Preparation of Rayon Filament based Woven Fabric and PCM Treatment for Developing Cool Touch Summer Clothing Material

To develop cool touch feeling fabrics for summer clothing material, it was manufactured several compositions of woven fabrics, having rayon multi-filament yarn (non-twisted) as warp and various kinds of yarn, such as viscose rayon multi-filament yarn (twisted), tencel ® spun yarn, PET high absorbance quick dry filament yarn, and PET based rayon-like yarn, as weft. After preparing the fabrics, basic properties of the fabrics were investigated, such as air-permeability, tensile strength, absorption rate, drying rate, etc. Also, surface warm / cool sensations of the woven fabrics were assessed by Qmax Warm / Cool Touch Tester. It was observed that the fabrics composed of viscose rayon multi-filament yarn (warp) and PET high absorbance quick dry filament yarn (weft) showed excellent surface cool touch sensation-the highest Qmax value. This is because the fabric having flat shaped PET high absorbance quick dry filament shows the largest contact area with Qmax measuring plate. And, the fabric also showed superior high absorbance and quick dry property as expected. In addition, we treated phase change material (PCM) on the surface of the fabric composed of viscose rayon multi-filament yarn (warp) and PET high absorbance quick dry filament yarn(weft) to improve the cool touch feeling. However, the surface cool touch feeling was impaired by resin treated with PCM during the finishing process.