HOME LIVING

By Jane Kallesøe & Helle Knudsen

In order for a fabric to be used for home furniture, or furniture at offices etc., it is important that it have a high wear resistance. Of course this is depending on the use of the product, as there is a different whether the purpose with the fabric is to use it for pillows, chairs, couches etc.

THE FABRIC CONSTRUCION

Through fiber identification and burn test we found out that the fabric is made of cotton, polyester and polyamide.

Because of the construction of the fabric we came to an approximately result of the division of the fibers – 50% cotton, 40% polyester 10% polyamide.

The fabric is constructed as 1/1 plain weave, and the warp treads are 100% cotton, and the weft treads are a mix of polyester and polyamide.

The square meter weight is 358,8 g/m².

Mix of polyester and polyamide - used only in the weft direction

The small yarn wrapped around (the picture in the middle) is made of polyamide, and the other yarns (picture to the right) is made of polyester. 

 
      Chenille yarn - used only in the warp direction

TESTING

Tear properties

This was the testing we found most interesting of the test we did. Normally it is the warp that has the highest numbers, which means that these are the strongest, but in this case it is the weft that has the highest number, which means that more force is need in order to break the treads.

·      Warp: 24,09N

·      Weft: 24,39N

The result can be connected to the way the fabric is constructed.

The warp treads are pure cotton, and the weft treads are polyester and polyamide.

Because of the knowledge we have gain through TEKO and the subject product knowledge, we know that one of the pros for polyester is that it is a strong fiber, and cotton not that strong, and this might be the reason for why the weft is strongest.

PROS & CONS

Cotton

Pros	Cons
·      High wear resistance ·      Good resistance to light ·      High strength when wet ·      Good absorbency ·      Washable at high temperature ·      Easy to color and postproces-sing	·      Poor insulation properties ·      Tendency to curl ·      Not elastic ·      Shrinks (in raw mode) ·      Takes long time to dry

Polyester

Pros	Cons
·      High abrasion resistance ·      Workable/formable ·      High elasticity ·      Dries quickly ·      High strength when wet ·      Don’t shrink	·      Poor absorption ability ·      Poor heating capacity ·      Static ·      High use of energy during coloring

Polyamide

Pros	Cons
·      Good wear resistance ·      Elastic ·      Thermoplastic ·      High curl resistance ·      Easy to mix with other fibers	·      Get static ·      Bad isolation ability ·      Receives dirt easily

CARELABEL