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Evaluates the mechanical properties of 60 different shirting materials: fabric extensibility, formability, shear rigidity, bending rigidity, relaxation shrinkage, and hygral expansion by the adoption of the fabric assurance by simple testing (FAST) system. Investigates manufacturing processes comprising spreading, cutting, sewing, handling, pressing and packaging and correlates the measured properties of the shirting fabric with their actual performance during making up. Claims this overall evaluation of respective fabric performance enables manufacturers to identify the range of mechanical properties ideal for high‐quality shirt production. Adds that specific manufacturing instructions can be prepared, based on the results of fabric property evaluation, for fabrics which tend to present difficulties in production. Points out that these can considerably expedite the manufacture of garments, avoiding the alternative – expensive “trial and error” – solution to problems.

Reports a survey of fabric handle preferences for a range of 50 men’s shirting materials. A total of 199 judges were divided into two panels according to their experience in the textile and clothing industry. Low levels of agreement were found which signify the errors inherent in subjective assessment of fabric handle. The analysis was extended to include fabric assurance by simple testing (FAST) data on the mechanical properties of these fabrics in order to establish whether there was any relationship existing between the judges’ preferences and the fabric mechanical parameters. Highlights shear rigidity, formability and bending rigidity as the most influential properties for the determination of fabric total hand value (THV). Moreover, establishes a validated THV equation to predict fabric handle assessment by using objective data. Demonstrates that the mean of the assessment and a substantial amount of individual subjective handle assessment can be explained by the model.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the personnel attributes perception on reliable and valid health and safety (H&S) practices within small- and medium-sized construction enterprises (SMEs) in South Africa. It explores whether these valid and reliable H&S practices could be implemented based on the demographic attributes, namely, years of experience in the construction industry, number of years working in the current organisation and educational level.

A mixed method approach was used to conduct this research, namely, Delphi and questionnaire survey. A structured questionnaire consisting of 31 H&S practices categorised into five major H&S practices was developed from extensive literature review and the participation of 20 purposive sampled H&S experts. Sixteen H&S experts completed four iterations. A convenient sample of 1,450 SMEs was obtained. In total, 228 questionnaires were returned, of which 216 responses were useable for analysis. The data were analysed using exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis to determine the validity, reliability and acceptability of the H&S practices. Finally, one-way ANOVA and t-test were conducted to determine personnel attributes perception on the implementation of the H&S practices.

The five major H&S practices (constructs), namely, upper management commitment and involvement in H&S, employee involvement and empowerment in H&S, project supervision, project H&S planning and communication in H&S and H&S resources and training, were retained as reliable and valid practices of H&S within construction SMEs at project level. One-way ANOVA established no statistical significant difference on the respondents’ perception of the H&S practices. However, t-test revealed statistically significant difference on the respondents’ perception on, upper management commitment and involvement in H&S and H&S resources and training. The respondents with post-matric qualification strongly agreed that upper management are committed and involved in H&S.

The findings may help construction SMEs to use these H&S practices to manage H&S in their projects. The SMEs may also consider the level of education of their personnel when implementing H&S practices of upper management and H&S resources and training.

This study is to investigate the fire safety of textile and clothing materials. It also assesses the flammability for textiles in general.

With the increase in big fires, accidental or non-accidental, people are worrying about the fire behaviour of combustibles. The flammability of textile and clothing materials is a great concern. Appropriate tests should be developed to assess textile and clothing materials to ensure they are safe in a fire. In fact, textile products should satisfy some fire safety criteria depending on their uses. There are specified flammability requirements on selected products, though whether these are good enough for assessing modern textile materials should be watched.

Typical textile materials with and without fire retardants protection were selected for assessing the fire behaviour with a cone calorimeter. High radiative heat flux up to 70 kWm^‒2 was applied to assess those selected textile materials. A cone calorimeter is suggested to be the minimum requirement, though some full-scale burning tests are necessary for some purposes. Heat release rate and flame spreading measures are proposed in ranking the fire safety of textile materials.

The properties of the spliced strength, bending rigidity and hysteresis of a splice under different splicing conditions have been investigated. The results shown that, the levels of importance for different spliced yam properties are different. However, the length of the yam tails for splicing has the most important effect on the tested spliced yam properties.

Investigation was carried out on how the tensile and related properties of Siro yarns, spun from two separated rovings of different types of materials, were affected by the twist factor and draft. Comparison on Siro yarns and two-fold yarns of the same linear density and twist factor revealed that the former was better in tensile strength and related properties. The Siro yarns are believed to be able to bear extra tension during manufacturing processes such as weaving and knitting.

The purpose of this paper is to theoretically study the effects of ring spinning triangle division on spun yarn torques.

The case that the spinning triangle is divided into two parts, primary triangles and final triangle, is investigated. Theoretical model of yarn torque was given by linking the fiber tension in the spinning triangle to yarn torque under the assumption that the arrangement of fibers (substrands) in the substrands (yarn) is hexagonal close packing. Then, as an application of the proposed method, 14.6tex cotton yarns were taken as an example for the numerical simulations.

The fiber tensions in the divided spinning triangles and corresponding yarn torques were simulated numerically by using MATLAB software. The effects of division proportions and number of primary triangles on spun yarn torques are analyzed theoretically.

It is shown that suitable spinning triangle division is benefit for reducing yarn torque.

The fine gauge plain weft knitted fabrics knitted from cotton Sirospun¹ yarns are more durable and suitable for summer wear. It was found that they have considerable bursting strength, superior abrasion resistance, superior pilling resistance, greater air resistance, cooler hand‐feel and greater thermal conductivity than the fabrics knitted from two‐fold yarns. The plain weft knitted fabric composed of coarser Sirospun¹ yarn is also better in terms of hand‐feel measured by KES instruments.

The conversion of fabric into a garment involves many interactions such as the selection of suitable sewing thread, optimization of sewing parameters, ease of conversion of fabric into the garment and actual performance of the sewn fabric during wear of the garment. The adjustment of all sewing parameters is necessary to ensure quality. The purpose of this paper is to define the parameters that affect seam quality comprehensively.

This study primarily focuses on the studies dealing with the effect of various parameters on-seam quality in detail. A systematic literature review was conducted.

The interactions between parameters may lead to different results than the effect of a single parameter. In addition, changing some parameters may have a positive effect on one element of seam quality while having a negative effect on another. For this reason, it is very important to properly select the parameters according to the specific end use of the garment products and also to consider the interactions.

The knowledge of various factors that affect seam quality will be helpful for manufacturers to improve production performance and to be able to produce high-quality seam.

The appearance of a yarn is one of the most important yarn physical properties no matter it is for normal yarns, fancy yarns or the spliced yarns. As for the spliced yarns, the appearance of the splices will be used as an indicator to indicate whether the splice is acceptable or not for providing the necessary strength for further processing. When splicing the yarns under different splicer and yarn parameters, different spliced yarn appearance will be obtained. The appearance of the splices were then compared with the parent yarns and a grade (1 to 5) was then given to the splice with, 1 equals to Fail and 5 equals to Identical. The results indicated that the yarn linear density and the length of the yarn tails are the most important parameters that affect the appearance of the spliced yarn.