Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
1515/aut-2018-0042 © AUTEX
1
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Institute of Machine Tools and Production Engineering, Lodz University of Technology, Lodz, Poland
2
Faculty of Material Technologies and Textile Design, Institute of Architecture of Textiles, Lodz University of Technology, Lodz, Poland
Abstract:
Seersucker woven fabrics are increasingly used in the textile industry. Unfortunately, their popularity is limited due
to the lack of standards and parameterization of their structure. Thus, the designer of the finished product (clothing,
bedding, or decorative items) has problems with ordering a fabric with a specific structure and properties. In this
context, it is necessary to parameterize them. This paper presents a method for measuring the surface geometry
of seersucker woven fabrics using laser techniques. The surface geometry of the seersucker woven fabric was
determined using adapted roughness parameters, such as Wz, Ra, and Rz, as well as by using a hypsometric map.
Keywords:
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and textile. Among others, the authors stated that in the case
of absolute resolution, the Talysurf system was five times
worse than the LEXT confocal microscope. Nevertheless, the
final resolution of this system was sufficient for the purpose
of the investigations. It was also stated that the results from
the Talysurf were affected by flexibility and less by reflectance
of textiles [13]. Mooneghi et al. [14] analyzed the different
methods of evaluating the surface roughness of textile fabrics.
On the basis of literature review, they listed the advantages
and disadvantages of 17 different methods. Additionally, the
authors defined some important parameters characterizing
the surface of textile materials, such as woven, knitted, and
nonwoven fabrics.
Matusiak and Fracczak [15] used laser scanning to determine Figure 1. Picture of the seersucker fabric analyzed in the experiment.
Table 1. Basic structural parameters of the investigated seersucker
the surface characteristics of seersucker woven fabrics. They woven fabrics
analyzed seersucker fabrics with the seersucker effect in both
warp and weft directions. The authors stated that in the case Value
of the seersucker woven fabrics, the surface measurement Parameter Unit
Sample 1
should contain at least one full repeat of the seersucker effect
in the warp direction and one full repeat of weave in the weft Warp I – 20 tex × 2 cotton
direction [15]. They elaborated a preliminary proposal of a
Warp II – 20 tex × 2 cotton
measurement method for assessment of the surface geometry
of seersucker woven fabrics using laser scanning [15–17]. In Weft – 20 tex × 2 cotton
this method, a laser scanner was used to generate the scanned
Weave–warp I – Plain
point cloud representing the fabric surface and to transform the
point cloud into the fabric surface simulation. In the next step Weave–warp II – Rib 2/2
of the proposed method, straight lines were projected onto the
Warp density cm –1
25.2
simulated seersucker surface in the warp and weft directions.
In this way, curves reflecting the topography of the seersucker Weft density cm–1 22.9
fabrics were obtained. Then, the curves containing information
about the shape of the fabric surface were established in order 2.2. Method used
to determine the parameter Wz. This measurement method is
affected by errors caused by the successive steps of surface In the new method, the manner of fabric scanning was
processing and the generation of the curve showing the outline modified. First, the fabric was spread on a flat table, smoothing
of the surface of the seersucker fabric. Another disadvantage of it slightly, and then pressed on the edges with two elements
this method is its time consumption, as most of the operations that were positioned along the weft and the warp (Figure 2).
are performed manually. Therefore, we decided to improve Then, the ends of the specimen were blocked with magnetic
this method by accelerating the parametric assessment of the holders in order to avoid an accidental displacement of the
fabric’s geometry. fabric. It should be mentioned here that in the case of the
elastic fabrics, the fabrics should be subjected to certain
amount of pre-tension. But in the present work, the fabrics
2. Experimental were nonelastic. Their dimensions were stable. Due to this fact,
blocking the fabrics’ edges by magnetic holders was sufficient
The aim of the presented work was to elaborate a modified to obtain correct results, because the elasticity effect did not
method for the assessment of the surface geometry of occur. The fabric prepared in such a way was scanned using a
seersucker woven fabrics using 3D laser scanning. The scanning set consisting of the “CimCore Infinity 2” measuring
elaborated procedure was applied for determination of the arm with the ScanWorks v4i scanning head. The measurement
geometrical parameters of the seersucker woven fabric made was performed under standard laboratory conditions. The
of cotton. measuring stand is shown in Figure 2.
2.1. Material The scanning was performed at 30 Hz frequency, and 100% of
the points projected onto the surface of the scanned fabric were
In order to elaborate the modified method for assessment of the recorded. Optimal scanning parameters were obtained using
surface parameters of the seersucker woven fabric, the cotton the “autoexopsure” function. The acquisition of points from the
fabric was subjected to a predetermined share of puckered fabric was carried out in a repeated manner, by collecting points
strips in the warp direction (Figure 1). twice in two mutually perpendicular directions (in the directions
of the warp and the weft). Furthermore, attention was paid to
The basic parameters of the seersucker woven fabric applied possible problems related to determining the position of the
in the present work are shown in Table 1. fabric on the table and eliminating any discontinuities in the
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obtained point clouds (by additional scanning of the fabric at outliers” (the function search for the most mismatched points
selected locations). in the point cloud). The sensitivity value for these functions was
set at 66.67%. Next, the maximum distance between the points
The exemplary raw data of the scanned fabric are shown in was estimated, which was 0.18 mm for the selected fabric; the
Figure 3a. Then, the scans were processed using the GeoMagic average distance between the points was 0.042 mm and the
software. All the scans were combined into one point cloud with standard deviation was 0.03 mm. Based on these data, it was
about 7 million points. The surfaces of the positioning elements decided that the threshold to cut off noisy points (this is the
and the table were used for creation of planes that were next minimum distance that a given point has from the other points
applied to determine the coordinate system associated with at which the point is considered to be not matching with the
the scanned fabric. The coordinate system was determined in point cloud) will be 0.05 mm.
such a way that the Z-axis coincided with the thickness of the
seersucker fabric (puckered elements), the Y-axis coincided In this way, the number of points was reduced to around 2
with the direction of the weft, while the X-axis coincided with the million. It should be emphasized that when comparing point
direction of the warp. Then, all points that were not related to clouds from before analysis and after analysis, the noise
the fabric were rejected. The effect of this process is shown in between the data points was determined at the level of ±
Figure 3b. In further stages of data processing, tools were used 0.05 mm.
to eliminate points of high noise and to delete unnecessary
points. The point cloud obtained in the described manner was
imported into the MATLAB R2017 software, using which the
In order to limit the number of points and improve the quality topography of the fabric was analyzed. In order to speed up
of the scanned point cloud, the following GeoMagic functions the calculations, the total point cloud was additionally cut to the
were used: “select disconnected components” and “select dimensions shown in Figure 4a.
Figure 2. Scanning stand for the seersucker fabrics: a) general view; b) Figure 4. Scanned fabric: a) scanning range 80 mm along the weft and
scanning process. 200 mm (from 30 to 230 mm) toward the warp; b) selected fragment
with side lengths 50 mm × 50 mm.
a) b)
Figure 3. A cloud of scanned fabric points: a) raw data; b) scan of fabric after data processing.
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in such a way that in the weft direction, the analyzed fabric Similar analysis was also carried out using the MATLAB
sample starts from the beginning of the puckered stripe and, software. However, instead of the generated lines, the point
in the warp direction, at the beginning of the full repeat of the cloud obtained from scanning was used to analyze in this
seersucker effect (Figure 4a). Determination of the beginning stage of the investigations. From this point cloud, strips with a
of the measurement sample in the warp direction is purely width of about 0.1 mm were cut (Figure 5) in such a way that
subjective, because in the discussed seersucker fabric, it is the distance between the beginning edges of two consecutive
very difficult to determine the beginning point of the wave of strips was 1 mm. Each strip was divided into five measurement
the seersucker effect. The puckered places of the fabric along ranges. Then, for each of these strips, the measurement points,
the puckered strips are distributed randomly and unevenly namely, the highest and the lowest in a given measurement
(Figure 1). range, were found. In this way, the value of the Wz parameter
for the points lying along one narrow (0.1 mm width) strip was
For the presented example, the testing sample begins around calculated using Equation (1).
75 mm toward the warp and around 10 mm in the weft direction.
Figure 4b shows the selected fragment of the scanned fabric that
has been subjected to geometrical analysis. In the presented 3. Results and discussion
fragment, the individual scanning lines are clearly visible in the
directions of both the warp and the weft. It can also be seen The results of the calculations are presented in Figure 6. The
that practically the entire surface is covered with measurement average value of Wz for all strips in the direction of the weft was
points (in total, the point cloud of this fragment consists of Wz weft = 0.56 mm, while in the warp direction, Wz warp = 0.68; the
296,848 measurement points), except for some fragments average value for all lines was Wz average = 0.64 mm.
found on rising or falling surfaces that form the bumps. This is
due to the fact that the laser scanner was perpendicular to the The other parameters for this fabric are described as follows:
fabric and, when a surface with a large angle of inclination was
scanned, much less laser rays fell on it. Ra – it is the average value of height of all points in relation to
the fabric thickness:
To evaluate the parametric geometry of the seersucker fabric, 1 n
the Wz parameter proposed by Matusiak and Frącczak [15] was Ra = ∑ z − zn
n i =1
, (2)
used. It was determined on the basis of the difference between
the highest peak and the deepest valley in a given measurement where
range and is expressed by means of the following relationship: 1 n
∑ (H
5
max − H min ) z= ∑ zn
n i =1
, (3)
Wz = i =1
(1)
5
where
a) b)
Figure 5. Narrow strips cut from a point cloud to analyze the Wz parameter: a) along the warp; b) along the weft.
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where zn is the height of a given measurement point. For the variability was smaller and ranged from 0.45 mm to 0.76 mm,
analyzed sample, Ra = 0.32 mm. with an average value of 0.56 mm. The average value of the Wz
parameter for the whole fabric was 0.64 mm.
Wmin, Wmax – the minimum and maximum heights of the fabric.
The point cloud representing the fabric scan was set in such a As we can see, the parameter showed high variability depending
way that the lowest scanned point had a value of zero; thus, on the direction in which it was measured (Figure 6). In the
Wmin = 0, while Wmax = 2.35 mm. warp direction, it resembles a sinusoidal shape. This is due to
the fact that the full seersucker effect repeat consists of one
The next stage of the analysis was to check the quantitative puckered strip and one flat strip. The values of the Wz parameter
allocation of points to the individual height ranges of the for both kinds of strips are different. This was also stated in
seersucker woven fabric. For this purpose, it was decided to a preliminary investigation [15]. It is worth emphasizing that
divide the investigated seersucker fabric into intervals with a the maximum value of the Wz parameter occurred in regions
height of 0.2 mm. The results of this analysis are presented in where the height of puckering was the highest; therefore, we
Figures 7 and 8. The analysis showed that the most numerous can determine this value as the maximum puckering effect in
interval is in the range of 1.0–1.2 mm. However, most points a given measurement range. It is also worth noting that the
were in the range of 0.6–1.4 mm. “measurement lines” were spaced apart from each other, every
1 mm. Therefore, it was additionally possible to approximately
Based on the measurements carried out, it can be concluded determine the actual width of the flat and puckered strips,
that for the fabric being tested, the distance between the lowest which were 11 mm and 15 mm, respectively.
point and the highest point was 2.35 mm. In turn, the value of the
Wz parameter changes depending on the analyzed direction: As can be seen on the hypsometric maps (Figure 7k and j),
for the warp direction, it varied from 0.11 mm to 1.52 mm, with higher puckered places can occur in different parts of the
an average value of 0.68 mm, while in the weft direction, the measurement surface. On the other hand, the Wz parameter is
a) b) c)
d) e) f)
g) h) i)
j) k)
l)
Figure 7. Hypsometric maps showing the distribution of the fabric measurement points in terms of individual height ranges (data in mm): a) 0–0.2,
b) 0.2–0.4, c) 0.4–0.6, d) 0.6–0.8, e) 0.8–1.0, f) 1.0–1.2, g) 1.2–1.4, h) 1.4–1.6, i) 1.6–1.8), j) 1.8–2.0, k) 2.0–2.2, and l) 2.2–2.4.
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25
Frequency of measurements; %
20
15
10
0
0,2- 0,4- 0,6- 0,8- 1,0- 1,2- 1,4- 1,6- 1,8- 2,0- 2,2-
0-0,2
0,4 0,6 0,8 1,0 1,2 1,4 1,6 1,8 2,0 2,2 2,4
% 1,85 5,46 7,17 12 19,5 23,5 15,3 5,19 4,7 3,39 1,49 0,32
Height range; mm
Figure 8. Number of measurement points located within particular fabric height ranges.
closely related to the height of the seersucker strips; therefore, and the average value of the puckering. However, on the basis
its value changes depending on which fragment is selected of the share of the individual measurement points in the given
for surface analysis. Such variability will also occur in the weft height ranges, it is possible to determine what percentage of
direction. However, this variability is much less significant, the total area of a given seersucker woven fabric is created by
since this parameter is measured along the whole fabric and the seersucker strips.
so the measurement includes both puckered and flat strips.
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