Property Comparison of Woollen Fabrics with Fusible and Printable Interlinings

Suits produced now are high class with good quality due to advanced manufacturing techniques. Woollen fabrics and interlinings are the major materials for suit manufacture. Using woollen fabric and interlining to produce quality fabric has become an important production process. However traditional fusible interlinings are costly and involve a tedious production process, and they have some drawbacks such as strike through and bubbles. In this study, a printable interlining is proposed which can be used in place of fusible interlining. Screen-printing technique directly prints on the shell fabric and it is named printable interlining which enhances quality and reduces operational cost for garment manufacturers. Fabric quality is generally perceived through fabric hand value. Based on a series of laboratory experiments carried out to investigate total hand value and low-stress mechanical properties, this paper compares the impact of fusible interlining and printable interlining on woollen fabric using the Kawabata Evaluation System. Total hand value and five low-stress mechanical properties, tensile, bending, shearing, surface and compression were obtained. The results prove that printable interlinings can replace fusible interlinings on woollen fabrics and improve the fabric total hand value and bending, shearing and tensile properties. Printable interlining can be widely used in mass suit production with simple control process and it is cost-efficient.