Study on structure and tensile properties of double knit fabrics made of yarns of different raw material compositions and by spinning processes using the same knitting parameters

Abstract

More and more yarns are produced to replace or complement classic cotton yarns made by the ring spinning technique. Single cotton yarns in the yarn count range 14 to 25 tex are often used to manufacture underwear, whereas ply yarns in the count range 10 tex x 2 to 17 tex x 2 are also used to manufacture lightweight outerwear. For the purposes of this study five 20 tex yarns were made to manufacture weft knitted fabrics for the production of various lightweight garments, generally with fabric mass per unit area 120 to 200 g/m2. Ring-, rotor and air-jet spinning machines were used to make viscose, Lyocell, modal and micro modal yarns. The mentioned yarns, one SIRO-yarn and one cotton yarn were used to make seven samples of plain double knit fabrics on a double bed circular knitting machine with a machine gauge of E17 and a needle bar diameter of 200 mm (8 inches). The knitted fabrics were finished. The research results revealed differences in the structure parameters and tensile properties of unfinished and finished knitted fabrics caused by the specific structures and characteristics of the yarns made by various spinning methods and techniques.