MEASUREMENT OF THE SURFACE PRICKLE OF FABRICS .1. THE EVALUATION OF POTENTIAL OBJECTIVE METHODS

Surface prickle of fabrics can be a factor limiting the use of the coarser types of wool in apparel or upholstery products. An investigation is reported in which, in order to find a method of measuring prickle, a selection of fabrics with a widely differing number and stiffness of protruding fibres was assessed for prickle subjectively and by three potential objective techniques: Low- pressure compression-testing, laser-counting of protruding fibres, and a modified audio-pick-up method. It was found that the audio technique was the most effective of those explored. The mean integrated signal per contact (a parameter measured by the audio technique, indicative of the mean force per contact between a fibre and the stylus) was found to correlate well (r = 0.89) with the subjectively determined relative degree of prickle. © Textile Institute.