Abstract:

Objective People need functional and close-fitting sportswear to enhance the sporting experience in different sports scenes and for individual needs. After sweating, cotton garments are slow to dry, chemical fiber garments are prone to sticky feeling, and single knitting fabrics made of profiled fibers have the problem of sweat return. Therefore, wool yarns and polyester filaments are knitted to develop a series of continuous and self-generated single-side moisture-transported fabrics, aiming for functionality and wearing comfort.
Method In order to prepare the single-sided moisture transported function of the fabrics, 55.5 dtex (24 f) polyester yarns and 55.5 dtex (216 f) superfine polyester yarns, having a big difference in filament linear density, were selected, and two innovative structures with different loop heights and spacings were designed by using the differential capillary effect. On this basis, 192 dtex wool yarns were further introduced and seven fabrics were developed with different wool contents. Because of the differences in loop heights and yarn diameters, the fabric surfaces showed different concave-convex effects.
Results With the increase in wool content, the moisture permeability of the fabric was increased, however, excessive wool content was found to cause hygroscopic expansion of wool, hindering the transfer of moisture and reducing the moisture permeability of the fabric. Wool-free fabrics had good moisture permeability, which was related to the fabric's loose structure and uniform pore distribution. The fabrics blister loop of process Ⅰ were knitted 2 apart from ground yarn loop 2 and the reverse loops were the same size, while process Ⅱ fabrics were knitted 1 apart and the reverse loops were not the same size. Process Ⅱ had a looser structure compared to process Ⅰ, with a uniform distribution of pores on the fabric surface, thus the air permeability of process Ⅱ fabrics was higher than that of process Ⅰ fabrics. Because moisture was absorbed and retained by wool after contacting with the inner layer of the fabric and diffusion to the outer layer was reduced, the moisture conductance of fabrics containing wool on both the front and back sides decreased as the wool content increased. The wool yarns were located in the outer layer, and the inner polyester filaments formed a wetting gradient with the outer wool yarns, which is favorable for moisture conduction. Fabrics with polyester filaments on both the inside and outside had better moisture transportation than other fabrics. The evaporation rates of all fabrics met the standard requirements (>0.18 g/h). Among them, wool-free fabric and fabric with a strip-convex structure dried faster. While the fabric had a higher wool content and a small area of the concave-convex unit, the evaporation rate was low. The horizontal wicking height of all fabrics was greater than the longitudinal one, with excellent moisture transfer capability. Staphylococcus aureus was selected as the test strain and fabrics containing wool yarn without post-treatment were found to be bacteriostatic. According to the above test results, the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation of fabrics was carried out. The results showed that the best overall performance was achieved with the wool-containing fabric with a strip-convex structure in process Ⅰ.
Conclusion Double-knitting structures make it easier to achieve unidirectional moisture transfer. When the ratios of loop height (short front loop to long front loop to long reverse loop) is 1:2:4, the fabric structure is tight and the concave-convex effect is more obvious; when the ratios are 1:2:2 and 1:2:6, the fabric shrinkage decreases and the structure is loose. When knitting ground yarn loops and blister yarn loops in intervals of 1 to 1, the pores of the fabric are more and evenly distributed, which is conducive to the fabric's air and moisture permeability. The addition of wool improves the warmth properties of the fabric. Wool has strong moisture absorption and water retention capacity, in the fabric front and back involved in knitting, with the wool content increases, the fabric's unidirectional moisture conductivity decreases; only engaged in the front side of the knitting with the reverse polyester filament, a wetting gradient is formed, which is conducive to moisture conduction.The wool-containing fabric with a strip-convex structure has the best overall heat and moisture performance, indicating that the fabrics can be made functional and comfortable to wear through a reasonable selection of raw materials and the design of a concave-convex structure.

Key words: weft-knitted double-sided fabric, wool and polyester mixed, structural design, heat and moisture comfort performance