Development of High Cotton-Content Fire-Retardant Fabrics for Navy Protective Clothing.

摘要

Research was conducted to develop chambray, and 2/1-twill, work-uniform fabrics that could be adequately treated for fire retardancy and durable press, and still retain acceptable strength properties. Past attempts in combining the two finishes had resulted in a problem of substantial decreases in both the breaking and tearing strengths of 100% cotton fabrics. The problem was particularly acute in the filling direction. In an effect to overcome the problem, fabrics were designed and woven using 100% cotton ring-spun warps and cotton/nylon and cotton/polyester filament-core filling yarns. Fabrics containing various intimate blends of cotton and Kevlar staple in both warp and filling were also produced. The cotton/Kevlar blend provided the best approach to producing combination fire-resistant and durable-press shirting fabrics with acceptable tensile properties. Blend fabrics containing at least one-third Kevlar generally met the requirement of both breaking and tearing strengths. The fabrics produced with filament-core yarns, although they showed improved strength in the filling direction, had significant losses in the warp direction (due to 100% cotton warps) after durable-press finishing, indicating that it would be difficult to design a shirting fabric with this technique that would meet both strength and weight specifications. Cotton, Nylon, Polyester, Kevlar core-yarns, Blends, Chambray, Twill, Fire-resistant, Durable press.