An Infra-Red Heating Based Fast Method of Moisture Content Measurement and Its Application to Measure Blend Proportion of Polyester-Viscose Woven Fabrics

Moisture content values of plain woven fabrics of polyester-viscose blended yarns were measured using standard conditioning procedures as well as a new method of preconditioning of samples using infrared heating and subsequent conditioning in a desiccator for a specific conditioning time. The effects of drying time and conditioning time on measured moisture content values were studied and optimization of these parameters were done. Results of the moisture content measurement using these methods show a sufficiently linear relationship between measured moisture content and the proportion of viscose in the fabric samples. The regression analysis showed very high coefficients of determination (above 0.98) in all cases. Regression equations were used to predict the blend proportion of fabric samples from the moisture content data. It was found that even the moisture content values using a shorter conditioning time of 60 minutes and even 10 minutes yielded correct prediction with a maximum error of magnitude less than 3.0 in blend percentage values.