FABRIC

SCIENCE
 Fabric defects are identified during the grey
inspection of the fabric after weaving or
knitting.
 These defects are classified into three

groups
◦ Avoidable and unavoidable
◦ Major and minor
◦ Mendable and unmendable
 While most of the defects in the fabric are
avoidable some are unavoidable such as
certain floats/smashes.
 Defect such as weft crack is considered to be a

minor if it is within 1-2 cm while the same

defect is major when it is more than 2cm.
 Certain defects such as isolated snarls could be

mended while the others such as big cracks

are unmendable.
 BAR
A general terms for a band running across
the full width of the cloth due to difference
in the appearance from its adjacent sites. It
covers
◦ Pick bar,
◦ Starting Mark,
◦ Tension bar or shiner and
◦ Weft bar
 BOX MARK
A widthwise line showing stained or injured
weft due to the rubbing of shuttle when
rebound.
 BROKEN PATTERN

This defect may be due to wrong drawing of

thread, inserting a pick in the wrong shed,
incorrect lifting of warp thread.
 BROKEN PICK

A pick missing from a portion of the width of

the fabric due to rough shuttle-eyes which
snag the weft.
 CRACKES

A narrow streak running parallel to the weft due to

pronounced opening between to adjacent yarns
caused due to the erratic operation of the sley.
 CUT WEFT

A pinhole in the finished fabric caused by the use

of weak weft with a strong warp.
 FLOATS STITCHES

A place in the fabric where warp and weft yarns

escape the required interlacement due to
entanglement of warp threads.
 FUZZY

Fibrous appearance of the cloth due to the

presence of abraded yarns.
 HANG PICK

A pick which is out of line for a short distance

producing a triangular shaped hole in a fabric.
 HARNESS(WARP) SKIP

Warp yarns appearing more or less

continuously on the surface of the fabric due
to non interlacement of weft yarns.
 LASHING IN
Also known as weft trail or jark in weft it is
caused by an extra yarn dragged into the cloth
along with the regular pick.
 LOOSE WARP ENDS

Loose warp ends which appear like a reed mark

are caused by loose ends which start to feed in
just a trifle faster than the rest of the warp.
 HANGING THREADS

Ends loose on the face of the fabric because the

short and long ends of the fabric are not
removed by the weaver.
 MISSING ENDS
The most common defect characterized by a
gap of one or more warp threads in a fabric
caused due to unmended broken ends, missing
ends and high incidence of warp breakages.
 REED MARKS
A ready cloth shows irregular spacing between
groups of warp yarns across the width of the
fabric caused by a damaged or defective reed
or too late reed shedding.
 SHUTTLE MARKS
Widthwise warp yarns due to abrasion of warp
yarns by shuttle.
 SLOUGH-OFF

Bulk of weft yarns which slips off the pirn and

get entangled into fabric caused due the loose
winding of pirn.
 STICKER
A distortion in a weave characterized by tight and
slack places in the same warp yarn or fabric.
 STAINS
Stains such as grease, rust etc occur due to poor
material handling.
 TEAR DROPS
Appearing in taffeta fabrics as short curved
picks caused due to insufficient warp tension,
incorrect heald timing, oversized warp and
uneven penetration of sizing solution etc.
 TEMPLE MARK

holes or surface disturbances along the

selvage of the fabric. Due to bad or
improperly adjusted temples.
 UNEVEN CLOTH
Inconsistent diameters of the weft produces
a shady cloth where principle of weft mixing
is not used.

 WRONG DENTING/DRAWING
The wrong order of drawing ends through
healds and reeds respectively also creates
fabric defects.
 DEFECTIVE SELVEDGE
◦ Curled selvedge: Caused due to incorrect balance
of cloth structure between body and selvedge.
◦ Cut,torn or burst selvage: Caused due to selvedge
sticking to emery roller or damages caused by
temple roller.
◦ Loppy selvedge: Caused when the selvedge or cut
the race board felt at the reed and the weft is
caught on this groove when the sley beats up.
◦ Pulled in selvedge: Caused due to isolated tight
picks.
◦ Rugged or ragged selvedge: Caused due to the
variations in tension of the selvedge ends.
◦ Slacked selvedge: Caused due the incorrect balance
of cloth structure between the body and the
selvedge.
◦ Tight selvedge: Caused due to incorrect balance of
structure between body and selvedge,selvedge yarns
woven at high tension.
◦ Uneven selvedge: Caused by the variation in weft
tension, lack of control on number of selvedge ends.
 The methods employed for analysis of fabric
defects are
1. First piece inspection
2. Grey inspection
3. Point rate system
 The first piece of the newly gated loom is
taken to the grey floding departments and
is inspected fir design verifications.
 The report is immediately sent to the

weaving department and if there is any

defect the the neccesary changes are
made.
 Fabrics are tested in grey state after
weaving and then after finishing processes.
 In the grey inspection the fabric defects are

identified and mended if they are

mendable.
 In the final folding the fabric defects are

examined and graded into the following six

categories depending upon severity of
faults:
1. Fresh or first quality: fabric with no major or
objectionable faults.
2. Shorter length: piece of cloth having shorter
length(less than 50 cm).
3. Seconds: cloth having minor defects.
4. Fents : The cut pieces of cloths measuring 90cm
and more but less than 150 cm in length are
graded as fents.
5. Rags : The cut pieces of cloths larger than 25cm
but less than 90 cm are regarded as rags.
6. Chindies : These are the cloths having length of 25
cm or less.
 The two most commonly used point
rate systems are
 4-point rate system
10-point rate system.
 4-point system
Given by American standard ASTM,the test
method describes a procedure to establish a
numerical designation for grading of fabrics
from a visual inspection.
This system does not establish a quality
level for a given product, but rather provides
a means of defining defects according to
their severity by assigning demerit point
values.
DEFECT DEMERIT POINT
Length of defect Demerit Points

3 inches or less 1
3 - 6 inches 2
6 - 9 inches 3
9 inches 4

 Points to be remembered while using 4-

point system are:
1. No running yard shall be penalized
more than 4 points for warp and weft
defects.
2. For Fabric width exceeding 64"-66",
Maximum penalty points can be increased
above 4 per linear yard in proportion to the
width.

3. Defects appearing within one inch of either

edge shall be disregarded.

4. Any hole other than a pin hole shall be

considered a major defect and assigned 4
points for penalty.
 Grading:
1. Linear Yard basis:
Acceptable tolerance=20 points per
100 linear yard
2. Square yard basis:
Points/100 sq. yd
= Total Points scored in the bulk
X 100 X36
Width of the roll(inch) X total yards
inspected
 10-point system
◦ In this system the cloth defects are
given demerit points from 1 to 10
depending upon the variety of defect.
◦ Warp way defect
Defects Penalty points
25cm-90cm 10
12.6cm-25cm 5
2-6cm-12.5cm 3
Up to 2.5 cm 1
 Weft way defects
Defect Penalty points
Defects running full width 10

Defects 12.5 cm-half 5

width
2.6 - 12.5cm 3
Up to 2.5 cm 1

 Points to be taken care for 10-point grading are:

 Not one metre of cloth is penalized more than 10
points even the defect is a combination of warp and
weft threads.
Any defect occurring repeatedly throughout is marked
as second.
 Grading of cloth, that is first and second
quality depends upon the number of
penalty points per piece.
 Cloth is inspected on the face side only

unless specified.
 Weaving by
Dr.M.K.Talukdar,Prof.P.K.Sriramulu, Prof
D.B.Ajgaonkar.
 Fabric Science by J.Pizzuto