Research on physical properties change and damage behavior of cotton fabrics dried in drum-dryer

Cotton plain fabrics are prone to winkle and shrinkage during daily wear usage and care processes. In this research, cotton fabrics sample are subjected to pre-washing processes and an extended series of tumble-dry cycles using standard drying procedures to investigate the impact of the drying on appearance physical properties of cotton fabric including smoothness appearance (SA), dimensional shrinkage, bending stiffness. And Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermo-gravimetric analyzer (TGA) and x-ray diffraction (XRD) were also employed to investigate whether the repeated drying in dryer can cause changes in the thermal stability, the composition transform and microscopic damage of cotton fibers or not. Results showed that smoothness appearance grade of cotton fabrics significantly depended on drying cycles during first 15 drying cycles. The results of dimensional stability showed that the dimensional shrinkage of cotton fabric was slight and had no relationship with drying cycles. And found that the shrinkage of cotton fabrics in the warp direction (1.29-1.71%) is higher than that of cotton fabrics weft direction (0.002-0.045%). The bending stiffness of cotton fabric was enhanced by drum-drying based on the bending stiffness data. TGA curves and XRD analysis showed that drying had little effect on thermal stability and crystallinity of cotton fibers. This indicated that drying only affected the appearance physical properties of cotton fabric such as appearance smoothness, dimensional stability, did not change composition and molecular structure (crystallinity). And from multiple levels including fabric-level, yarn-level and fiber-level, explained reasons of fabric properties change (namely, damage behavior). Moreover, this finding is not only helpful to understand of damage mechanisms of cotton fabrics drying in domestic dryer, but also provided reference for dryer manufacturers to accurately specify the types of clothing that can be dried by using a dryer. Additionally, it is also helpful to guide consumers to correctly care clothing in textile daily care. For example, the drying in dryer was not suitable for 100% cotton shirt with higher requirement of smoothness appearance grade, but it was suitable for fabric that smoothness is not concerned in usage, such as 100% cotton quilts and jeans.