Effect of Biaxial Stretch and Domestic Washing on Air Permeability of Elastic Knitted Fabrics for Sportswear

This paper introduces a non-automatic device to apply biaxial stretch and investigates the effect of biaxial stretch and domestic washing on air permeability of polyamide-elastane knitted fabrics for sportswear. Air permeability of the selected fabrics significantly increased upon biaxial stretch, regardless the fabric type and stretch level (5% or 10%) applied. Generally, air permeability of relaxed fabrics decreased due to slight shrinkage that occurred upon washing, but domestic washing was not found to have a statistical significant influence on air permeability of the selected fabrics. The manual device proposed applies stretch in one or two directions, it is robust and easy to handle, and fabric preparation is quite straightforward. The fabric holder used in this study is particularly suited to the head of the air permeability tester and the level of stretch applied depends on type of fabric.