Establishing the Effect of Loop Length on Dimensional Stability of Single Jersey Knitted Fabric made from Cotton/lycra Core Spun Yarn

Munden and earlier workers established that in plain knitted fabrics the fabric dimensional parameters namely Kc, Kw and Ks are constant at dry and wet relaxed state for wool, cotton, orlon and nylon yarns. But in the present study of cotton/lycra core spun yarn single jersey derivative knitted fabrics the values for Kc, Kw and Ks varies with loop length. The ratio of Kc/Kw also varies with loop length. In this paper, Single jersey fabric is produced from Polyester/lycra air-covered yarn with different loop lengths. The study covers about the testing of dimensional properties of the single jersey knitted fabric. After the fabric production, the fabric was dry relaxed. Wales per inch, courses per inch, fabric width, loop length and fabric thickness are all measured. Then the fabric was wet relaxed and tested for the above parameters. Then the samples were heat set at various stretch levels at 180°C. From the study, it was found that the dimension of fabric shows considerable change during wet relaxation. The fabric shows very good appearance when heat set at all stretch levels at 180°C in course direction. The fabric with a loop length of 2.5 mm was found to have better appearance when compared to the fabrics of other loop lengths. In particular 10% stretch level shows a better appearance for 2.5 mm loop length.