Dimensional stabilization of cotton plain weft knitted fabric using mercerization treatment

Investigation on dimensional stability of cotton plain weft knitted fabric manufactured from rotor spun yarn, subjected to mercerization treatment has been represented. Several fabric samples were mercerized considering variation in time of treatment, bath temperature, concentration of alkali solution and also mercerizing tension. Values of constant of course (K _c ), constant of wale (K _w ), the area geometry constant (K _s ) which are indicative of fabric dimensional stability were calculated after treatment for mercerized samples. Then, these values were compared with those of un-treated samples subjected to dry and wet relaxation and also were compared with each other. Based on the effect of each variable itself and their simultaneous effect, it was concluded that, mercerization treatment and considered parameters had a distinctive influence on dimensional stability of the fabric. Mercerized samples had better dimensional stability in comparison with un-treated ones. A comprehensive experimental analysis showed that, there is meaningful difference between K _s values of the samples mercerized at various conditions. Also, the area geometry constant (K _s ) achieved after treatment was higher than that of other relaxation methods.