The Moisture Management Property of Innovative Two-Layered Tricot Warp Knitted Fabric

Tricot warp knitted fabric usually formed plain fabric, mesh fabric, elastic fabric and velvet fabric. For sportswear, the mesh fabric was used to only provide good ventilation. Two-layered knitted fabric combined different materials normally was fabricated by weft knitting technology. Plating structure of single jersey or modified double jersey structure were popularly investigated. It is a challenge to form two-layered tricot warp knitted fabric on single needle bed machine due to its knitting principle. This study developed a moisture management warp knitted tricot fabric with polyester yarn at the outer surface and polypropylene yarn at the inner surface. When compared with normal warp knitted fabric made of polyester, nylon and cotton, the new developed warp knitted fabric had good moisture management property. The moisture management grade reached excellent values. Indexes, such as wetting time, maximum wetted radius, spreading speed, accumulative one-way transport capacity, overall moisture management capacity were at grade 5, while absorption rate was at grade 3.5. It is a new approach to produce the two-layered tricot warp knitted fabric using three needle guides on single needle bar warp knitting machine.