Performance of Oak Tasar Silk Waste/ Viscose Blended Knitted Fabrics through Kawabata Evaluation System (KES) for Apparel use

Tactile sense or the sense of touch has been an important aspect of the human interactions with the environment. The study of tactile sense, or the haptics, has received tremendous attentions for its potential applications. This paper introduces a novel approach for evaluating fabric sensory responses. Attempt has been made to objectively assess the oak tasar silk waste/ viscose blended knitted fabrics of two different yarn counts in order to obtain the scores on various parameters of hand. The Kawabata Evaluation System (KES) used five highly sensitive instruments that measure fabric bending, shearing, tensile and compressive stiffness, as well as the smoothness and frictional properties of a fabric surface. The instrument also gave direct value of primary hand value and total value of the fabric. It the findings of the research revealed that, 40%OTW:60%viscose blended fabric of 15 Nm yarn count depicted best results for smoothness, uniformity, tactile sensation, aesthetic appearance and total hand value.