Protocols For Zippers, Buttons, And Snaps Testing

General properties

- Heavy metals (painted surface: Europe and Germany)

- Lead content (all surface coating)

- Nickel leaching (skin contact only)

- Formaldehyde (zipper, button: children under three years)

Visual testing

- Manufacturing qualities (zipper, snap)

Strength / durability properties

- Appearance after laundering / drycleaning

- Zipper strength                                   - Button and snap strength

- Resistance to corrosion (metal only)    - Impact resistance (button)

- Center strength (button)                      - Ligne size (button)

- Thickness (button)

Discussion on Important Quality requirements

Major markets in the apparel trade can be broadly classified under two groups i.e. US based and non US based. However, the requirements may or may not vary accordingly. General testing requirements of fibre and care labelling in the apparel export market is well defined. In case of fibre labelling, no tolerances exist for products made wholly of one fibre. Such product should be labelled as "100%" or All. But there is a 3% tolerance, by weight, for products composed of more one fibre. In care labelling, dimensional stability in both washing and dry cleaning are important. The shrinkage requirement limit varies from - 3% to 4% and + 3% for warp as well as weft in woven goods and whereas permitted variation in knitted goods is 5% both in course and wales direction as depicted in Figure 1.

Similarly, in dry cleaning, tolerance in woven products varies from 2% to 2.5% for warp and weft and 2.5% to 3% for knits in course and wales direction. Spirality is nothing but twisting of fabric in a garment after laundering. Interchangeably this term is used as torque or skewness. The origin of spirality is from fibre, yarn and fabric construction. Molecules in the fibre tend to go back to the way it was grown or made when distorted. This is called "memory effect" and is predominant in the occurrence of spirality. This phenomenon is crucial in the apparel market for knitted goods. In general. the requirement standard of spirality is 5% irrespective of any market as shown in Figure 3. Apart from dimensional stability, colour fastness to washing and dry cleaning as well as chlorine and non-chlorine bleach are important parameters to verify or establish care label. Non-chlorine bleach test requirement as rating four is only employed for US care labelling recommendation. For all the above cases, the rating varies from three to four in general. Garment appearance after washing and dry cleaning is visually judged for shape distortion and colour change in garment trade. Wash and wear test is applicable on the durable press garment which is accepted as 3.5 g for apparels destined to any major market.

According to the general testing requirements of flammability for major apparel markets, wearing apparel before export to the USA must meet the requirements as mandated by the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission i.e. 16 CFR 1610. Under this Code of Federal Regulation, fabric must meet Class 1-normal flammability requirement standard with no unusual burning characteristics. In case of Canada and Sweden, time of flame spread in the apparel varies from 3.5 sec to 5 sec depending on the fabric characteristics. The code of regulations established for childrens sleepwear is more stringent than general wearing apparel. In case of USA zone, the general requirements as mandated by the United States Consumer product Safety Commission (16 CFR 1615/1616) are to be satisfied. However, performance requirement for the export to Australia is regulated by a different standard i.e. AS 1249: 1990. In case of nightwear, no special regulation is there for US based market except 16 CFR 1615/1616. But for the UK market, The Nightwear (Safety) Regulations 1985 is applicable for baby garments, children's and adult nightwear.