Performance Properties of Plain Knitted Fabrics Made from Open End Recycled Acrylic Yarn with the Effects of Covered and PBT Elastic Yarns

In this research, the performance properties of plain knitted fabrics made from open end recycled and virgin acrylic yarns are comparatively investigated, together with the effects of added covered and PBT elastic yarns. The previous studies about the recycling of textile wastes and their usage were mainly focussed on waste type including cotton fibre. Although acrylic textile wastes constitute one of the most common recycled waste types after cotton wastes, there have been no studies on the usage of this type of waste as a fabric form in the literature. The recycled acrylic yarn is spun from 100 % acrylic fibre wastes subjected to mechanical recycling process of garneting. Covered and PBT elastic yarns are incorporated to give an added value to the recycled acrylic fabrics. The experimental and statistical results reveal that the fibre type (acrylic waste fibre and virgin acrylic fibre) and the elastic yarn state (addition and type) parameters affect all the performance properties of the fabrics significantly. The recycled acrylic fabrics exhibit higher thickness, pilling tendency, abrasion resistance and coursewise extension results and lower bursting strength results than the corresponding virgin acrylic fabrics. As far as the elastic yarn state is considered, it is observed that the fabrics with the covered yarn reveal the highest stitch density, mass, thickness and walewise extension results, followed by the fabrics with the PBT yarn. The highest bursting strength and the lowest pilling tendency results are obtained for the fabrics with the PBT yarn. Addition of the elastic yarn improves the abrasion resistance of the recycled and virgin acrylic fabrics. No statistically significant difference is found between the abrasion results of the recycled acrylic fabrics with the covered yarn and the PBT yarn.