Textiles

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 1851 document provides guidelines for firefighters on the care and maintenance of their PPE, including decontamination practices. Firefighters are exposed to various toxic chemicals during fire suppression activities, making effective decontamination crucial for their safety. This study evaluated the efficacy of different washing parameters, including temperature, time, and surfactants, on cleaning outer-shell material contaminated with nine targeted compounds from three different functional groups: phenols, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and phthalates. The study was conducted on both bench-scale and full-scale levels, with contaminated swatches washed in a water shaker bath in the bench-scale evaluation and full-sized washer extractors used in the full-scale evaluation. The results showed that bench-scale washing demonstrated similar trends in contaminant removal to full-scale washing. Importantly, the study highlighted the complexity of removing fireground contaminants from the personal protective ensemble (PPE). The findings of this study have practical implications for the firefighting industry as they provide insight into the effectiveness of different washing parameters for PPE decontamination. Future studies could explore the impact of repeated washing on PPE and investigate the potential for developing more efficient decontamination strategies. Ultimately, the study underscores the importance of ongoing efforts to ensure the safety of firefighters, who face significant occupational hazards. Full article

Natural fibers are increasingly being used to make nonwoven fabrics, substituting synthetic materials for environmental and economic reasons. In this study, a series of needle-punched nonwoven fabrics were made by extracting fibers from coffee husks and blending them with a proportion of spinning waste consisting of cotton fibers and another five different natural fibers. This work investigates the coefficient of sound absorption, thermal conductivity, areal density, thickness, and air permeability. Overall, the sound absorption properties of the produced nonwoven fabric depend on the blend proportion and the number of layers. The results from the fabric containing nettle and banana fibers demonstrate a much-improved sound absorption coefficient. These results have been compared with those of commercially available nonwoven fabrics that are manufactured from polyester and polyurethane foam. The thermal conductivities of the fabrics made with nettle and coir were the highest and lowest, respectively. This is because of the fiber linear density, but all in all, fibers extracted from coffee husks show significantly promising potential for scaling up to replace existing synthetic fibers. Full article

The objective of this work was to evaluate Turkey red oil as a renewable dispersant and leveling option for dyeing polyester knitted fabric with disperse dyes. The dyeing results were evaluated by measuring the color at several positions of the dyed samples to verify the levelness. In addition, the amount of residual dye was evaluated. Migration tests were also carried out to evaluate the leveling effectiveness of Turkey red oil. Wet rubbing and washing fastness analysis, hydrophilicity, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), surface analysis with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and modification of functional groups by FTIR were also carried out. The results obtained in the analyses show that Turkey red oil is efficient as a dispersant and leveling agent when compared to the well-known sodium naphthalene sulfonate. It is concluded that Turkey red oil reduces the time of the dyeing process and consequently its energy consumption, and reduces the amount of effluent generated while improving hydrophilicity and fastness, thus being a renewable and sustainable option for current products based on petroleum. Full article

Textile supply chain challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia–Ukraine war give unique insights into how health crises and geopolitical instability could dry up supplies of vital materials for the smooth functioning of human societies in calamitous times. Coinciding adverse global events or future pandemics could create shortages of traditional face coverings among other vital materials. Reusable face coverings could be a viable relief option in such situations. This review identifies the lack of studies in the existing literature on reusable fabric face coverings available in the market. It focuses on the development, filtration mechanisms, and factors associated with the filtration efficiency of reusable knitted and woven fabric face coverings. The authors identified relevant papers through the Summon database. Keeping the focus on readily available fabrics, this paper encompasses the key aspects of reusable face coverings made of knitted and woven fabrics outlining filtration mechanisms and requirements, development, factors affecting filtration performance, challenges, and outcomes of clinical trials. Filtration mechanisms for reusable face coverings include interception and impaction, diffusion, and electrostatic attraction. Face covering development includes the identification of appropriate constituent fibers, yarn characteristics, and base fabric construction. Factors significantly affecting the filtration performance were electrostatic charge, particle size, porosity, layers, and finishes. Reusable face coverings offer several challenges including moisture management, breathing resistance factors, and balancing filtration with breathability. Efficacy of reusable face coverings in comparison to specialized non reusable masks in clinical trials has also been reviewed and discussed. Finally, the authors identified the use of certain finishes on fabrics as a major challenge to making reusable face coverings more effective and accessible to the public. This paper is expected to provide communities and research stakeholders with access to critical knowledge on the reusability of face coverings and their management during periods of global crisis. Full article

The performance of fiber-reinforced composite materials is significantly influenced by the mechanical properties of the yarns. Predictive simulations of the mechanical response of yarns are, thus, necessary for fiber-reinforced composite materials. This paper developed a novel experiment equipment and approach to characterize the bending behavior of yarns, which was also analyzed by characterization parameters, bending load, bending stiffness, and realistic contact area. Inspired by the digital element approach, an improved modeling methodology with the probability distribution was employed to establish the geometry model of yarns and simulated bending behavior of yarns by defining the crimp strain of fibers in the yarn and the effective elastic modulus of yarns as random variables. The accuracy of the developed model was confirmed by the experimental approach. More bending behavior of yarns, including the twisted and plied yarns, was predicted by numerical simulation. Additionally, models revealed that twist level and number of plies affect yarn bending properties, which need to be adopted as sufficient conditions for the mechanical analysis of fiber-reinforced composite materials. This efficient experiment and modeling method is meaningful to be developed in further virtual weaving research. Full article

Haptic sensing by sliding fingers over a fabric is a common behavior in consumers when wearing garments. Prior studies have found important characteristics that shape the evaluation criteria and influence the preference of consumers regarding fabrics. This study analyzed the tactile perception of selected woven fabrics, with an emphasis on the participants’ individual differences. Individual differences generally are discarded in sensory experiments by averaging them. Small differences among consumers can be important for understanding the factors driving consumer preferences. For this study, 28 participants assessed fabrics with very distinct surface, compression, and heat transferring properties by sliding their index fingers along the surface of the fabric. The participants also engaged in a descriptive sensory analysis. The physical properties of the fabric were measured using the Kawabata Evaluation System for Fabrics (KES-F) system. Moreover, parameters at the finger–fabric interface, such as the contact force, finger speed, and skin vibration, were measured during the assessment. This study used analysis of variance to eliminate nonsignificant attributes. Consonance analysis was performed using principal component analysis (PCA) on the unfolded sensory and interface data matrices. Finally, the physical and interface data were regressed onto sensory data. The results showed that the contact force and finger speed were nonsignificant, while skin vibration was a possible replacement for surface physical properties measured by the Kawabata Evaluation System for Fabrics (KES-F) system with an equal or slightly improved explainability. Full article

The growing global energy demand requires solutions that improve energy efficiency in all sectors. The civil construction sector is responsible for a large part of global energy consumption. In this context, phase change materials (PCMs) can be incorporated into construction materials to improve the energy efficiency of buildings. The purpose of this study was to incorporate a PCM to jute fabric, applying it in civil construction as a reinforcement for cement matrices. In order to do that, a method of immersing jute fabric in liquid phase change material, and then coating it with a polymer, was proposed. Treated jute fabric was then used to produce a laminated composite with a cementitious matrix. Morphological, mechanical and chemical characterization of jute textiles was performed, as well as an analysis of the composites’ mechanical and thermal behavior. The results verified that jute textiles absorbed 102% PCM in weight, which was successfully contained in the capillary porosity of jute. The PCM was able to delay the composite’s temperature increase by up to 24 °C. It was concluded that this method can be used to incorporate PCM to natural textiles, producing composites with thermal energy storage properties. Full article

Stretch fabric provides good formability and does not restrict the movement of the body for increased tension levels. The major expectations of a wearer in an apparel fabric are a high level of mechanical comfort and good aesthetics. The prediction of shrinkage in stretch fabric is a very complex and unexplored topic. There are no existing formulas that can effectively predict the shrinkage of stretch fabrics. The purpose of this paper is to develop a novel model based on an artificial neural network to predict the shrinkage of stretch fabrics. Different stretch fabrics (core-spun lycra yarn) with stretch in the weft direction were manufactured in the industry using a miniature weaving machine. A model was built using an artificial neural network method, including training of the data set, followed by testing of the model on the test data set. The correlation of factors, such as warp count, weft count, greige PPI, greige EPI, and greige width, was established with respect to boil-off width. Full article

For textile-based electronic systems with multiple contacts distributed over a large area, it is very complex to create reliable electrical and mechanical interconnections. In this work, we report for the first time on the use of rotating ultrasonic polymer welding for the continuous integration and interconnection of highly conductive ribbons with textile-integrated conductive tracks. For this purpose, the conductive ribbons are prelaminated on the bottom side with a thermoplastic film, which serves as an adhesion agent to the textile carrier, and another thermoplastic film is laminated on the top side, which serves as an electrical insulation layer. Experimental tests are used to investigate the optimum welding process parameters for each material combination. The interconnects are initially electrically measured and then tested by thermal cycling, moisture aging, buckling and washing tests, followed by electrical and optical analyses. The interconnects obtained are very low ohmic across the materials tested, with resulting contact resistances between 1 and 5 mOhm. Material-dependent results were observed in the reliability tests, with climatic and mechanical tests performing better than the wash tests for all materials. In addition, the development of a heated functional prototype demonstrates a first industrial application. Full article

This study aimed to evaluate the methyl red (MR) removal efficiency from aqueous matrices using an eco-friendly anionic surfactant (a calcium surfactant, or CaSF), obtained from frying oil residue. Data obtained by infrared spectroscopy revealed several functional groups that favor the capture of the dye by chemisorption by forming hydrogen bonds and covalent interactions. The kinetic testing results fit the pseudo-second order model, reaching equilibrium in 30 min. Adsorption was greatly influenced by temperature. The Langmuir isotherm was the one best fitting the process at 20 °C, while the Dubinin–Radushkevich isotherm fitted it better at higher temperatures. Under optimized conditions, the maximal MR adsorption capacity of CaSF reached 53.59 mg·g⁻¹ (a removal rate of 95.15%), proving that the adsorbent at hand can be an excellent alternative for the removal of undesirable levels of MR present in aqueous matrices. Full article

Fruit peels are a rich source of many substances, such as pectin. Extraction of natural thickening agent (pectin) from fruit waste such as (orange and pomegranate peels) is an environmentally friendly alternative to commercial thickeners and is cheap for use in the printing of natural and synthetic fabrics, especially polyester and polyacrylic fabrics. Hexamine was used to treat the extracted pectin to make it appropriate for use in an alkali medium for printing cotton fabric. The results showed that the extracted and modified pectin have good rheological properties as well as bacterial resistance. Pectin is suitable for use in an acidic medium. All the printed samples with pectin and its modified synthetic dyes (reactive, acid, and disperse) exhibited good fastness towards washing and wet and dry rubbing. The light fastness of printed textiles was excellent (7), which is more than using alginate as a thickener (5). In both acidic and alkaline perspiration, the perspiration fastness characteristic revealed 3–4 to 4–5 color differences. Colorfastness to rubbing was tested in both dry and wet conditions, and it was revealed that dry rubbing had the same effect as wet rubbing. Printed textiles using pectin or modified pectin as thickeners exhibit antibacterial activity. Physical and mechanical properties of all printed fabrics such as (tensile strength, elongation, and surface roughness) were enhanced. Full article

This study analyzed what design elements are attractive to consumers of denim fabric products. A questionnaire survey was used to investigate the brands and design elements that consumers prefer. Subsequently, the degree to which participating consumers liked the five design elements (traditional, transformative, pattern, multi-material, and decorative designs), fast fashion brands, and luxury brands were used as explanatory variables to determine the consumers’ willingness to pay. A multiple regression analysis was performed on these variables. The results indicated that consumers who preferred traditional and transformative designs showed a positive effect on their willingness to pay for denim fabric products. Therefore, these elements could be attractive design elements that may command a high price point in new product planning proposals. Moreover, depending on the type of brand preferred by consumers, the impact of design elements on their purchase intention of denim fabric products has different consequences. This study analyzes the design elements preferred by consumers and contributes to the creation of design proposals by designers and apparel firms. Full article

Instead of contributing to global warming by the traditional method—burning crop wastes—in this study, discarded pineapple leaves were rapidly turned into multifunctional fibers: pineapple leaf fibers (PALF). In addition, the presence of pure hydrogen during treatment can be a competitive advantage. PALF were extracted by a conventional technique, then immersed into sodium hydroxide 6% before it was treated with an electrolysis system of sodium chloride 3%. The crystallinity index increased 57.4% of treated PALF, and was collected from XRD. Meanwhile, the removal of hemicellulose and lignin in the fiber formation was presented at the absorbance peak of around 1730 cm⁻¹ by FTIR spectrums. Simultaneously, the purity of hydrogen reached 99% and was confirmed by GC analysis. The obtained PALF and hydrogen can be used for further consideration, aiming for a circular economy. Full article

In carbon-reinforced concrete, the commonly used steel reinforcement is replaced with carbon fiber reinforcement textiles, enabling thin-walled elements by using new construction principles. The high drapability of textiles offers design opportunities for new concrete structures. However, commonly utilized textiles are impregnated with comparatively stiff polymeric materials to ensure load transmission into the textile, limiting drapability. In this paper, a new approach is analyzed: the use of pre-impregnated textiles cured within the concrete matrix. This enables the production of filigree, highly curved components with high mechanical performance, as needed for novel additive manufacturing methods. In the presented trials, rovings were successfully impregnated with potential impregnation materials, cured within the concrete, and compared to rovings cured outside of the concrete. The analysis of the curing process using a rolling ball test determines that all materials have to be placed in concrete 4 to 24 h after impregnation. The results of uniaxial tensile tests on reinforced concrete show that maximum load is increased by up to 87% for rovings cured within concrete (compared to non-impregnated rovings). This load increase was higher for rovings cured outside of concrete (up to 185%), indicating that the concrete environment interferes with the curing process, requiring further analysis and adaptation. Full article

The textile and apparel (fashion) industry has been influenced by developments in societal socio-cultural and economic structures. Due to a change in people’s preferences from economic functionality to supra-functionality beyond economic value, the fashion industry is at the forefront of digitalization. The growing digitalization in the fashion industry corresponds to digital fashion, which can satisfy the rapid shift in consumers’ preferences. This paper explores the evolving con-cept of innovations in digital fashion in the textile and apparel industry. Specifically, it centers on the evaluation of Amazon’s digital fashion initiatives, which have made the platform the United States’ top fashion retailer. An analysis of the business model of Amazon’s digital fashion business showed that with the advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) powered by advanced Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon has introduced novel digital solutions for the fashion industry, such as advanced digital fashions (ADFs), on-demand manufacturing, neo-luxury, and, ultimately, cloud-based digital fashion platforms, that is, a supra-omnichannel, where all stakeholders are integrated, and their activities are visible in real time. This can be attributed to the learning orchestration externality strategy. This study concludes that with the advancement of digital innovations, Amazon has fused a self-propagating function that advances digital solutions. This study shows that Amazon is the largest R&D company. Its R&D process is based on users’ knowledge gained by their participation through AWS-driven ICT tools. This promotes a culture of experimentation in the development of user-driven innovations. Such innovations have further advanced the functionality of AWS in data analysis and business solutions. This dynamism promotes the development of soft innovation resources and revenue streams. These endeavors are demonstrated in a model, and their reliability is validated through an empirical analysis focused on the emergence of ADF solutions. Therefore, based on an analysis of the development trajectories of Amazon’s digital fashion technologies, such as ADFs, on-demand manufacturing, and neo-luxury, insightful suggestions and a framework for solutions beyond e-commerce are provided. Full article

Firefighters are exposed to several potentially carcinogenic fireground contaminants. The current NFPA 1851 washing procedures are less effective in cleaning due to the limited intensity of the washing conditions that are used. The 2020 edition of NFPA 1851 has added limited specialized cleaning for higher efficacy. The liquid carbon dioxide (CO₂) laundering technique has gained popularity in recent years due to its availability to remove contaminants and its eco-friendliness. The primary aim of this study is to address the firefighter questions regarding the efficacy of cleaning with liquid CO₂ and to compare it with the conventional washing technique. The unused turnout jackets were contaminated with a mixture of fireground contaminants. These turnout jackets were cleaned with conventional NFPA 1851-appoved aqueous washing and a commercially available liquid CO₂ method. Post-cleaning samples were analyzed for contamination using pressurized solvent extraction and GC-MS. The liquid CO₂ technique demonstrated considerable improvement in washing efficiency compared to the conventional washing. Full article

Textiles-fibres, yarns and fabrics are omnipresent in our daily lives, with unique mechanical properties that fit the design specifications for the tasks for which they are designed. The development of yarns and fabrics with negative Poisson’s ratio (NPR) is an area of current research interest due to their potential for use in high performance textiles (e.g., military, sports, etc.). The unique braiding technology of interlacement for preparation of braided helically wrapped yarns with NPR effect with later development of auxetic woven fabric made it possible to avoid the slippage of the wrapped component from the core. The applied geometrical configuration and NPR behaviour of the braided helical yarn structure with seven different angles comprising of monofilament elastomeric polyurethane (PU) core with two wrap materials that include multifilament ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fibres were investigated and analysed. The mechanically stable 2D woven textile auxetic fabrics (AF) with various weave patterns such as 2/2 matt and 3/1 twill were developed from the auxetic yarn with PU elastomer core having maximum NPR effect of −1.70 using lower wrapped angle of 9° to study and compare their mechanical responses. The auxetic yarn was used in weft direction and multifilament UHMWPE yarn in warp direction, using semi-automatic loom. Auxeticity of AF was analysed and its various mechanical properties such tensile strength, impact energy absorption, in-plane, and out-of-plane auxeticity, and puncture resistance were studied. Higher energy absorption of 84 Nm for matt fabric was seen compared to twill fabric having an energy of 65 Nm. The puncture resistance capability of matt fabric was better than twill fabric. While twill fabric exhibited better auxetic effect in both in-plane and out-of-plane mode compared to matt fabric. In short, both the twill and matt design AF’s showed unique characteristics which are beneficial in making various protective textiles such as protective helmets, bullet proof shields, cut resistance gloves, blast resistant curtains, and puncture tolerant elastomeric composites. Full article

Textiles have been used in our daily life since antiquity in both economies and social relationships. Nowadays, there has never been a greater desire for intelligent materials. Smart fabric textiles with high-quality and high-performance fiber manufacturing with specific functions represented by clothing and apparel brands (such as astronaut suits that can regulate temperature and control muscle vibrations) are becoming increasingly prominent. Product applications also extend from the field of life clothing to the medical/health, ecology/environmental protection, and military/aerospace fields. In this context, this review proposes to demonstrate the recent advances and challenges regarding smart fabric textiles. The possibilities of innovative smart textiles extending the overall usefulness and functionalities of standard fabrics are immense in the fields of medical devices, fashion, entertainment, and defense, considering sufficient comfort as a parameter necessary for users to accept wearable devices. Smart textile devices require a multidisciplinary approach regarding the circuit design of the development of intelligent textiles, as the knowledge of intelligent materials, microelectronics, and chemistry are integrated with a deep understanding of textile production for optimum results. Full article