In order to rehabilitate fiber cultural properties, which are dyed, it is necessary to analyze dyestuff in fiber cultural properties by a nondestructive method. Thus qualitative analysis of natural dyestuff based on Laser Induced Fluorescence method was carried out in this study. Unknown samples were measured by this system, followed by comparison with the database of dyestuff made from another known standard samples. In addition, to verify the validity of this measurement system, the piling dyed fabric was similarly examined.

In recent years, noise pollution is one of the serious social problems, and many efforts have been paid to the development of efficient sound absorbing material. Normal sound absorbing materials are made of inorganic fibers, and inorganic fiber has difficulty with processing after the disposal. From the viewpoint of environmental protection, therefore, sound absorbing material made of natural fiber is expected. Furthermore, normal sound absorbing materials consist of single-layered structure and the sound absorbing properties have a limit level of frequency. Now, it is expected that the multi-layered structure improve the sound absorbing properties.Under these circumstances, eco-friendly and also high performance sound absorbing material with density graded structure was developed by using wool fibers in this study. As a result, it was cleared here that the density graded structure is good for the sound absorbing performance.

We experimentally discussed the effects of airflow geometries in an air suction gun on the suction characteristics of running yarn. Geometry parameters focused on were 1) compressed-air inflow angle of nozzle, 2) diverging angle of nozzle, 3) throat diameter of de Laval tube, 4) converging angle of de Laval tube and 5) yarn propulsion tube length. As a result, effects of the geometry parameters on the yarn suction force, the mass flow rate of compressed-air and the yarn suction efficiency, which is defined as the yarn suction force divided by the mass flow rate of compressed-air, were made clear and the optimum geometry of an air suction gun was obtained on the basis of the energy efficiency. In addition, the yarn suction force showed two types of time dependency because of different yarn motion on some experimental conditions.

In interlacing process, a multiple filament yarn, which runs in an air jet device called an interlacer, is hit by high-speed air jet and then, tangling parts and opening parts are made alternatively in the yarn axial direction. The yarn called an interlaced yarn is superior in post-processing because of cohesion. It is also made of yarns with different properties for specialty fabric. Almost half a century passed since interlacing process was born. It is almost established in a technical view point but much incomplete academically. This topic surveys the construction of interlaced yarn, measurement methods of yarn characteristics, interlacer characteristics, airflow in interlacers, yarn motion during interlacing process, and so on.

Effect of pile length on the comfortable usage for the powder puff was investigated by both subjective and objective evaluations. Two series of samples varying the pile length from 4 mm to 16 mm were made from the same fiber type and fabric structure for this purpose. Subjects evaluated the degree of “springy”,“soft” and “smooth” sensation of a puff against the skin without using the cosmetic powder. The longer the pile length generated stronger springy feeling. This springy feeling was closely related to the compression energy (WC) obtained by KES-handy compression tester. The preferred pile length was 11 mm and 13 mm when subjects evaluated the overall sensation by the puff without using cosmetic powder. When subjects used these samples with cosmetic powder for their make-up, puff with pile length of 7 mm was most preferred. Long pile length such as 16 mm disturbed for the subject to put powders into their various curved area of face.

Woven fabric consists of two sets of yarn, called the warp and the weft. Warp yarn movements in the process of weaving cloth produce the yarn interlacement pattern. The number of patterns of warp yarn movements and thus the number of possible weave patterns depend on the number of heald frames that the loom is equipped with. If we introduce long-eye healds into a dobby loom, the number of possible weave patterns increases. In this paper, we show that the number of possible weave patterns is roughly doubled when the long-eye healds are introduced.

Woven fabric consists of two sets of yarn, called the warp and the weft. Warp yarn movements in the process of weaving cloth produce the yarn interlacement pattern. The more heald frames a dobby loom is equipped with, the more complicated designs of cloth can be woven. By introducing long-eye healds into a loom, we can reduce the number of heald frames.In this paper, we propose a heuristic algorithm for minimizing, for a given design of cloth, the number of necessary heald frames. First, we show that the number of necessary heald frames equals the Boolean rank of a Boolean matrix associated with the design of cloth. Next, we transform the problem of calculating the Boolean rank to the graph coloring problem and apply a heuristic algorithm for the latter problem. Finally, we experimentally show that there are weave diagrams for which our algorithm decreases the number of required heald frames drastically.

Six kinds of subtropical plant fibers taken from the Hibiscus, Pineapple, Okra, Plantain, Banana and Agave were treated with sodium hydroxide aqueous solution and liquid ammonia using a commercial plant. Cross section of the fibers were observed with microscope. Furthermore, in order to investigate the internal structure, X-ray diffraction measurement was carried out and the crystallinity of the treated fibers was obtained. From the observation of the cross section, it is clear that every fiber forms honey comb structure which consists of several to many cells, and each cell has a void in the cell. The void is comparably larger than that of the cotton lumen, and the void generally became smaller by the NaOH treatment. Furthermore, X-ray diffraction profile was measured for each fiber. Most of the fibers were changed from cellulose I to cellulose II by the NaOH treatment, whereas the fibers unchanged to cellulose III by the NH3 treatment. After the three times NH3 treatment, the cellulose III intensity increased comparably, although the cellulose I remains not a little for all samples. On the other hand, cotton fiber completely changed to the cellulose III structure by the NH3 treatment. Hereafter, it is necessary to investigate the void structure including the effect of lignin and cell-wall as a multicelluar plant fiber.

The general appearance of a yarn is one of the primary qualities affecting its commercial value. The method of grading spun yarns by subjective visual examination has long been recognized as a practical quality assessment tool in yarn manufacturing and fabric forming industries.In this paper, we want to report an objective and quantitative method for grading spun yarn appearance derived from optical yarn diameter measurements. Our study found that quantitative yarn characteristics derived from the optical yarn diameter measurement are determining factors for a human vision system to differentiate a good yarn from a bad one in terms of appearance. These characteristics are the optical yarn diameter, the yarn diameter CV%, thick place size, thin place size, nep size and yarn diameter distribution. We obtained a robust numerical metric (objective discriminatory appearance index) for yarn appearance grade, which is a linear combination of the numerical characteristics derived from the optical yarn diameter data of the USDA graded Ne 20 (29.5 Tex) Grade A, B, C and D yarns described in ASTM D2255-90.

Plastic Optical Fiber (abbreviate POF) is used in the various fields; short range communication, sensor, illuminate exploitation and so on. The fabric is one of the forms in illumination fields, but there are no reports about the lighting properties of POF fabrics. In addition, for the fabric development, it is very important to estimate the optical characteristic in the textile design stage.In this report, the lighting properties of POF fabrics are measured and the new method to estimate the optical properties of POF fabric is suggested.