Finishing Effect on Warmth Property of Cotton/Kapok Blended Knitted Fabric

Nowadays,more and more natural or functional fibers are being investigated due to their utilization in thermal underwear.Kapok fiber is one of the natural cellulosic fibers whose source is the kapok plant. It has hollow body and sealed tail,which exhibits desirable features required for functional textiles of this nature. In this study,cotton / kapok( 80 /20 by mass) blended yarn with two types of yarn size 18. 5 and 14. 8 tex,respectively are knitted into plain stitches. The fabrics are undergone with an optimal preparation plan according to orthogonal design. Then,after dyeing and softening,fabric properties including thermal and water-vapour resistances, wicking property, pilling behaviour, and surface morphology,are tested and scrutinized for their candidacy for thermal underwear. The results showed that cotton / kapok blended fabrics have good thermal resistance which is significantly higher than those of cotton / modal blended fabrics,and the same water vapour resistance compared with cotton / modal blended fabrics which are normally used as underwear. Cotton / modal blended knitted fabrics has better pilling grade than cotton / kapok blended fabrics. Meanwhile, the cotton / kapok blends fabrics have good wicking property. Collectively,it was concluded that cotton / kapok blended fabric was appropriate for thermal underwear. However,the main limitation of these fabrics is their pilling properties.