To improve the comfort of agricultural workers, a T-shirt with a printed active cooling finish was evaluated to determine if it would meet the wash life durability and performance expectations of such an arduous application. Six shirts with a printed phase change material (PCM) finish
and six shirts without (control) were washed 50 times to replicate a typical consumer wash life. Shirts were evaluated for absorbency, dimensional change, colorfastness, crocking, abrasion resistance, soil release, and smoothness retention according to AATCC and ASTM standard test methods.
Testing was conducted before laundering and after 1, 5, 10, 20, 30, 35, 40, 45, and 50 consumer laundry (CL) cycles. Absorbency and dimensional change were significantly influenced by the PCM finish. Results demonstrate the appropriateness of adopting such a finish technology for agricultural
worker clothing applications.