MECHANICAL BEHAVIOUR OF SEAMS ON TREATED FABRICS

Abstract The purpose of this work is to find out the performance of seams after successive treatments applied to fabric. Performance of seams is given by their load/elongation behaviour. In this study, woven fabrics are chosen to investigate the effect of their chemical and mechanical finishing process (desizing, scouring, bleaching, dyeing and sueding) on the behaviour of the seams. Three factors have been studied: Treatment, Density (number of stitches per centimeter) and seam direction (weft or warp direction). Two responses are measured: seam elongation at break and seam breaking force. The initial fabrics properties before stitched have an important impact on the behaviour of the seams. This work explains that it is more useful to study the yield point than the rupture point; because for the wear, the elastic phase (recovery) is more important than the plastic phase. Studying yield point of seams explains better the reality limit of use of stitched fabrics. The increase of the number of stitches per centimetre ameliorates the breaking resistance of seam, but not the elongation at break. However the density has small effects on the yield point.