Introduction:
Perspiration is saline fluid which is produced by the sweat glands. In order to test the color fastness of the fabric sample, two textile specimens are used. Both samples are wetted in the simulated acid perspiration solution. The test samples are wetted under controlled specific mechanical pressure. After wetting the specimens are dried at slowly elevated temperature. After the conditioning process the color change of the specimen is checked and other specimen or fiber materials are checked for color staining. In this article I will discuss, features, specifications and working principle of perspirometer / perspiration tester.
Perspirometer:
In order to determine the color fastness of dyed or printed fabrics against perspiration, perspirometer is used. Perspirometer perspiration tester is also used for testing the color fastness to water, seawater and yellowing. The fabric sample is exposed to the action of both alkaline and acidic reagents while in contact with undyed adjacent fabrics is placed between plastic plates under a fixed load inside an oven maintained at 37 degree centigrade. All the components of the Perspirometer are manufactured quality stainless steel and are finished in black stoving enamel paint to give them a corrosion resistant finish.
Perspirometer comprises a stainless steel frame, having top and bottom plates and an intermediate spring plate. The springs, which act on this plate, are designed to maintain a uniform pressure on the specimens, as they are drying out in the Incubator. An incubator is a low-powered oven.
A different load for AATCC standards is available on request.
User friendly and corrosion resistant.
Smooth precision engineered components for excellent performance.
Specifications of Perspirometer:
Frame Construction: Stainless steel
Load on the Test Specimen: 5 kg.
Size of Test Specimen: 100 mm x 40 mm
Size of Acrylic Separator Plates: 115 mm x 60 mm
Number of Separator Plates: 21 Nos.
Dimensions of the Unit: 225 mm (L) x 72 mm (W) x 182 mm (H)
Net weight of the Unit: 8.3kg
Working Principle of Perspirometer:
The perspirometer consists of a number of acrylic plates and which can be kept in suitable loading frame.
The loading frame consists of two steel plates between which the acrylic plates placed.
The test specimen are stitched between suitable white cloth pieces and dipped in either alkaline or acidic test solutions.
The composite sample is placed in between any two acrylic plates.
A number of test specimens can be loaded simultaneously between different sets of acrylic plates by stacking them one above the other.
Loading is done by keeping a standard dead weight on top of the upper plate assembly, which consists of two parallel plates separated by suitable compensating springs.
The guide rod attached to top plate of this assembly is locked while under load and the load removed.
The springs compensate for subsequent variations in load due to variation in thickness of the test specimens on drying. The test is continued for the required time under the specified condition of temperature.
After this the samples are removed from the frame and dried.
The degree of staining of the while pieces of cloths and change in color of the test specimens are evaluated using gray scales and compared against standard rating cards.
Figure 2: Grey scales: (top) the scale used to assess staining and (bottom) the scale used for the assessment of color change in the sample
Founder & Editor of Textile Learner. He is a Textile Consultant, Blogger & Entrepreneur. Mr. Kiron is working as a textile consultant in several local and international companies. He is also a contributor of Wikipedia.
