The Theory for Fabric Abrasion Resistance

Abrasion is just one aspect of wear and is the rubbing away of the component fibres and yarns of the fabric. It is a series of repeated applications of stress; therefore a capacity to absorb punishment is required to the fibres. Inherent fibre properties such as work of rupture may give a high resistance to abrasion.

A number of important points require consideration before abrasion resistance tests are carried out. The choice of the method may be governed by the type of apparatus available, the precision demanded and so forth. Some of the more important points are condition of the specimen, choice of testing instrument, choice of abrasive motion, direction of abrasion, choice of abradant, backing the specimen, cleanliness of the specimen and instrument, tension on the specimen, pressure between abradant and specimen, end-point of the test etc. Now there are various abrasion resistance testing instruments available for example, the WIRA abrasion tester, the LIRA abrasion tester, the Taber abraser, the Shiefer machine, the Wyzenbeek abrasion tester, the Stoll universal wear tester, the LINRA wear tester, the BFT abrasion tester etc. The abrasion tester we used here is made by James H. Heal & Co. Ltd, Halifax, England. In this instrument abrasion surfaces wrapping by sand paper are used to abrade the fabric samples. A counter is used to count the no. of abrasion. This is an electrical tester.

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