Aramid fabric for garments of improved comfort

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION It is well known in the art that certain fabric characteristics translate into comfort levels that can be expected when such fabrics are made into apparel.
The challenge is to attain these characteristics in high basis weight fabrics from fibers which are employed in protective apparel.
The fabrics under consideration have a basis weight of from 4.
0 oz/yd.
sup.
2 to 8 oz/yd.
sup.
2 and are woven from yarns consisting essentially of poly(m-phenylene isophthalamide) MPD-I, staple fiber.
If desired, up to 10 weight percent of such fiber may be replaced with other fiber such as p-aramid fiber, antistatic fiber, etc.
, which provide break open resistance, antistatic performance, etc.
, providing the value of the fabric for the protective end-use is not unduly compromised.
The MPD-I staple fiber employed has a denier of from 0.
8 to 1.
5 dpf and the spun yarns are 37/2 cc or finer.
Moreover, the fiber should not be subjected to treatments which tend to crystallize the fiber since this will increase the bending rigidity.
By "uncrystallized" is meant that no active steps were taken to impart crystallinity, however, this is not to say that the fiber has no crystallinity Woven fabrics of the invention are of unbalanced construction, more particularly, the fill (F) count should be no greater than 80% of the warp count.
The weave may be plain or will preferably be a 3.
times.
1 twill.
The warp (W) count can range from 75 to 125 ends/inch while the fill count should be at least 40 ends/inch.
The fabrics of the invention are characterized by relatively low bending rigidity, shear stiffness and surface roughness while providing good wicking and thermal conductance.
Test and Measurements The fabric hand properties were measured using the Kawabata Evaluation System (KES).
KES is a method of measuring mechanical and surface properties of fabrics using a set of very sensitive instruments described in Kawabata, S.
, "The Standardization and Analysis of Hand Evaluation", The Textile Machinery Society of Japan, July, 1980, 2nd Ed