Development of an Integrated Solution for Minimizing Pilling Problem of Cashmere Knitwear

Pills are formed by the entanglement of loose fibres protruding from the fabric surface during wearing and washing. In principle, it is possible to reduce/eliminate the pill formation by controlling the following parameters: (i) reduce the hairiness of yarns at the fabric surface; (ii) increase the co-efficient of inter-fibre friction to reduce fibre migration. This project aims to develop an integrated solution for minimizing the pilling problem. The first approach is to develop chemical process to control hairiness of yarns on fabric surface, enzyme treatment is identified as a suitable process because enzyme will weaken the single fibres on the fabric surface and cause fuzzing groups of fibres to break off. The second approach is to develop a treatment to control fibre migration for minimizing pilling. Plasma treatment is an appropriate technology because it can modify the surface structure of the fibre to increase the coefficient of inter-fibre friction and preserve the bulk properties of the fabric intact. The integrated solution developed by this project is targeted to pass the rating scheme of the ICI Pilling-box test at grade 3-4 of which is the average pilling grade generally accepted by the trade.