Sewing needle penetration forces and elastane fiber damage during the sewing of cotton/elastane woven fabrics

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental study of the effects of elastane draw ratio, pre-setting temperature and finishing process on the penetration forces of a sewing needle and damage to the elastane fibre during the sewing of cotton/elastane woven fabrics. Seam strength and seam opening strength of the fabrics were also determined for assessment of seam performance. In this study three fabric types with three different elastane weft yam draw ratios were taken as samples for the experiments. As the first step a pre-setting process was applied to all three types of fabric at two different temperatures and at the finishing process half of the samples were treated with silicone and the other half were washed only. In total, 12 samples having different specifications were obtained. For these fabrics, nylon/elastane air-covered yarn was used as the weft yarn and cotton yarn as the warp yarn. Seam strength, seam opening strength, needle penetration forces and "needle damage index" were determined for these fabric samples. The needle penetration forces were between 100 and 140 cN and the "needle damage index" values were between 20 and 42%. Photographs were taken with an optical microscope and a scanning electron microscope to show the elastane fiber damage during the sewing.