Abstract:

Pilling is a potentially undesirable property affects touch, handle and appearance of fabrics. Fiber properties, yarn characteristics, fabric construction, dyeing and finishing parameters are factors that affect the pilling tendency.

In this paper the pilling resistance of blended fabrics made from wool fibers of three different microns were blended with polyester fibers of 3 denier, at three blended ratios to produce ply yarns of three counts to be used in warps and wefts to produce three weave structures. The effects of heat setting and singeing speed were studied. 1t was found that the pilling tendency increases with increasing the polyester content. Fine yarns have less pills than the coarse ones. Plain-woven fabrics have less pills than both twill and satin fabrics. The pilling resistance increases with increasing the heat set, and decreases with increasing the singeing speed.

Introduction:

Relationships between the components of the fabrics (e.g., fibers), their construction (yarn structure, weave and design features), their manufacturing parameters (spinning and weaving conditions, dyeing method and finishing processes) and their properties and performance must be quantitatively established. This is why many theoretical and experimental in investigations. ^{(3, 6, 7, 9)} over many decades have focused on the effects of fiber properties, fabric construction and manufacturing parameters on fabric properties and performance. Pilling is still a potentially undesirable property that affects the hand and appearance of polyester wool fabrics.

The pill is a ball of tangled fibers that is held to the fabric surface by several anchor fibers. ^{(1, 2)}This problem became more severe in the 1980_s because of the conversion to higher strength and lower denier polyester in order to utilize high speed spinning equipment. Generally pills are made of fibers entanglements and sometimes contain a polluting nucleus. They are produced by rubbing action against the same fabric or different surface.⁽⁵⁾ For pilling to occur, it is necessary to have fabric using yarn spun from staple fibers and weave structure loose enough to permit fiber migration to the surface. Migration of fiber from yarn to fabrics surface depends upon the fiber properties, the way they are spun, fabric weave structure and its sett, as well as finishing processes.

Sule and Gurndatt⁽¹⁵⁾ have determined the mechanism of pilling which goes through the following four stages:

1. Fuzz formation on fabric surface.
2. Entanglement of fibers in the fuzz with each other.
3. Densification of these entanglements into small balls called pill.
4. Shedding away of pills.

Fuzz formation as a result of constant gentle abrasion. In a garment, it is usually observed near the abrasion area such as near the pocket, collar. ... etc.

Gintis and Mead (4) have determined the fuzz formation tendency of different fibers which is given in table (1) It will be seen that fibers have the lowest tenacity like wool and acetate have the lowest tendency to form fuzz.