The performance of apparel in providing the comfort of clothing is one of the major factor and type and geometry of the fibers as well as yarn and fabric structures are effective in comfort. In this project, the effect of fiber type in comfort of underwear was studied. According to the performance and sensation fibers, different properties fibers were investigated to replace with the conventional fibers. Then, the performance of the Cotton/Nylon underwears were compared with pure Cotton and Cotton/Polyester blended underwear.
In order to perform this study, pure Cotton, Cotton/Nylon and Cotton/Polyester blended yarn with count of 16, 20, 30 Ne were produced in Ring Spinning system. Then, plain weft-knitted fabrics with a loop length of 3.18, 3.3, and 4.66 mm were knitted on a Single Jersey Circular weft knitting machine with gauge 28. The knitted fabrics were washed and bleached. Finally, the knitted fabric with a yarn count 30Ne and with a loop length 3.3 mm was selected for produceing underwear.
In order to evaluate the comfort, produced underwears were put on by referees and their performance in real and the same conditions, based on Comfort factors such as moisture absorption, flexibility and softness, were compared. In order to make decisions for best underwear based on Comfort factors, the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) was used. The results indicated that the comfort of cotton/Nylon underwears increased in comparison with cotton and cotton/polyester underwears and the nylon fibers were suitable alternative in blends of cotton instead of polyester fibers.