Fuzzy-integrative judgment on the end-use performance of knitted fabrics made with polytrimethylene terephthalate blended yarns

Polytrimethylene terephthalate (PTT) fiber is a new kind of synthetic fiber that has outstanding thermal, chemical, and mechanical properties and has widely been used in leisure wear, underwear, sportswear, and other textile products in the recent years. In this study, five different PTT blended yarns were used for the development of weft knitted fabrics for sweaters, which are traditionally produced with wool and acrylic fiber yarns. Three fuzzy-integrative judgment methods, that is, the fuzzy Borda method, osculating value method, and fuzzy clustering analysis, were used to evaluate the end-use performance of these fabrics. The results have shown that the fuzzy-integrative judgment is an effective way for the evaluation of this kind of fabric product and that the fabrics with the best end-use performance among the five fabrics developed are those knitted with PTT/wool/Tencel and PTT/bamboo blended yarns. These results can be used to help knitting companies for the development of new products using PTT material.