The Effect of Fibre Blend on Comfort Characteristics of Elastic Knitted Fabrics Used for Pressure Garments

摘要

Comfort characteristics of pressure garments are very important issue as these garments are recommended to wear for 23 h a day to recover from venous problem, scar maturation, orthopedic problems, post surgery, post pregnancy and many other problems. The patients mostly stop using such kind of medical devices because of itching, perspiration and other comfort relate problems. Mostly nylon, polyester and cotton fibres are used in the fabrics. Nylon, polyester are used for strength whereas cotton is used for good comfort related properties. It may be possible to get some certain type of strength and comfort property together by using both types of fibre. Less information is available in this aspect. In this paper, fabric samples were prepared in knit construction by varying the nylon and cotton blend percentage. Comfort properties in terms of air permeability, thermal property, water vapor permeability, surface friction behavior and wicking properties have been studied extensively. The results showed that, the fibre blend percentage did not have any influence on pressure generation. Air permeability and thermal properties were also not affected. However, water vapor permeability and wicking behavior vary significantly. Increase in nylon percentage increases both the water vapor permeability and wicking. It can be thus concluded that, manufacturers can choose fibre blend percentage according to the requirement.