Making a Polyester Shirt

I was going through my closet trying to decide on an article of clothing to choose, I realized that most of my clothes are made of polyester, yet a lot of them have a different texture. I thought this was interesting, and decided to choose a shirt that was not as soft as some of the other ones. As you can see in the picture to the right, this shirt is red and is very lightweight. The fabric feels a little rougher than most of my other polyester shirts.I wear this shirt often. This shirt is 100% non-woven polyester.

The chemical structure of polyester is a chain of units linked together by ester groups. Here is a picture of a polyester molecule, taken from the class slides: The "R"s in this chemical structure represent the linked units that repeat multiple times by step growth popularization to make up the long chain (Britannica). Polyester, also known as polyethylene ethereally or PET, is made from alcohol and acid reacting in a high temperature vacuum, where condensation popularization takes place.The resulting material is then extruded in a ribbon form and cut into chips. Once the chips harden, they are put into a melt-spinner.

In this process, the chips are heated again and extruded through spinnerets. Once this new material is exposed to air, it immediately cools and is "loosely wound around cylinders" (waterspout's. Com). This new material is the polyester fiber that is ready to be made into yarn. After the polyester itself is made, it's time for the shirt to made.

This process contains a series of steps.The figure to the left is a good depiction of the steps it takes to make a polyester shirt (please ignore the cotton production box on the top left) (USB). Polyester is made from melt-spinning, so machines and parts included in his process are the spinnerets and screw-extrudes, as well as the large cylinders or bobbins on which the fiber is stretched, twisted, and wound. This polyester is then used to make filament yarn, and the "dull version" of this regular tenacity yarn is used for blouses and shirts (Timeline. Com).

This yarn is most likely made from air Jet spinning, using an air Jet spinning machine that looks like the one pictured to the left. Once the yarn is finished, it is shipped out too textile mill to be woven into the desired fabric. This is most likely done on a large-scale air Jet or water Jet textile- paving machine. After the weaving is complete, an industrial textile dyeing machine or a high temperature dyeing machine is used to color the fabric the red that is seen above, or to whatever color is desired (Alabama.

Com).Then the fabric goes through several finishing processes to improve its quality and to obtain the desired style. These finishing processes may include singeing, resin finishes, or calendaring, which all improve the smoothness of the fabric and help to reduce pilling (Auburn. Due).

Automated large-scale industrial machines do all of these processes. The cutting and Ewing of this shirt is done by hand since it is not a regular t-shirt shape. Some characteristics of this shirt that I really enjoy are that it's not rigid, it dries quickly when wet, and it has not shrunk at all even though Vive worn and washed it numerous times.The lightness of the shirt makes it more comfortable to wear in hot weather.

This would be evaluated by measuring the rigidity of the fabric of which the shirt is made. There are 2 options for testing the flexural rigidity of fabrics: Cantilever Test, which bends the fabric under its own weight, and the Heart Loop Test, in which loop is formed with the fabric and hung vertically. The Cantilever Test is the preferred procedure to use because it is simpler to perform, and is performed by a Cantilever Bending Tester, as seen on the next page (ASTM Standard 38TH-14).This shirt absorbs water and other liquids and dries very quickly.

The fabric's ability to absorb water is tested by the Standard Practice of Conditioning and Testing Textiles, ASTM Standard ODL This procedure is done in a conditioning room or chamber, with a chronometer, preconditioning cabinet, balance, and a multiple shelf conditioning rack. The third characteristic that I like about the shirt is that it has not shrunk at all, even though Vive washed it multiple times.The ASTM Standard for Bonded, Fused, and Laminated Apparel Fabrics, ASTM 27TH - 07 is used to test this property of the fabric. To perform the test, marks are placed at specified distances on the fabrics, and the fabrics are then dry-cleaned or laundered and dried, or both. This process s repeated numerous times and the fabrics are examined to determine what effects the laundering has had. Once all of these above processes are complete, from making the polyester all the ay to testing the fabric, the shirt is ready to be distributed to the customer.