Comparative study on appearance and performance of garments made from low-torque ring, conventional ring and open-end spun yarn fabrics using subjective and objective evaluation methods

Low-torque ring yarn spinning is a modified-ring spinning technology with the false-twisting devices attached on the conventional ring spinning machine. The introduction of the false-twisting operation gives low-torque yarn a new fiber and yarn configuration, and thus causes different characteristics of low-torque yarn fabric from that of conventional ring and rotor yarn fabrics. In this paper, a comparative study has been carried out to evaluate the performance of jeans and trousers produced by low-torque yarns to conventional ring and rotor yarns. The results from the objective measurements of fabric performance indicate that the tensile and tear strength of low-torque ring yarn fabrics in the weft direction is similar to or only slightly lower than that of fabrics using conventional ring yarns with a normal twist level as the weft yarns, but they are much higher than that of the fabrics using rotor yarns. Compared to the fabrics produced from conventional ring and rotor yarns, the low-torque ring yarn fabrics exhibit higher compression energy (WC) and lower mean deviation of friction (MMD) and achieve higher values in fabric Numeri and Fukurami. The subjective evaluation of jeans and trousers through wear trials further confirms that low-torque yarn jeans have significant advantages of a better appearance in jean smoothness, less ‘small snake’ patterns, a more prominent slub effect and better overall quality than the conventional ring and rotor yarn jeans. The low-torque yarn trousers also show better luster, smoothness appearance and overall quality than the conventional ring and rotor yarn trousers.