Testing

The comfort of textiles and garments is the result of both psychological aspects (design, fit, quality, aesthetics) and physiological aspects, including thermophysiological and sensorial (softness, suppleness) comfort. Thermophysiological comfort is the result of the heat and moisture transfer through the textile that will regulate the body’s temperature, and is an important feature in clothing and especially in sportswear and professional (protective) clothing.

Air permeability is a widely used test which measures how easily air is passed through fabric and helps to indicate the fabric’s breathability, particularly for wind-resistant, weather-resistant and waterproof fabrics.

The European Standard EN 71:2 specifies the categories of flammable materials which are prohibited in all toys, and requirements concerning flammability of certain toys when they are subjected to a small source of ignition.

Rubber or plastics coated fabrics - Determination of resistance to combined shear flexing and rubbing

IR (infrared)-spectroscopy is a form of spectroscopy which is specifically active in the infrared part of the electromagnetic spectra.

Hardness is defined as a material’s resistance to permanent indentation. It is one of the most measured parameters and often reported on technical data sheets of plastics and rubbers.

Flammability testing is one of the most important testing procedures within the textile industry because it has crucial safety implications in the event of a fire.

Determination of the energy that causes plastic film to fail under specified conditions of impact of a free-falling dart. This energy is expressed in terms of the weight (mass) of the missile falling from a specified height which would result in 50 % failure of specimens tested.

The impact protection on the back of the hand of protective gloves is tested according to EN 388:2016 that includes an impact resistance test in accordance with clause 6.9 of EN 13594.

Flow cytometry is a laser- or impedance-based, biophysical technology employed in cell counting, cell sorting, bio-marker detection and protein engineering, by suspending cells in a stream of fluid and passing them by an electronic detection apparatus. It allows simultaneous multi-parametric analysis of the physical and chemical characteristics of up to thousands of particles per second.