Influence of Hygrothermal Treatment on the Stress Relaxation of Clothing Fabrics’ Systems

Abstract

The experimental results of stress relaxation under the conditions of hygrothermal treatment of clothing fabrics and fused
systems (fabric as a main component and fusible interlining) are presented. The hygrothermal treatment of specimens was
carried out while applying three steaming cycle types: when steaming was carried out before the stretching, during
stretching and after it. The stress value Fmax of the system and its component was obtained to be dependent not only on
the specimens‘ stretching degree, but also on the chosen steaming cycle type. The smallest resistance to the stretching
was obtained when the steaming was carried out during the stretching. While applying this type of steaming, the most
specimens’ values of the relaxation indexes I10 and I180 are respectively up to 10 % and up to 20 % bigger than the nonsteamed
specimens‘. This proves the decrease of the stress change intensity after the stretching and very intensive stress
relaxation during the stretching-steaming process. After increasing the stretching degree, the maximum stress value,
residual stress and relaxation intensity of the textile fabrics ant their systems increased, and change of the stress Fmax after
the hygrothermal treatment slightly decreased.