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Examines the tenth published year of the ITCRR. Runs the whole gamut of textile innovation, research and testing, some of which investigates hitherto untouched aspects. Subjects discussed include cotton fabric processing, asbestos substitutes, textile adjuncts to cardiovascular surgery, wet textile processes, hand evaluation, nanotechnology, thermoplastic composites, robotic ironing, protective clothing (agricultural and industrial), ecological aspects of fibre properties – to name but a few! There would appear to be no limit to the future potential for textile applications.

This paper investigates the effect of three different treatments, namely (i) sunlight exposures, (ii) bleaching and (iii) perming on the damage of the keratin fibres (with the use of human hair). Scanning electron microscopy was applied to examine the surface morphology of the samples. Hair samples appeared to be rougher and their scales diminished after the treatments. The degree of colour change of samples was measured using a diffuse reflectance spectrophotometer. All three different treatments caused a certain degree of colour change on the samples. Urea bisulphite solubility test was also employed to investigate the alkaline damage of samples.

The results illustrated that the urea bisulphite solubility of samples conformably decreased when they were subject to these three types of treatments. With respect to the tensile strength property, the results indicate that the breaking load of treated samples decreased dramatically after undergoing three different types of treatments. On evaluating the test results, it was concluded that the bleaching process imparted the most severe damages to hair. The results of the different test methods were evaluated and discussed.

This paper provides a picture of using plasma treatment as a means for textile modification. It discusses the different modes for the generation of plasma. As plasma treatment is acting as a surface modification treatment, the paper also addresses the various types of plasmasubstrate interaction and their effects on the substrates. The use of plasma as a finishing application for different textile substrates is another highlight of this study.

In this paper, the optimisation of electroless nickel plating is investigated through the Orthogonal Array Testing Strategy. It was found that the electroless nickel plating process at the deposition stage with various parameters, i.e. temperature = 40°C, time = 20 minutes and pH = 10, is the most effective method in improving the metal adhesion performance. The performance of nickel-plated polyester fabrics was found to be dependent on the amount of nickel particles adhered on the fabric surface. The properties of optimised nickel-plated polyester were enhanced in term of fabric weight, fabric thickness and tensile strength. However, there was a moderate decrease in tearing strength and crocking fastness.

A huge amount of Chinese tea residue forms part of everyday waste. In this paper, one of the daily used Lung Ching tea was selected to perform a series of experiments. A pilot scale of simulating the wasted Lung Ching tea residue was conducted using the fresh tea bought from department stores. Endeavours have been made to find out the optimum extraction conditions including the solvent selection, optimum concentration, temperature and time to extract the dyes from the tea residues. The thermodynamic behaviour of Lung Ching tea dyes such as the standard affinity, enthalpy change, dyeing mechanism, time of half dyeing and activation energy were also taken into account. Furthermore, the shade, depth and colour fastness properties of dyed wool fabric under different dyeing conditions were also investigated. The results showed that water was a good solvent to extract tea dye and the optimum extraction conditions was 100°C at 90 min. Dyeing of wool fabric with tea dye can be carried out at room temperature but the affinity on fabric was relatively low. On the whole, tea dye showed a good result of colour fastness tests except a minute colour change after washing which leaves room for further investigation.

Trials have been performed to assess the practicability of the electroless nickel plating method applied to textile fabrics with various fabric constructions including polyester woven fabrics and polyester meshes. The effect of electroless nickel plating on different polyester fabric constructions had been studied. The results displayed that the nickel could be successfully plated on various fabric structures. In this study, it was found that fabric constructions can influence the appearance of electroless nickel-plated fabrics and generate different metallic effects. Fabric structure is considered to be a very important factor for determining the desired appearances of electroless nickel-plated fabrics. Moreover, electroless nickel plating is able to simulate the metallic effects of hard metal products on non-conductive fabrics with soft handle. Such findings could give inspiration to designers to design fabrics with different brilliant textures.

Low-temperature plasma (LTP) has been increasingly employed for polymer surface modifications. In this paper, plasma gases of oxygen and argon were used for pre-treating polyester fabrics before conducting chemical silver plating, aiming to increase the amount of metal content and improve the performance of the polyester fabrics. After LTP pre-treatment, there was a thin plasma layer generation on the fabric surface which was in good contact with the fibre. Based on the observation of micro-structure using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), it was found that there was an increase in the amount of silver particles deposited on the fibre surface after the LTP pre-treatment. The surface observation implies that the LTP pre-treatment could enhance the hydrophilicity of fibre surface and help facilitate the absorption of silver particle layer to reach the necessary level of uniformity and adhesive strength.

The wool scales present on the fibre surface give rise to certain unwanted effects in textile wet processing, for example, felting and poor wettability. In the past, the removal of scale was done either through physical/chemical degradation of the scales or by deposition of polymer on the scales. In modern treatments, a combination of both methods are usually carried out. Because the deposition of polymer on the fibre surface depends greatly on the surface characteristics of the fibre, therefore, the surface properties of modified fibres are important factors for polymer application. On the other hand, the modified surface may also result in improved wettability of the fibre. The present paper investigated the surface physico-chemical properties of wool fibres subjected to different surface modification treatments.

In this paper, Soxhlet extracted (dichloromethane extracted) wool fibres (21 J..lm diameter) were modified by potassium permanganate / salt treatment, sodium metabisulphite treatment and plasma treatments (oxygen, nitrogen, 25% hydrogen and 750% nitrogen gas mixture). The study of wool fibre surface physico-chemical properties included contact angle measurement with different solvents, critical surface tension, surface free energy and saturated adsorption value. Experimental analysis showed that these properties were imQroved after the surface modification treatments, and the results were calculated quantitatively and discussed.

To better respond to today’s volatile and changing fashion market, the purpose of this paper is to develop a web-based design support system that enables users to design realistic and interesting skirts in the form of technical sketches over the internet.

The proposed system mainly consists of a sketch representation and composing method (SRCM), a graphic user interface (GUI) and a controller. The SRCM is implemented at the server end that generates technical sketches according to user defined parameters and features via the web-based GUI at the client side. The controller manages the workflows between the server and the clients.

To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed system, a survey was conducted by inviting 30 subjects (professional designers or undergraduate students studying fashion design) to have trial run of the system in Hong Kong and in the USA. Positive comments and feedbacks were received, and valuable suggestions were also obtained in regard to the prototype system.

Compared with traditional computer-aided design (CAD) systems, the proposed system is more effective and easier to operate as users can create technical sketches in accurate proportions with simple computer operations in a few mouse clicks. Besides, the output sketches are fully compatible with most commercial CAD software. The system is developed based on web technologies, thus fashion sketches can be easily designed using any computer connected to the internet; it can be implemented on Android or iOS platform in the future.

A systematical review of catalyst was provided in the paper involving the definition, the sort, effect mechanism and the influence factors which followed that the application of catalyst in the textile industry in terms of dyeing, finishing and effluents treatment. Catalyst is defined as a substance that could change the rate of chemical reaction, while it is not consumed in the overall reaction. The changing of the reaction rate by means of catalyst is known as catalysis. Catalyst could assist in either acceleration or deceleration of the reaction rate. In textile processing, especially in textile wet processing such as dyeing and finishing, for example, easy care and durable press finishes, antimicrobial finishes, ultraviolet protection finishes, flame retardant finishes and water repellent finishes, various types of catalysts will be involved for achieving desired effect. However, there is a less discussion and review on the relationship on the effect of catalyst on the final properties of the textile materials. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of the application of catalyst on the textile wet processing and nano-catalyst was also evaluated in the extending to the opportunities and development of textile industry.