A: Actually During the testing process going through the nozzle, each sample is deformed under a complex yet low stress state including tensile, shearing and bending as well as frictional actions, similar to the stress state when we handle a fabric. Consequently, all the information related to fabric hand is reflected by such a load-displacement extraction curve.

A: It is believed that it is closely related to the physical properties of the fabric. A more scientific scheme based on the computer pattern recognition technique confirms the feel correlates with about 110 factors. Proved by experiments with eight indicators related to the highest degree, and wherein the stiffness (37%), softness (36%), smoothness (14%) . The total weight of the three factors exceed 80% of the total hand information, thus these three factors can be broadly described the state of the fabric feel.

A: Not yet, huge efforts and wide collaborations required.

A: The full scale requires testing of all possible fabrics in the range; it is to be determined.

A: Very small due to the high repeatability of the instrument- 3 repeats maximum.

A: Yes, for fabrics in different group types, different eigen-matrices are provided and have to be used.

A: The calculation is based on the following formula: Linear Density (µg/cm) = weight per unit area (µg/cm2)* thickness (cm) The instrument shows all the allowable units and convert them automatically upon being inputted in.

A: They were produced using high precision digital milling machine. We also have a software calibration routine to eliminate drift and any system errors.

A: Actually, stretch index is a parameter still during trail stage. It is the location of the peak of the extraction curve. So as you can well understood that when a fabric is stretch but less elastic, it should give a higher stretch index. Of course, this is for your reference only and hopefully after you test some of your fabrics, you may find it useful as well.

A: Please see the attached “Wrinkle Recovery Rate Test Method Guide.pdf” file for your reference. I agree with you that it wouldn’t make sense to use terry cotton to test the wrinkle thing! I think any woven fabric of super light, light, medium, heavy type all can be used on testing Wrinkle recovery thing.

A: All the numerical data currently have no units; they are meant to offer a trend. For your particular product, you have to establish, by testing adequate samples, your quality control criteria. This is a totally new territory so you will set up specific quality goals for your products.

A: The probe equipped with a force sensor and the measurement starts at the moment that the probe torches the fabric to be tested and goes through the nozzle.

A: The process of calculated the weighted Euclidean distance is a process to mapping a higher dimensional vector (8- Dimension in our case) to a lower (1-D) space. So RHV value is a scalar or 1-D vector and the original 8-D vector is often too complex for routine use.

A: Relative hand value is an overall hand value. For each fabric tested, and in the case where users (or others) are able to provide a reference sample, an overall hand value - which can be defined as a distance between preferred sample and the testing sample is calculated as the ranking of the fabric hand relative to the user-specified one.

A: It can be used to predict consumer’s response when handling a fabric. RHV is the quality manifesta¬tion of brand-name textiles products. Any related companies are able to utilize the PhabrOmeter® technology to establish their own internal and external quality metrics.

A: In machines of the first generation, RHV was called a different name “PH Value”. Otherwise, calculations are the same. The Relative Hand Value (RHV) represents the overall fabric performance value in a user defined class or group. The stiffness, smoothness and softness are the three main attributes among eight attributes of the fabric for user to reference.

A: Since fabric hand is relative to user's preference and there is unlikely such thing as 'good hand for everyone', so any hand evaluation should indicate the preference or a 'reference fabric' relative to which other fabrics are evaluated. Here we chose Fabric 0 as the reference, so the relative hand values indicate the difference between other fabrics and Fabric 0; the smaller the value, the closer to Fabric 0.

A: In summary, RHV value indicates the difference between the tested fabric and the reference in terms of fabric hand associated with the reference fabric, whereas the Drape value measured by PhabrOmeter™ indicates the fabric pliability under a pushing force. Both should share the same physical unit of resistance force. At this moment, this unit has very little use, except confusion whether in psf or pounds, kilograms. Once RHV value becomes widely accepted, we can use pounds or kg as the unit or just simply use RHV as the unit.

A: The AATCC standard procedure is consistent with our instructions in the User Manual and there is no big change for the users.

A: The purpose of “system preferred reference” function is only for the case that user really don’t have any preference defined, user may through this function to see what system “preferred”.

A: According to AATCC, neither the electronic file nor the hard copy print may be reproduced in anyway. In addition, the electronic file may not be distributed elsewhere over computer networks or otherwise. So if you need a copy, please following this link http://members.aatcc.org/Scripts/4Disapi.dll/store/tm202-tm202-relative-hand-value-of-textiles-instrumental-method/956/ to purchase.

A: The standard testing sample is a circular fabric with area 100 cm2, i.e., 5.64 cm in diameter.

A: When we ran your study, we did not do anything to the fabric samples prior to the test except leaving fabrics flat in free state so as to recover to their natural state.

A: As the input information, the fabric thickness and weight are required just for grouping purpose so as to make sure right fabric gets into right group. Since the grouping scheme on our instrument allows certain variations, so both thickness and weight don’t have to be highly accurate.

A: We recommend that you use normal fabric thickness gauge which you can easily locate one on Internet. If you don’t want to buy one, you can even measure the total thickness of a set of fabric samples and then divide the number of samples measured to get single sample’s thickness.

A: Yes, the weight is a single 100 cm2 circular fabric sample’s weight. After you cut your samples by the fabric cutter, you just need to weight one sample to get the weight for the fabric. Note: when you create new fabric, always remember to select correct unit for thickness and weight, such as if thickness is 64 of 1/1000”, after enter 64 in the field you also need to select 1/1000 as your unit in the combo box, and if the sample’s weight is 4.87 g, you need to enter 4.87 to the field and also select g from the combo box. Thickness units also can be mm and cm. Weight unit also can be mg and ug.

A: You can use any naming convention to handle your group/class names. You can just type the name in the group/class field. If the group name you want to use already exists, you can select it in the group/class combo box.

A: You can use any naming convention to handle your group/class names. You can just type the name in the group/class field. If the group name you want to use already exists, you can select it in the group/class combo box.

A: The field of “Specimen #” is for you to enter an integer such as 3 or other digital value – the number of replicate pieces for each fabric. Instead, you entered “A1”, the machine given out the error message was because the software does not happy with the data type you entered, you should enter digital for the number of specimen...

A: Operator name is automatically filled in by the system using the current login user name rom the OS.

A: The system was developed to accommodate vast range of products, from sheer soft paper tissue to fabrics for furniture and vehicle interior. Such a wide range of textile materials have different complicated properties / attributes; different density and different type of fabric structure has different trends or sequence. So we need to group them into several groups based on its fabric density. In your particular case, if you only test bath or facial tissues, you only need to use the smallest diameter ring and the 120 G special test plate (we specially made for other clients). The other types of plates and rings are for regular fabrics or thicker fabrics to use.

A: Using wrong disc weight will make your data un-comparable with others. Although for relative comparison, the data should be consistent with themselves, it is advisable to discard them, for they may cause confusion in the future. Fortunately the instrument is fast so I hope it won't take too much time for your to catch up.

A: When you create a new fabric, the thickness and weight values are required to be entered, this is because system needs these two parameters to determine the density of the fabric to be tested automatically. It is important to set the fabric to a proper density category, however, since the boundary of each density category is not absolute and they could be overlapped so the system gives user the freedom to switch them upon necessary.

A: The correct fabric type for your sample should be Heavy so you need to use the Heavy group test plate. The resting plate upward movement is OK, because all the samples will be under the same weight.

A: Yes. These samples just for you to practice and the curves tested should be consistent, and also match the standard curve, provided that the testing atmospheric condition has to be considered.

A: You can use soft cloth to clean the test plates and the ring surface between sample evaluation. We usually use Ethanol, I think isopropanol should be OK too.

A: It can be determined based on your past experience and/or on the assessed result form a creditable sensory panel.

A: PhabrOmeter measures the mechanical properties involved, it is the reference fabric selected that takes care of human subjectivities.

A: Flexibility, the ease of bending a piece of material, is in part a function of thickness and geometric shape. Usually it includes the implication that the material will not break when bent repeatedly. Any material that is easily bent may be described as flexible, limp, or pliable; stiff and rigid are antonyms. The preferred ASTM term for high flexibility is pliable; the preferred term for low flexibility is stiff. It should be noted that many fabrics are neither unusually pliable nor unusually stiff. In general, knitted fabrics are more pliable than woven fabrics and open fabrics are more pliable than tightly constructed fabrics.

A: Compressibility may be judged by squeezing a crumpled piece of fabric in your hand. The preferred term for high compressibility is soft, and the preferred term for low compressibility is hard. Many people seem to prefer soft fabrics in body-contact garments. Bulky fabrics made from low twist yarns and fine-denier fibers tend to be soft; tightly constructed fabrics made with high twist yarns and coarser fibers are likely to feel hard.

A: Surface friction is a surface's resistance to slipping. It can be thought of as how hard you have to push your fingertip to move it across a fabric. Rubber surface are fine examples of surfaces having high friction. Oily surfaces usually have very low surface friction. The preferred term for a high level of surface friction is harsh; that for a low level of surface friction is slippery. Fabrics with a nap or pile of fine-denier fibers and 'polished' fabrics often feel slippery. A fine corduroy of combed Pima cotton could easily feel both rough (in contour) and slippery (friction) at the same time.

A: PhabrOmeter and Kawabata have totally different measurement concept so they are not comparable in terms of data value trend. It is our finding that the correspondence of the attribute values and fabric performance depend on the fabric types. We believe that different fabric density types and different structures may have different data value trends. In our case study B on woven fabric, it is a group of medium twill woven fabrics, for this type of fabrics, a smaller softness value represents a softer fabric; the trend of the stiffness is always opposite the trend of softness. However, for some knit fabric, even if it has the same medium type of density, its value trend maybe opposite with the woven type. This is a much more complex issue we have been working on to sort it out completely. As a common practice, many of our clients use a control fabric or a reference fabric to determine the correspondence between the trend of the attributes and the fabric ranking.

A: If you want to get softness data for each replicate in the sample, you need to treat each replicate in the sample as individual one. So, for example, one of your samples called Ford Elliot and has three samples, you can create 3 repeats and name them as Elliot-1, Elliot-2, Elliot-3, all belonging to a new class called Elliot and sample number set to 1. When you calculate the softness, you can select Elliot class only so that it will filter out other fabrics and you will see the individual softness value for each of these samples tested. If you also want to compare with other fabric samples you interested, you can assign them to the same group and when calculating you just need to select the group name, so that all samples data in the same group will show in the grid.

A: The system doesn't calculate each individual measurement's softness, stiffness, smoothness, etc. If you want to get each individual measurement's data, you can just using single piece for each sample and do the same calculation, then you will get each single sample's softness, stiffness, smoothness, etc. (if you using more than single replicates, the data is calculated based on the Avg. of the number of replicates' raw data). I hope this answers your question.

A: The attachment you sent to me only contains “Area Value” which can’t tell the performance of each of your product. When you are using the same fabric with different treatments, you may use the “Area Value” ranking; however, in order to analyze the performance among different fabrics, the “Area Value” sorting may not work for you. So, only RHV (relative hand value) and its Attributes values work for you always.

A: Partially related，The area under voltage-time graph is the extraction energy which is one of the outputs from the machine. It should be user's job to find out the relationships for their specific applications.

A: They are just two slightly different ways to measure the fabric wrinkle recovery capacity.

A: Fabric drape is more related to fabric tensile and shearing properties, or conformability, and has little to do with fabric softness - also depending on your definition of softness since it is a sensory attribute? Drape in phabrometer provides a much more convenient way to measure fabric draping capacity.

A: This also depends on how you define "softness" measured by PhabrOmeter.

A: Excellent when the reference fabric is chosen properly.

A: Yes, you can. PhabrOmeter® system can quickly demonstrate the influence of the chemicals on fabric hand. You can then fine-tune your products and produce high quality chemicals for textile industry.

A: Sure, couldn't see why can't. If your raw data file format is not compatible with ours, we can do import to convert your data to our system to do the calculation.

A: When consumers select a car for their daily life, they pick the one that are more comfortable to sit in and drive. PhabrOmeter™ technology has been used to evaluate all the fabrics, plastic and rubber sheets used for interior, seats, steering wheels and instrument panel covering. Using detailed stiffness, smoothness and softness data from PhabrOmeter, you can develop your own specs and control the qualities of the materials from the suppliers. PhabrOmeter™ also contributes to reduce production costs by shortening development cycles and improving process yields owing to the easy control of product quality.

A: Yes. PhabrOmeter® system can tell you how your wet processes have affected the fabric hand so you can adjust the process conditions accordingly.

A: Sure you can, and that should be the major application of the PhabrOmeter™ technology, easy and reliable. For example you can first save a set of high quality fabric samples you desire for each product line. You test them using PhabrOmeter to get all the properties data and fingerprints for each product and save them in the database as your references. You can then test the samples from your suppliers again using PhabrOmeter. By comparing the results with those saved in your database on the PhabrOmeter, you can readily determine if all the goods have the quality you expected.

A: Actually it doesn't matter what kind of materials, as long as it is in a sheet or membrane form and is not highly rigid.

A: It is true. PhabrOmeter® system is an essential instrument for you to assess the sensory quality over such products as diapers, facial tissues, toilet papers, kitchen towels, surgical masks, etc.

A: Yes, this is the immediate application.

A: By default, its Y axis unit is Voltage，and its X axis is sampling points / time with no unit.

A: Actually the repeatability of this instrument has been very good so that most of our users now only use 3 repeats for each fabric sample even though initially we suggested using 5 repeats. You can in fact click on the Calculate Repeatability button to get the results to see the repeatability of several key parameters for a tested fabric. The following is a real example of the repeatability of a group of terry towel with 3 repeats:

A: The variations in data are always the results of the instrument error and the variability within/among your samples. The following is a normal example of the (CV)% on a group of terry towel with 3 repeats:

Note: CV values less than 5% are considered excellent; less than 10% are good data; if all 4 curve properties of a fabric are great than 10%, that fabric has to be re-tested for confirmation.

A: When you enter 3500mg and 1.5mm into the software, the system should set the density type to heavy type, so you should use the correspond number of weights indicated in the user manual to test the sample.

A: Yes. Different fabric density types and different structures may have different trends. So, to compare fabrics in different density group (such as compare “Light” with “Heavy”) is invalid. It is common in many cases, e.g., fabric drapes and wrinkle recovery, that when crossing different fabric weight types, the results may not be consistent. That is why we advise our clients to follow our instructions when selecting the weight plates.

A: Preparing sample is very important. For those hard to cut to a circle using the circular cutter (such as thicker terry towels and very thin paper tissues), we recommend using a scissor.

A: The sensor and the circuits in our instrument are of very high quality so the system drift is very small. Also our software checks/corrects the zero point every time before measurement. Of course, if you have reason to concern, you can always ask your technicians who are familiar with calibration process on instruments to help.

A: Yes. As mentioned before fabric weight indeed plays very important role here. When everything is the same, thicker or heavier fabrics tends to show higher variability in them.

A: Unfortunately, our current standard version of software is unable to import the raw data back to the database, although we have done some customization for a few clients to import other format raw data into the software for calculation.

A: Yes. However, your machine is the first generation, and it is way beyond the manufactory warranty period, so if you request a hardware repair and calibration, we can provide on-site service, but you need to pay for all the expenses. So, our company give our first generation PhabrOmeter clients an option - you can trade in your old Model with our current new model at a big discount price. Many of our clients did this way, so now most of our clients have upgraded to the new model. If you are interested, please contact us at sales@nucybertek.com.

A: We have procedures for calibrating the PhabrOmeter only for internal use because it involves (1) hardware and its components evaluation; (2) sensor / load cell examination; (3) system calibration - like a car tuning-up process.

A: Yes, we can also customize our system to fit specific needs, and we have done so for several companies.