Development of an Instrument for Testing Moisture Regain of Textiles Towards Defining Cotton Content in Fabrics

The moisture regain and cotton content are important indicators related to the comfort of textile materials and significantly affect the quality of fibers and fabrics in the garment industry. However, in Vietnam, they are often determined based on experience in retail trade, so the accuracy is low. Quantitative analysis requires a lot of time. This study aims to present an instrument to quickly determine the moisture regain of fabrics based on monitoring the weight loss of textiles over time (Thermogravimetric analysis) and by extrapolation by embedded software for a microcontroller unit. The study tested the moisture regain of different materials on the instrument and verified this result measured according to ASTM D2654-22. The results show that their difference is relatively small, not more than 0.2%. Several studies have shown that each fiber component has its own moisture regain, and the moisture regain of cotton and polyester fabrics has a significant difference, so the subsequent development direction of the study is to evaluate the cotton content in a two-component fabric by embedded software relied on the results of moisture regain. The instrument can be used to assess the humidity comfort of clothing, estimate the fiber content of fabrics, and teach students in textile technology for training applications.