Different Tests for Textile Quality Control

Last updated on July 7th, 2023 at 05:46 pm

Quality Control section is the most important section in Textile and Garment industries. Most of the Textile and garment industries in Bangladesh are 100% export oriented. The buyers who deal with the manufacturers in Bangladesh always want quality. So to maintain quality, quality control section is necessary.

Quality control is defined as the set of procedures intended to ensure that an end product adheres to a defined set of quality criteria or meets the demand of the customers.

The principal aim of QC is to ensure that organization is achieving the standards. Though QC is strictly followed in every factory, it is not possible to achieve perfection. For example, sometimes shade variation occurs in wet processing. In QC section, quality controller tries to make different swatches of same shade but little variation occurs among the swatches and it is as usual. The closest shade that matches with the sample is accepted by the buyers.

Table of Contents

Tests for Quality Control

There are two types of tests are done in QC department. They are –

Physical Tests
Chemical Tests

Physical Tests

Yarn Grade
GSM
Shrinkage
Spirality
Tensile Strength
Abrasion Resistance
Pilling Resistance
Button Strength Testing
Lycra% Determination
Crease Resistance
Finished Dia
Shade Check
Width

Chemical Tests

Color Fastness to Perspiration
Color Fastness to Washing
Color Fastness to Light
Color Fastness to Heat
Color Fastness to Rubbing

Now I’ll describe them in brief:

Yarn Grade	Here, yarns grades are checked. This is checked on the basis of fineness or coarseness of the yarn. Super fine, fine, light, medium, bulky, super bulky etc. are the different grades of yarn.
GSM	GSM stands for gram per square meter. This is a metric system. GSM of woven or knitted fabrics are tested.
Shrinkage	Shrinkage is defined as the process in which a fabric dimension becomes less than its original size. It is a fabric fault. So, it should be checked.
Spirality	Generally, spirality occurs in knitted fabric and the woven fabric made by twill weaves. Spirality is revealed after washing. As for example, a T-Shirts side seam comes at front. It is also a fabric fault. So, it is also tested.
Tensile Strength	The tensile strength of a material is defined as the maximum amount of tensile stress that it can take before failure, for example breaking. Tensile strength of yarn, fabric etc. are tested.
Abrasion Resistance	There are two different machines are commonly used to test abrasion resistance. One is Wyzenbeek and another is Martindale.
Pilling resistance	The resistance of pill formation on fabric surface or other changes due to abrasion is called pilling resistance. It should be tested for better quality of fabric.
Button Strength Testing	Button strength is also an important factor because buttons always face more obstacles. It is also tested in the QC lab.
Lycra% Determination	Lycra is used to produce blended fabrics. It is used to make sportswear, socks, pantyhose, sweaters etc. So we have to determine the Lycra%.
Crease Resistance	It is defined as the capability of a textile material to resist creases. It is also tested for better quality of the end product.
Finished Dia	Finished dia of the garment is tested.
Shade Check	Sometimes shade variation occurs in a dyed fabric. So, it is checked to match the accurate shade.
Width	The width of a fabric is tested for proper dimension.
Light Fastness	The resistance to the loss of color of any dyed or printed material to light is preferred to as its light fastness. It is a very important test.
Wash Fastness	The resistance to the loss of color of any dyed or printed material to washing is preferred to as its wash fastness. Like light fastness test, it is also important.
Rubbing Fastness	The resistance to the loss of color of any dyed or printed material to rub is preferred to as its rubbing fastness. It is an important test too.
Perspiration Fastness	The garments which come into the contact with the body reference where perspiration is heavy (like neck, underarm, etc.) may suffer from serious local discoloration fastness to perspiration is the resistance to color of textile against the discoloration effect of acidic or alkaline perspiration. It is also an important test.
Heat Fastness	The resistance to the loss of color of any dyed or printed material to heat is preferred to as its heat fastness. Heat fastness is done for thermal clothing.