EFFECTS OF ARAMID SEWING YARN TYPE AND FABRIC COMPOSITIONS ON SOME SEAM PROPERTIES OF HIGH PERFORMANCE FIRE RETARDANT FABRICS

High performance fire retardant textiles are utilized in different end-use areas such as workwear, firefighter garments, military textiles etc. These textiles are produced to protect the wearer against harsh environmental/occupational hazards and to bear forces during occupation. In the literature, fire-retardancy and mechanical performance of high performance fire retardant textiles are searched in details. Nevertheless, in most of these studies, samples were in the form of fibres or fabrics. When the fabrics are cut and sewn together to form a textile article, their mechanical properties change along the seam lines. In spite of this fact, seam properties of high performance fire retardant fabrics were not studied in the literature, systematically. Therefore, in this study, some seam properties of high performance fire retardant fabrics were studied as a preliminary work in this subject. According to results, seam strength of all samples were considerably lower when compared to strength of non-sewn reference samples. Strength differences were detected between the samples sewn with meta–aramid sewing yarn and para-aramid sewing yarn. Seam elongation and seam slippage values were similar for both sewing yarn types.