ABRASION RESISTANCE USING SINGLE-FIBER TRANSFER AND OTHER ABRASION TESTERS

A machine has been developed to evaluate the abrasion resistance of textile materials using single-fiber transfer measurements. The general capabilities of the Fiber Transfer Abrasion Tester (FTAT) are discussed and compared to four other abrasion testers. Five woven fabrics were abraded using the five testers. No two testers ranked the abrasion resistance of the fabrics in the same order. Each tester was able to distinguish between fabrics having large structural differences. However, only the FTAT and Accelerotor measurements were significantly affected by small differences in both fiber length and denier. The Accelerotor was affected by length and denier individually whereas the FTAT detected a significant interactive effect between fiber length and denier. Reproducibility of abrasion resistance measurements varied among the testers with the FTAT exhibiting reproducibility intermediate between the other testers.