Seersucker woven fabrics – excellent material for comfortable clothing

Abstract

Seersucker woven fabrics are characterized by a unique three-dimensional (3D) structure determining their properties, functionality and possibility of measurement. Especially, the comfort-related properties of the seersucker woven fabrics are strongly affected by their structure. Measurement of seersucker woven fabrics needs some modification of methods usually applied in measurement of standard woven fabrics and sometimes, an elaboration of procedure of laboratory sample preparation. The paper provides information concerning the unique structure of the seersucker woven fabrics, an influence of a kind of weft yarn on the fabric properties, measurements of their comfort-related properties such as thermal resistance, thermal absorptivity, water-vapor resistance and liquid moisture transport. The measurements were performed by means of such instruments as: Alambeta, Permetets, Moisture Management Tester. A surface geometry is also a very important feature of the seersucker woven fabrics. Due to the presence of puckered stripes in the warp direction, the topography of the seersucker fabrics is specifically structured, especially in the puckered area. The surface geometry of fabrics was measured using the optical method with a MicroSpy® Profile profilometer. The paper presents and explains some selected surface geometry characteristics important from the point of view of sensorial comfort of clothing usage.

KEYWORDS: Comfort; Measurement; Seersucker Fabrics; Structure; Topography.