• A •
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Abrasion Resistance: The ability of fabric to resist wear
when repeated rubbing against another surface. Pilling is a by-product
of abrasion and pilling resistance depends on the construction and
the type of the fiber used.
Absorbency: The ability of a fabric to take in moisture.
Absorbency is a very important property, which affects many other
characteristics such as skin comfort, static build-up, shrinkage,
stain removal, water resistance and wrinkle recovery.
Activewear: Garments designed in order to provide properties
such as comfort, support, insulation and abrasion resistance
required for exercise or sport activities.
Air Covering: Bringing together two or more yarns of different
properties (one of them can be elasthane for example) in an air jet,
which inserts entanglement points or nodes that hold the yarn together.
(POLY-tera)
Air Jet Texturising: Texturising of continuous filament yarns
by overfeeding into a high-pressure jet of air, to create a looped
and more natural appearance yarn. The filaments become entangled and
form a yarn with high bulk and a soft surface. Can be used to combine
two or more ends of different filaments or multiple ends of the same
filaments to make a single end of yarn.
(POLY-air)
Air Permeability: The ability of a material to allow air to
pass through its structure.
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• B •
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Barré: An imperfection, characterized by a ridge or mark running
in the crosswise or lengthwise directions of the fabric. Can be caused
by tension variations in the knitting process, poor quality yarns or
problems during the finishing process.
Breaking Strength: The maximum load that a fabric could hold until
it breaks in a tensile test.
Breathability: The ability of a fabric or membrane to permit air
vapor passage through its structure thus allowing for example sweat
vapors to escape from the inside of the fabric.
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• C •
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Cationic: A type of dye used on modified polyester or modified
nylon yarn and also on acrylic. Often used to achieve cross-dyed effects.
Cationic dyeable yarn can be used in a pattern with regular yarn in the
same fabric. The pattern becomes visible by dyeing the fabric in 2 baths,
one for each of the types of yarn. When cationic fiber is fixed with
conventional fiber, various multicolors and cross-dye effects can be
achieved from a single dye bath.
(POLY-tricolor)
Colorfullness: A dyed fabric's ability to withstand fading or
bleeding due to washing, exposure to sunlight and other environmental
conditions. Depends on the type of fiber, dye and treatment used to set
the color.
Continuous Filament Yarn: A yarn composed of one or more filaments
that run essentially the whole length of the yarn. Yarns of one or more
filaments are usually referred to as monofilament or multifilament
respectively.
Count: The size or the number of a yarn, based on the relation
between length and weight of the yarn in question. Based on either the
number of fixed lengths per standard weight or on the number of fixed
weights per standard length.
(Yarn Count Converter)
Crease-resistance: A term used to indicate resistance to and/or
recovery from, creasing of a textile material during use.
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• D •
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Decitex: A system of measuring the weight of a continuous
filament fiber used to express the yield or thickness, equal to
the weight in grams of 10,000 meters of yarn. Higher the decitex,
the thicker/heavier the yarn.
(Yarn Count Converter)
Denier: In the United States, this measurement is used.
Numerically, a denier is the equivalent to the weight in grams
of 9,000 meters of continuous filament fiber. The lower the number,
the finer the fiber.
(Yarn Count Converter)
Detorque: Yarn with very low tendency to twist round itself
(very low snarling), particularly produced for Raschel knitting.
Dpf: The weight of each filament in a yarn. Expressed as denier
per filament
Drape: A fabric's ability to fold, hang and move about on a
surface.
Dullness: The dullness of a man made fibers depends on the
manufacturing process and also very importantly on the amount of
titanium dioxide in the fiber. The more titanium dioxide, duller the
yarn. Most standard polyester yarns are semi-dull but there are also
modified ones.
(POLY-mats,
Tactel,
Meryl)
Durability: The ability of a fabric to resist wear through
continual use.
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• E •
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Elasthane: A manufactured elastomeric fiber that can be
repeatedly stretched over 500% without breaking and will still
recover to its original length.
(POLY-tera)
Elastic Recovery: The ability of a fiber or fabric to
return to its original length, shape or size after the removal
of stress.
(POLY-tera)
Embroidery: Decoration of a fabric or garment in which
colored or ecru yarns are stitched on to the fabric to create a
design. Embroidery may be done either by hand or machine.
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• F •
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False Twist Texturising: A type of texturising. Partially
orientated yarn (POY) is first twisted in one direction and then
untwisted by thermal and mechanical means. This enables the production
of yarn with a high bulk/stretch potential, which can also be
controlled.
Fiber: Any tough substance, natural or man-made, composed
of thread-like tissue capable of being made into yarn.
Filament: A manufactured fiber of indefinite length (continuous)
that make up a yarn, extruded from the spinneret during the fiber
production process.
Flame Retardant: A chemical applied to a fabric or incorporated
into the fiber at the time of production, which significantly reduces
a fabric's flammability.
Flat Yarn (FDY): Non-textured, flat, not bulky and slippery
continuous filament yarn.
(POLY-tristar)
FT: Continuous filament yarn produced with the false twist
texturising technique where the yarn is not set but bulky.
FTF: Continuous filament yarn whose texture has been fixed and
set during the false twist texturising process.
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• H •
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High Count: Continuous filament yarns that have a dpf between
1.0 and 2.0 deniers.
(POLY-set)
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• I •
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Intermingled (IMG)/ Interlaced (INT): In order to improve runability
of the yarn closed points can be made which hold the filaments together.
IMG yarns have high amount of strong intermingling points particularly
used for warp in weaving, but also used in weft and knitting. INT yarns
have low number of weak intermingled points and are particularly used
in knitting and weft in weaving.
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• K •
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Knit-de-knit (KDK): A type of yarn texturising in which a crimped yarn
is made by knitting the yarn into a fabric and then heat setting the
fabric. The yarn is then unraveled from the fabric and the shape of the
knitted stitch remains in the yarn.
(POLY-tristar)
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• M •
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Mechanic Stretch: Yarn with some amount of stretch due to the
altering of the physical properties during the manufacturing process.
(POLY-tera)
Melange: Yarns made by combining two different colored yarns
during texturising.
(POLY-tricolor)
Microfibers: The name given to ultra-fine manufactured fibers and
the name given to the technology of developing these fibers. Microfibers
have a dpf of less than 1.0 denier and provide a superior hand, a gentle
drape and incredible softness. Comparatively, microfibers are two times
finer than silk, three times finer than cotton, eight times finer than wool
and one hundred times finer than a human hair. Fabrics of microfibers can
be woven to provide a degree of breathability, wind and water resistance.
Can be used in performance outerwear and are often laminated to
waterproof/breathable fabrics or treated with waterproof/breathable
coatings. Currently, the types of microfibers being produced are polyester
microfibers
(POLY-micro,
MICRO-next),
nylon microfibers
(Tactel,
Meryl),
acrylic microfibers, and rayon microfibers. The characteristics can
be summarized as
- Very fine (less than 1.0 dpf), finer than the most delicate silk
- Drapes well
- Very soft, luxurious hand
- Washable, dry cleanable
- Strong and durable
- Highly crease resistant
- Good insulation against wind, rain and cold
End uses include Apparel (hosiery, blouses, dresses, sportswear, ties,
scarves, menswear, intimate apparel, activewear, swimwear, outerwear,
rainwear) and Home Fashions (curtains, upholstery, sheets, towels, blankets).
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• N •
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Nylon: Generic term for fiber made from synthetic polyamides
extracted from coal and oil. Produced in 1938, the first completely
synthetic fiber developed. Known for its high strength and excellent
resilience, nylon has superior abrasion resistance and high flexibility
(Tactel,
Meryl).
The characteristics can be summarized as
- Lightweight
- High strength
- Good drape
- Abrasion resistant
- Easy care
- Shrinkage and wrinkle resistant
- Crease resistant
- Fast drying, low moisture absorbency
- Poor resistance to continuous sunlight
End uses include Apparel (swimwear, activewear, intimate apparel, hosiery,
blouses, dresses, sportswear, pants, jackets, skirts, raincoats, ski and
snow apparel, windcoats, childrenswear), Home Fashions (carpets, rugs,
curtains, upholstery, bedspreads) and other such as luggage, back packets,
life vests, umbrellas, sleeping bags and tents.
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• P •
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PBT: Polybutylene terephthalate is a texturised polyester filament
yarn with properties of stretch and elasticity. PBT has higher stretch
and recovery compared to standard polyester types and this property is
also improved by special texturing conditions. The exceptional stretch
and recovery of PBT are achieved through high elastic shrinkage in
finishing processes. The amount of stretch depends on the amount of PBT
used and the fabric construction. PBT is also resistant to alkalis, salt
water and chlorinated water.
(POLY-tera)
Pilling Resistance: The ability of a fabric to resist the formation
of pills on the fabric surface due to abrasion.
Polyester: A manufactured fiber introduced in the early 1950s. Of
all the manufactured fibers, polyester is the most used and is second only
to cotton in worldwide use. Polyester has high strength (although somewhat
lower than nylon), excellent resiliency and high abrasion resistance.
Low absorbency allows the fiber to dry quickly
(PRODUCTS).
The characteristics can be summarized as
- Strong
- Crisp, soft hand
- Stretch and shrinkage resistant
- Washable or dry-cleanable
- Fast drying
- Resilient, wrinkle resistant, excellent crease retention (if heat set)
- Abrasion resistant
- Resistant to most chemicals
Major end uses include essentially every form of clothing (dresses,
blouses, jackets, sportswear, suits, shirts, pants, rainwear, lingerie,
childrenswear) and Home Fashions (curtains, draperies, fiber fill,
upholstery, bedding).
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• S •
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Shrinkage: Widthwise or lengthwise contraction of a fiber, yarn
or fabric, usually after wetting and redrying or on exposure to high
temperature.
Slub yarn: Any part of yarn that is irregular in diameter. The
irregularity may be done in purpose for an effect on the yarn.
(POLY-air)
Snarling: Tendency of a yarn to twist round itself if held with
insufficient tension.
Spin Dyeing: Coloring the yarn during the spinning process.
(POLY-tricolor,
POLY-tristar,
POLY-set)
Spinneret: A metal nozzle type device with very fine holes used in
the spinning process of manufactured fibers. The spinning solution is forced
or extruded through the small holes to form continuous filament fibers.
The holes in the spinneret can vary in diameter and in shape to produce
fibers of various deniers and properties .
Spun Yarn: A yarn made by twisting these short staple fibers together
to form a single yarn. Natural yarns like cotton and wool, synthetic staple
yarns and blends of these two, are examples of spun yarns.
Staple Fibers: Short fibers, typically ranging from 1.25 cm. up to
45 cm. long. Fibers like wool, cotton and flax exist only as staple fibers.
Manufactured staple fibers are cut to a specific length from the continuous
filament fiber.
Super Bright: Yarns made of raw material that has low amount of
titanium dioxide.
(POLY-tristar)
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• T •
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Tenacity: The strength of a yarn based on its denier, which
directly influences the tear strength of a fabric.
Texturising: Man-made filament yarns, which have been treated by,
heat and/or mechanical action to imitate the appearance and properties
of natural fiber yarns. With this technique continuous synthetic filaments
are changed into more open voluminous structures to extend the use of
manufactured fibers.
Trilobal: Yarns produced with a cross section of a triangular
shape in order to improve brightness and light reflection of the fabric.
(POLY-tristar)
Twist: A term that applies to the number of turns and the direction
that yarns are turned during the manufacturing process. The yarn twist brings
the fibers close together and makes them compact. It helps the fibers stick to
one another, increasing yarn strength. The direction and amount of yarn twist
helps determine appearance, performance and durability of both the yarns and
the subsequent fabric or textile product. Yarns may be twisted to the right
(S twist) or to the left (Z twist). Twist is generally expressed as turns
per meter (tpm).
(POLY-set)
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• W •
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Warp Knit: A type of knitted fabric construction in which the yarns
are formed into stitches in a lengthwise manner. Warp knits are generally
less elastic than weft knits. Common examples of warp knits are tricot
knits and Raschel knits.
Water Resistant: Used to describe fabrics that initially repel
water under low impact, but eventually get soaked. This is achieved
through dense construction or coating. Most nylon, microfiber, and other
shell fabrics are water resistant, but not waterproof.
Weft Knit: A type of knitted fabric in which yarns are formed into
stitches in widthwise manner. Common examples of weft knits are circular
knits and flat knits.
Woven Fabric: Fabrics composed of two sets of yarns. One set of
yarns, the warp, runs along the length of the fabric. The other set of
yarns, the fill or weft, is perpendicular to the warp. Woven fabrics are
held together by weaving the warp and the fill yarns over and under each
other.
Wrinkle Recovery: The ability of a fabric to bounce back after it
has been twisted, wrinkled or distorted in anyway.
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