Thermophysiological comfort

The comfort of a garment is a very important characteristic since it has an impact on the performances of the people wearing it. Therefore, it is essential for the clothing manufacturer to be able assess his products very accurately. The more comfort a garment is offering, the higher its added value will be. Conversely, an erroneous comfort assessment may disadvantage a producer by the degradation of his product to a lower class.

In order to optimize the classification of garments according to their degree of comfort, the standardization committee CEN/TC248/WG28 has developed a new standard based on the evaluation of five thermoregulating properties:

• thermal insulation
• resistance to the transfer of water vapour
• permeability to air
• resistance to the penetration of water
• wicking

However, there is no international standard for one of the properties, i.e. wicking.
Wicking is the capacity of textiles to transport sweat. This is a very important characteristic since the presence of water on the surface of the skin generates discomfort. The idea of the project is to fine-tune a new measuring method for wicking based on a new appliance which will mend the errors of other methods that were made clear by the work of CEN/TC248/WG28.
The results of the project will allow the development of a standard describing an objective and representative measuring method for wicking.
It will also allow to complete the classification of thermoregulation properties.

Aim of the pre-standard research project

• classification of thermo-regulating properties of garments allowing an objective definition of the degree of comfort of a garment
• fine-tune a new measuring method for wicking and contribute to the development of a new standard

Industrial appeal

• method for the accurate evaluation of the comfort of thermo-regulating garments by which classification errors - to the disadvantage of producers - can be prevented
• aide in the development of new products in the field of comfort

Target group

• producers of technical textiles (workwear, sportswear…)
• producers/confectioners of thermo-regulating textiles