Another day in lab: tests on fabric and pilling test

We received a fabric from the supplier. He told us that it is a fishbone woven fabric made of 100% wool. In these tests, we are going to find out if it is true and we are doing a pilling test as well.

By burning and observing the threads via a microscope we found out that the black weft thread is made of polyester and elastane and the grey wrap thread is made of wool.

When we burned the weft thread we were smelling plastic and the ash went hard afterwards, this indicates polyester. When we burned the wrap thread it was smelling like hair and the ash was granular. Looking through the microscope we found out that the fabric is a 2/1 fishbone twill.

After all, we came to the conclusion that the fabric is a blend made out of 49% wool, 49% polyester and 2% elastane.

The pilling test is accomplished with a machine called the Martindale. We have cut six rounds of the material and mount them on the machine like below picture.

1 piece has run 125 times, 1 piece 500 times and the third piece 2000 times. Afterwards, we checked them with the rest of the fabric, which was not used in the machine and we found out below numbers.

Number of cycles: Grade:

125 4

500 3

2000 1

The fabric did pretty well in the first two rounds but in the last round, it went bad. The supplier also did not tell the truth about the composition of the fabric. So the conclusion is that we are not going to buy this fabric.

We came to the conclusion that our fabric has pros and cons. Here are they:

Pros: The polyester prevent the fabric of a bad pilling tendency and the combination of this two makes is it cheaper than a 100% woollen fabric but at the same time the product which is made of it can be called a woollen garment.

Cons: it is not 100% wool and it can lower your expectation