Fabric Touch Tester

The New Standard in Comfort Measurement

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Introduction

In consumer behavior research, it is found that a key factor affecting the

consumer’s clothes buying decision process (for both males and females) is the
comfort attribute.

Comfort is a highly subjective perception. You may

define comfort perception based on your feeling and
experience when touching the clothes. However, how
do you effectively communicate these perceptions with
another person? For example, how can a designer
sitting in New York office tell a fabric mill in India what
type of comfort fabric that he/she needs via some
qualitative descriptions and quantified requirements,
and then get the correct supply?

Many researchers have developed various objective

measurement methods to quantify the sensations
when touching a fabric. The way that the fabric feels
has been described as “fabric hand”, which has been
traditionally used in the textile and clothing industries
as a description of fabric quality and prospective
performance. The most well-known objective
measurement method is the KES-FB (Kawabata
Evaluation System of Fabric Hand), invented by HESC in
1980.

The KES-FB measurement method involves totally 5

very sensitive testing instruments for measuring the
mechanical and surface properties of fabrics. The
drawbacks of this instrumentation are the expensive
costs and the need for a highly trained operator to
carry out the tests and interpret the test results.

Now, an innovative Fabric Touch Tester (FTT) is co-developed by Prof. Li Yi, et al. of
Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HKPU) and SDL Atlas, funded by the Hong Kong
Research Institute for Textiles and Apparel (HKRITA), to measure the skin touch
comfort objectively and quantitatively. The comprehensive, sophisticated design
of the FTT enables it to measure all the mechanical and surface properties of a
fabric in one simple test which takes about 2-3 minutes. Research studies
showed the FTT has good correlations to KES-FB, and human panel subjective
evaluation studies covering a wide range of fabrics.
Basic Principle and Conceptual Design

When we touch a fabric, the receptors in our skin are stimulated and the encoded
neural information is subjectively interpreted, i.e. our perception of sensations.

Fig. 1 Neurophysiology of sensory perceptions. .Hatch et al, 2000

This same process is instrumented in FTT via the use of 5 types of sensors,
namely:
- Heatflux
- Temperature
- Pressure
- Friction
- Displacement

With these 5 types of sensors, the hand properties of a fabric are measured
simultaneously, all in about 2 - 3 minutes, including:
- Fabric thickness
- Fabric compression
- Fabric bending
- Fabric shearing
- Fabric surface friction
- Fabric thermal properties.
Design and structure of FTT

Figure 2 shows the photo and structural design of the FTT:

US Patent No. 6,601,457

China Patent App. No.: 201210275485.6 /
201210275648.0 / 201210278839.2

Fig. 2 Fabric Touch Tester (FTT) appearance and structure.

Fig. 3 Testing specimen dimensions

The testing area of the FTT consists of an upper plate and a lower plate, and
specimen to be tested is prepared as per Fig. 3, includes both the warp and weft
directions.

A heater is installed in the upper plate; a constant 10 deg C temperature

difference between the upper and lower plates is maintained before a test is
started. A Heatflux sensor is also installed in the upper plate (Fig. 4) hence the
heat flow during a test is measured.
 Fig. 4 Design of FTT upper plate

When 10 deg. C temperature difference is achieved between the upper and lower
plates, the upper plate will be moved downwards to compress the testing
specimen, and then upwards by the use of a step motor. The testing specimen on
the lower plate is compressed and then released, and the travel distance of the
upper plate is measured by a laser displacement sensor; whilst the pressure (of
compression) is measured by the load cells underneath the lower plate. Through
this process, the following parameters are measured:

Compression Measurement Thermal Measurements

Initial thickness
Thickness at max. pressure
Standard thickness
Compression work
Compression recovery work
Compression recovery rate
Compression linearity
Max. compression rigidity
Max. recovery rigidity
The max. hear flux in the compression
Heat conductivity without pressure
Heat conductivity with standard
pressure
Heat conductivity with max. pressure
Heat resistance without pressure
Heat resistance with standard pressure
Heat resistance with max. pressure

While the upper plate is moving downwards, the specimen on the lower plate is
pressed, and forced downwards, dragging the warp and weft sections of the
specimen through other measurement modules which are adjacent to the lower
testing plate for surface friction and surface roughness measurements (Fig. 5).
 Fig. 5 Fabric surface
friction and roughness
evaluation module

The friction forces are measured when the specimen is dragged through the
Friction Measurement Module (Fig. 6)

Fig. 6 Surface Friction Measurement

.
The upward and downward motions of the roughness sensors are induced by the
surface profiles of the tested fabric while it is being dragged. The displacement of
these motions are measured by the use of another set of laser displacement
sensors (Fig. 7), then conveyed to the surface condition parameters as the
following for both warp and weft directions:
 Fig. 7 Surface Roughness Measurement

Friction Evaluation Roughness Evaluation

Static friction coefficient
Kinetic friction coefficient
Deviation of kinetic friction coefficient
Kinetic friction work
Base line of roughness wave
Peak height of roughness wave
Trough depth of roughness wave
Wavelength of roughness wave
Amplitude of roughness wave
Average amplitude of roughness wave

The testing fabric passed through the surface friction and roughness
measurement modules will then be bent as the lower testing plate is pressed
downwards, which activates another 2 torque sensors of the bending evaluation
module (Fig. 8). The bending angles are then calculated, with the following
bending parameters for both warp and weft directions:

Bending Parameters
Initial bending angle
Bending work
Bending linearity
Average bending rigidity
Max. bending rigidity angle
 Fig. 8 Bending properties evaluation module and measuring mechanism

Test Results

Fig. 9 Test screens before (left) and after (right) test.

The repeatability and reproducibility study for the key parameters of FTT based
on 24 fabric samples are summarized as the following table:

Parameter Total Gage % (Repeatability

+ Reproducibility)
Average Bending Rigidity (Warp) 12.16
Average Bending Ridigity (Weft) 4.28
Thickness 0.60
Compression Work 2.97
Qmax 3.79
Thermal Resistance 1.73
Thermal Conductivity 1.51
Static Friction Coefficient (Warp) 34.73
Static Friction Coefficient (Weft) 7.69
Dynamic Friction Coefficient (Warp) 22.45
Dynamic Friction Coefficient (Weft) 11.02
Roughness Peak-trough Distance 4.7
(Warp)
Roughness Peak-trough Distance 5.16
(Weft)
Remark: Variations in friction measurements for warp direction is larger than the
weft’s, indicating that the testing principles are working.

Correlation studies

Correlation studies of this FTT with similar testing equipment, KES-FB and
PhabrOmeter, and human subjective evalutaion were conducted by Prof. Yi Li et al.
In their study, (2) a comparison study using KES-FB and PhabrOmeter (based on
different measurement principles) to measure 20 selected 100% silk fabric
smoothness properties. Subjective evaluation on the fabric samples was also
conducted among 23 subjects. No significant relationship between these two
methods was found through statistical analysis.

When the researchers compared both the objective measurement results from
KES-FB and PhabrOmeter to subjective evaluation, the smoothness value
obtained by KES-FB showed significant correlation between subjective evaluation
scores. The PhabrOmeter did not, possibly due to its different approach.

For correlation between the FTT and the KES-FB, it was found that most of the key
indexes have significant correlation, except the “Compression Linearity” and
“Roughness peak-Trough Distance” because they have different physical
meanings.

For correlation of the FTT to subjective perceptions, regression studies confirm

that the indexes measured by FTT have significant correlation with all the
subjective sensations tested.

Based on the preliminary study of Prof. Li et al., it can be summarized that the
measurements by FTT demonstrated better correlations with the subjective touch
sensations than the measurements from other similar instruments such as KES-FB
and PhabrOmeter. More detailed check-up and validation are underway.
Detailed research data per the aforementioned studies are available upon request.
The data cited in the paper are based on the preliminary study of the FTT. More
research studies with the industrial partners are continued.

Application of FTT

With more understanding on how our body perceives sensation stimuli for
comfort, we are able to categorize such stimuli and simulate these with the
corresponding mechanical and thermal test modules in FTT. All such simulation
tests are integrated in a single test in FTT, making it simple to operate. The
powerful software enables the users to easily interpret the test results. Therefore,
the FTT will be an indispensable device for multi-levels of users, from fabric mills
to designers and retailers. Fabric mills can use it to determine the most
appropriate processing conditions for their products; designers can rely on the
FTT to predict the consumer reaction on the comfort of the clothes, and retailers
can have an objective, precise device to facilitate the communication with their
vendors on the comfort parameters of the clothes. Furthermore, since the FTT
test results are parameterized, the comfort communication between all the
related parties can be in electronic format, making on-site (face-to-face)
communication not necessary all the time, saving time and money, and of course,
fewer disputes on comfort.

Summary

The SDL Atlas Fabric Touch Tester (FTT) is an innovative testing equipment that
enables measurement of multiple fabric hand properties in a single test which
takes about 2-3 minutes. Preliminary studies showed the measurements from FTT
have significant correlation with human subjective touch sensations, hence is able
to measure and distinguish fabric touch comfort properties. Good repeatability
and reproducibility of the FTT was also demonstrated during the study of Prof. Li
et al.

This innovative equipment, permits quality control and research and

development laboratories to measure and predict the comfort perception of
fabrics, from product designs, to processing control, and end products for
consumers. The precise, objective measurements make the FTT an excellent
communication device among designers, retailers, and their vendors about
comfort requirements.
References
1/ J.Y, Hu, et al. Fabric Touch Tester: Integrated evaluation of thermal-mechanical
sensory properties of polymeric material, Polymer Testing 25 (2006), 1081-1090,
Elservier
2/ Xiao Liao, et al. A comparison study of measuring fabric smoothness using
KES-FB and PhabrOmeter, Textile Bioengineering and Informatics Symposium
(TBIS) 2012, Binary Information Press
3/ Y.H. Hu, et al. Presentations for the Fabric Touch Tester workshop, Textile
Bioengineering and Informatics Symposium (TBIS) 2012.

$LUZD\'ULYH5RFN+LOO6&‡3KRQH-329-‡)D[-329-2133
Rycobel NV - Nijverheidslaan 47 - 8540 Deerlijk
-*DUPHQW&HQWUH&DVWOH3HDN5RDG.RZORRQ+RQJ.RQJ
Tel.: +32 56 78 21 70 Fax.: +32 56 77 30 40
‡3KRQH-3443- ‡)D[-3443-4999
info@rycobel.be - www.rycobel.com
ZZZVGODWODVFRP ‡LQIR#VGODWODVFRP