabetical womenswear silhouette types are selected and numerically defined. Then, the proposed framework automatically classifies the six basic womenswear silhouettes considering the different slopes between three main clothing parts. Six clothing situations are discovered according to different designs and the detailed cases are systematically categorized. In addition, aspects influencing the judgment of the clothing silhouettes such as the skin, the background, the drastic change points are also considered. The proposed silhouette definition and identification framework is novel and proved accurate. Findings The proposed definition and identification framework of womenswear silhouettes have been proved a viable approach that is fully compatible with the current computer technologies. The validation study shows that the presented identification procedure has a desirable accuracy over 90 percent. Originality/value The proposed methodology develops brand new standards to numerically define and identify the womenswear silhouette, which was not available in the past. Besides, the measurement, the identification and the classification procedures are fully validated by the image data collected from 14 world famous brands over 11 consecutive seasons. It is shown that the proposed numerical framework of the womenswear silhouettes is a robust one, considering all of the observed design variabilities.

Skin wetness and body water loss are important indexes to reflect the heat strain of the human body. According to ISO 7933 2004, the skin wetness and sweat rate are calculated by the evaporative heat flow and the maximum evaporative heat flow in the skin surface, etc. This work proposes the soft textile-based sensor, which was knitted by stainless steel/polyester blended yarn on the flat knitting machine. It investigated the relationship between electrical resistance in the weft/warp directions and different water absorption ratio (0–70%), different sample size (2 cm × 2 cm, 2 cm × 4 cm, 2 cm × 6 cm and 2 cm × 8 cm). The hydrophilic treatment effectively improved the water absorption ratio increasing from 40% to 70%. The weft and warp direction exhibited different electrical behaviors when under dry and wet conditions. It suggested the weft direction of knitted fabrics was recommended for detecting the electrical resistance due to its stable sensitivity and linearity performance. It could be used as a flexible sensor integrated into a garment for measuring the skin wetness and sweat rate in the future instead of traditional measurements.

Motivated by the recent blockchain technology originally built for bitcoin transactions, various industries are exploring the opportunities to redefine their existing operational systems. In this study, an innovative environmentally sustainable solution is proposed for the fashion apparel manufacturing industry (FAMI), which is energized by blockchain. Incorporating the Emission Trading Scheme (ETS), and a novel “emission link” system, the proposed framework exposes carbon emission to the public and establishes a feature to reduce the emissions for all key steps of clothing making. Fully compatible with Industry 4.0, blockchain provides decentralization, transparency, automation, and immutability characteristics to the proposed framework. Specifically, the blockchain supported ETS framework, the carbon emissions of clothing manufacturing life cycle, and the emission link powered procedures are introduced in detail. A case study is provided to demonstrate the carbon emission evaluation procedure. Finally, a multi-criteria evaluation is performed to demonstrate the benefits and drawbacks of the proposed system.