ADVANCES IN COMPOSITE MATERIALS - ECODESIGN AND ANALYSIS

Experimental results Knitting conditions

Fig. 5 presents the aspect of a 408 tex glass fibre jersey fabric produced with the quality stitch cams in the limit position, in this case NP = 10.5. The destroyed filaments are placed more at the level of the sinkers loops and not at the level of the needle loops, as Law and Dias pointed out in their study. This situation sustains the idea of other cause for yarn damage than the tension peaks in the knitting point. Furthermore, the significant filament breakage repeats at every two courses, corresponding to the reverse carriage displacement when the needles receive less yarn. If the stitch length is even lower, the yarn gets out of the needle hooks and it can not be knitted. This situation is exemplified in Fig. 6, for a jersey fabric made of 136 tex glass fibres. The filaments appear to be completely destroyed, creating a plush effect.