The comfort, measured by means of a sweating manikin (WalterTM), of clothing containing different fibre combinations: a preliminary investigation

Abstract

With the growing importance of clothing comfort in South African and overseas markets for locally produced clothing, the Council for Scientific Industrial Research (CSIR) acquired an advanced sweating fabric manikin for measuring clothing comfort.  This preliminary investigation covers the comfort related properties, as measured by means of the Sweating Manikin (Walter^TM), of six local clothing ensembles (worsted suit, shirt and underwear) containing different fibre combinations. Although the clothing ensembles, comprising suits with the different fibre combinations, differed somewhat in terms of their comfort related properties, namely thermal resistance, water vapour resistance and moisture permeability index, the differences tended to be neither consistent nor large, and appeared to be related to differences in the fabric structural parameters.  Nevertheless, the ensembles comprising the different underwear, namely cotton or wool/nylon, differed consistently, with the thermal and water vapour resistance generally higher, and moisture permeability index generally lower for the ensembles with the wool/nylon underwear than for those with the cotton underwear.  Further work, covering a wider range of fabrics and fibre types, is in progress to verify the findings of this preliminary study.