The performance evaluation of the woven wool fabrics treated with shape memory polymers

Abstract

It is a novel and potential field that shape memory polymers (SMPs) were used for finishing woven wool fabrics to develop the shape memory textiles due to their shape memory effects (SMEs). In this paper, a novel evaluation system is initially presented to measure the SMEs on the woven wool fabrics. In this system, the conventional properties such as the smoothness appearance, crease retention and wrinkle recovery of different recovery time were measured. Other than, Taking into account of woven wool garments for easy-care, conditions like the hot air and steaming were introduced to characterize the temperature and steaming sensitivities of the SMPs on the woven wool fabrics. The results show that parameters mentioned above can characterize the effect of SMPs on the woven wool fabric. Compared with that untreated by SMPs, the woven wool fabrics treated by different SMPs present different SMEs.Institute of Textiles and Clothin