Recent developments in the evaluation technology of fiber and textiles: Toward the engineered design of textile performance

The engineered design and manufacturing of high-quality fabrics have been t argets of textile technology in this century; however, this has not yet bee n achieved. There are two reasons for this. One is that a method for the ob jective evaluation of the primary performance of fabric as clothing materia l was not established until recently; second, the complex mechanical behavi or of the textile fabrics consisting of a fiber assembly has not yet been s olved theoretically. The primary performance has been evaluated subjectivel y by fabric hand judgment. Recent achievement in the objective evaluation t echnology for fabric hand and other performances of fabric has enabled us t o move toward the engineered design of fabric quality. After a brief introd uction of the objective method, the "ideal fabric" project, which we are no w conducting, is introduced. This project aims at the development of an eng ineered design of high-quality suiting with applying the objective evaluati on technology. For future development in engineered design technology, we n eed basic research on the mechanics of textile structures, and on fiber its elf. Fibers are the basic material of textiles. The details of fiber proper ty are required for the advanced research of textile mechanics. Recent prog ress in the single-fiber measurement technology, we call it "micro-measurem ent," is introduced. Finally, the textile technology in the 21st century is forecasted. (C) 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.