An effect of fabrics thickness and structure on moisture management properties of 3D spacer fabrics

Purpose Polyester multifilament is used to produce the face and back layer of warp knitted spacer fabric (WKSF) and these two layers are connected by polyester monofilament as a middle layer. This fabric has unique and extraordinary characteristics, and different possibilities of fabric structure and the middle layer thickness are tried to find out the moisture management properties. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach This study investigates the influence of fabric thickness and structure on moisture management properties. Findings Polyester monofilament quickly up takes the water molecule from the water reservoir and transfers it by capillary action. The gravitational force and the availability space between the two outer surface layers restrict the movement of water molecules, although the pressure develops to push the molecules from the water reservoir. As a result, all the spacer fabric samples attain the equilibrium state very quickly. WKSF and the hexagonal net structure prove to be better in vertical wicking. Originality/value The liquid movement is quick in the front side of the spacer fabric, and the rate of wicking is higher in open structure than in the closed structure. It confirms that the hexagonal net structure produces high pore size on fabric and it reaches maximum wicking values. Fabric thickness does not have much influence on the vertical wicking properties of all fabric samples, and the rate of liquid movement produces a similar trend. In in-plane wicking, the polyester monofilament in the middle layer of spacer fabric plays a major role rather than the outer surface layers of fabric.

Mechanical properties of hollow polyester monofilament: Compression and tension behaviors

Comparative analysis has been performed on the mechanical properties of hollow and solid polyester monofilament with identical external diameter. Tensile test of hollow polyester monofilament was conducted to study the influence of hollow core and the manufacturing method on the tensile fracture mechanism of hollow monofilament. The compressive properties of hollow monofilament were determined to provide a bundle-compression method to study the behavior of hollow polyester monofilament under axial compressive loading and compare with solid one. The results show that the tensile property of the hollow monofilament has smaller breaking force and higher breaking elongation than solid monofilament in case of identical external diameter. Under compression loading, the solid monofilament show better compressive properties than hollow one with identical diameter. The hollow core only affects the values of compressive strain and stress, but it has no effect on the compression and deformation mechanism. The study results also show that the polyester monofilament can show better mechanical properties than the solid polyester monofilament for the same weight. This study can help to design the lighter textile materials with the hollow polyester monofilament.

Comparison of methods for isolation of protozoa from ruminal fluid

Isolation of protozoa from ruminal fluid taken from the same cow on five different days was carried out by three methods based on sedimentaton or on filtration using 10-μm mesh (PMB-10) or 20-μm mesh (PMB-20) polyester monofilament bags. Differences among means for percentage recoveries of protozoal numbers for the three isolation methods were statistically significant (P = 0.007), but those for dry matter and diaminopimelic acid (DAPA) recoveries were not (P > 0.1). The sedimentation method produced the lowest recovery of protozoa as well as the highest recovery of DAPA, which indicated the highest bacterial contamination. Among the filtration-based methods PMB-10 produced higher recoveries of protozoal numbers and dry matter than PMB-20, but with somewhat larger bacterial contamination. Among the three methods compared, filtration with PMB-10 was considered as the most suitable. Key words: Ruminal fluid, protozoal isolation, sedimentation, filtration