[Essentials] Textile Testing – What is it and why is it important?

Before anything is sold to a customer, manufactures test items to make sure they work as intended. Whether it’s a car, a machine or an item of clothing. Textile testing is no different and is carried out by clothing companies and their suppliers all over the world, ensuring clothing is made to the standard and quality desired.Testing is a critical part of textile production and helps companies develop textiles to the quality and standard they wish.

Textile testing can be defined as “Examining and determining the physical, mechanical and chemical properties of a textile.”

Often, testing is completed during the creation of textiles to ensure any faults or problems are eliminated before manufacturing and there are many factors that can affect test results, such as, Atmospheric conditions, methodology and the testing instruments used.

There are many reasons why it is important for companies to test, including:

• Controlling the manufacturing process
• Ensuring product quality
• Increase/sustain customer satisfaction
• Ensure the brand image/reputation is what the company intends

Development of new and innovative clothing means that textile testing is more important than ever. From sweat wicking technology to waterproof garments, testing the textiles during development ensures the manufacturer can understand the capabilities of the fabric and any developments that need to be made. Sportswear brands, luxury brands, fast fashion brands and workwear brands all have a need for textile testing and will carry out the necessary tests for their textiles.

James Heal has provided Textile Testing equipment since 1872 ensuring our customers achieve consistent and accurate results, every time. Our new Performance Testing Range has been designed for testing performance wear and technical textiles. The functionality of performance wear must be qualified by evidence, and our instruments have been designed to give brands, retailers and manufacturers confidence in their results.

Our Performance Testing Range includes:

• ProDry
• TruRain
• WickView
• AquAbrasion