SUBMITTED BY

NIJA.V
09MCD018
2ND MSC.CDF
 The term comfort is defined as “the absence of
unpleasantness or discomfort “or” a neutral state
compared to the more active state of pleasure”.
 There is general agreement that the movement of heat
and water vapour through a garment are probably the
most important factors in clothing comfort.
 clothing comfort can be divided into three groups i.e.
psychological, tactile and thermal comfort.
 Psychological comfort is mainly related to the aesthetic appeal
which includes size, fit, colour, luster, style, fashion compatibility
etc.
 Tactile comfort has a relationship with fabric surface and
mechanical properties.
 Thermal comfort is related to the ability of fabric to maintain the
temperature of skin through transfer of heat and perspiration
generated within the human body.
 Today comfort is considered as a fundamental property
when a textile product is valued.
 The comfort characteristics of fabrics mainly depend on
the structure, types of raw material used, weight, moisture
absorption, heat transmission and skin perception.
 Basically, clothing comfort can be categorised under two
broad components viz. sensorial comfort and non-
sensorial comfort
Sensorial comfort
 Sensorial comfort is a perception of clothing comfort which is sensory
responses of nerves ending to external stimuli including thermal,
pressure, pain etc producing neurophysiologic impulses which are sent to
the brain.

i. Tactile sensations : prickly, tickling, rough, raggy, scratchy, itchy, picky,

staticky

ii. Moisture sensations : clammy, damp, wet, sticky, sultry, nonabsorbent,

clingy

iii. Pressure (body fit) sensations : snug, loose, lightweight, heavy, soft, stiff
iv. Thermal sensations: cold, chill, cool, warm, hot.

These sensations are applicable mainly in summer wear,

sportswear and body-fit garments.

Non-sensorial comfort
 Non-sensorial comfort basically deals with physical
processes which generate the stimuli like heat transfer by
conduction, convection and radiation, moisture transfer by
diffusion, sorption, wicking and evaporation.
 It also includes mechanical interactions in the
form of pressure, friction and dynamic
irregular contact.
 Non-sensorial comfort is not only comprised of
thermal and moisture transmission but also
includes air permeability, water repellency and
water resistance.
Fabric hand

Thermal comfort

Air
permeability

Water vapour
transmission

Water repellency
and water
absorption
FABRIC HAND

 Fabric hand refers to the total sensations experienced

when a fabric is touched or manipulated in the fingers.
 Term "fabric handle" or simply "handle" or "hand" is
also used.
 It is a complex parameter and is related to the fabric properties
such as
 flexibility
 compressibility
 elasticity
 resilience
 density
 surface contour (roughness, smoothness)
 surface friction and thermal character
FABRIC
HANDLE
 Subjective assessment is the traditional method of

describing fabric handle based on the experience and

variable sensitivity of human beings.

 Textiles are touched, squeezed, rubbed or otherwise

handled to obtain information about physical

parameters.
 The subjective assessment can also be described as
a psychological reaction from the sense of touch,
as the tactile sensitivity of people varies according
to age, skin hydration, cultural aspects or gender of
the test person.
 In the clothing industry professional trained
handle experts sort out the fabric qualities.
 Objective assessment has a different primary goal: it is to
predict fabric hand by testing relationships between sensory
reactions and instrumental data.
 KES-F system (Kawabata hand evaluation system for fabrics)

In this fabric objective measurement method scientific

principles are applied to the instrumental measurement and
interpretation of fabric low stress mechanical and surface
properties such as fabric extension, shear, bending,
compression, surface friction and roughness
 Today's most exact devices, the Kawabata Evaluation
System (KES) and the Fabric assurance by simple
Testing (FAST) method, both systems measure similar
parameters using different instrumental methods.
 Additional techniques consist of the ring or slot tester,
which tests are less accurate but faster and cheaper to
handle.
 SiroFAST (Fabric Assurance by Simple Testing)

SiroFAST measures the mechanical and dimensional properties of

fabric that can be used to predict performance in garment
manufacture and the appearance of the garments in wear.
Fabric Properties Related To Handle
  Physical properties (thickness and weight)
 dimensional stability (relaxation shrinkage and hygral expansion);
 mechanical properties (extensibility, bending properties

 
 shear properties and in-lane compression)
 surface properties (compression, friction and surface
irregularity)
 optical properties (luster)
 performance properties (pilling, wrinkling and surface abrasion).
OBJECTIVE MEASUREMENT AND FABRIC AESTHETICS
 Recently, techniques have been developed to measure the
mechanical properties of fabrics and use these
measurements to quantify handle and
 quantitatively predict performance in both garment manufacture
and the appearance of garments.
 mechanical properties are not the only properties that determine
fabric aesthetics. Thermal properties, such as insulation and the
warm-cool touch sensation, also play an important pan to
determining fabric handle.

Instrumentation for Objective Measurement

Haptic Simulation of Fabric Hand

It is now possible to simulate not only rigid objects but also flexible
materials such as fabric and paper.
 Tactile Response

  Based on the sensitivity of the Pacinian and Meissner

corpuscles and Ruffini endings, several researchers
(Peine et al. Johnson and Phillips) have determined
that humans can reliably distinguish, by the tip of their
fingers, two points as close as 0.9 mm and that the rate
of change of the surface undulations (bandwidth) is
around 30 Hz.
Tactile Display Devices
 To give the sensation of contact to the skin, some type of
device is required to translate the force profiles to a system
of actuators.
 These types of devices have come to be known as 'tactile
display'.
 The skin responds to several distributed physical quantities
including high-frequency vibrations, small-scale shape or
pressure distribution and thermal properties.
device called the PHANToM
that uses a pen like probe to
scan a virtual surface and
generate the feel of surface
 The two primary parameters required to generate a virtual
surface are the frequency of the surface profile and the
friction (the drag) of the profile.
 These two data sets are available from KES measurements
of our fabric samples.
 The PHANToM device, as it exists today, is designed for
force feed back applications and does not provide a tactile
feeling
 Apart from PHANToM, the PhilaU Haptic Device is
designed as a combination force feed back and a tactile
display.
 The device consists of a feeler pad at the end of an
articulated arm.
 The feeler pad consists of an array of pins (tactors) with a
horizontal spacing of 0.6 mm and a vertical spacing of 0.3
mm.
 This resolution is adequate to simulate most fabric textures.
 The bandwidth is 10 Hz which again satisfies the
requirement for the simulation of most apparel fabrics.
 The articulated arm joints are equipped with magnetic
brakes that apply a force feed back to the hand holding the
feeler pad assembly.
 The magnetic brakes get their input voltage proportional to
surface friction of the fabric, while the tactor pins follow
the contour. Together, the device provides a virtual fabric
touch and feel.
By using a stylus, people can
perceive fabrics surface roughness,
friction, and softness though not as
precisely as with their bare fingers.
The audio-haptic interface is intended to simulate the
case of "feeling a virtually fixed fabric via a rigid

stylus" by using the PHANToM haptic interface.

 Both the sensorial and non-sensorial fabric comfort
depends on various factors including the type of the
material, method of construction of textile substrate,
feeling of the wearer, impacts due to climatic condition
of the environment and its variation. Comfort can also
be imparted according to the end use of the apparel by
appropriate finishing treatments to the fabric.
 The various applications like PHANToM and the
PhilaU Haptic Device are the efficient tools for fabric
objective measurement in today's world