I01-P 07 On Line Weight and Shrinkage Control of Cotton Knits October Report I01-P07 Investigators: Mohamed Abou-iiana, (Philadelphia

University), PI Chris Pastore (Philadelphia University), Co-Investigator Claire Beevers (Philadelphia University), Co-Investigator Yasser Gowayed (Auburn University), Co-Investigator Goals: The major objective of this research is to establish a fundamental scheme for on line dimensional control of knitted goods. This will be achieved through the design and construction of a customizable prototype image quality acquisition probe to determine the fractional space covered by the knitted loop. The project will develop and correlate the imaged area space covered by the yarn to the relaxed loop state. Further, a physical model of yarn behavior in a knitted loop configuration will be developed. The Problem: The problems of weight and shrinkage control of cotton knits has a long and notorious history. If the shrinkage of woven fabrics was known, then the dimensional instability of knitted fabric was recognized as even of more practical significance. Studies of the equilibrium state of dry relaxed plain fabrics have led to significant results. It has been found that the surface density of unit cells is a function dependent primarily on the length of the yarn per unit cell and is independent of the yarn material, yarn structure and the system of knitting. Another condition of equilibrium which the most important from the practical point of view is the natural ratio of length to width of the fabric. This can be conveniently expressed in terms of the ratio of courses to stitches per inch and bears directly on the problem of estimating correct boarding and finished dimensions. In the STARFISH and KFET concepts extensive studies of dimensional changes and prediction of finished knitted behavior have provided set of working principles and a comprehensive data base so that a simple rational, reliable prediction system can be gradually be erected and eventually perfected. These major studies intended to embody the idea that any given finishing routine is expected, in principle to exert a unique on the final state of a given quality fabric. The idea was to be able to predict the final stage engineer certain structure even before starting knitting. None of the previous studies were capable to adjust and on-line control of the knitting process. Researchers in the past were analyzing and predicting the phenomenon. New

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research is needed to auto-control the fabric fractional area space on the machine and indicate any deviation from the set predetermined dimensions Rational and Background: The knitted structure consists essentially of a yarn bent into the shape a loop, and this basic element, the loop repeated across the width of the fabric and along its length. The distinctive property of a knitted fabric is its high extensibility in both length and width, which gives it the ability to take up the shape of the wearer and allows it to fit. In addition the recovery of the fabric from extension is poor so that after removal of applied forces the fabric tends to remain in a distorted configuration rather than return to its undistorted shape. Thus any attempt to specify the dimensional properties of a knitted fabric in terms of length or width parameter (courses per inch and wales per inch) is subject to high degree of inaccuracy. Nevertheless, the construction of a fabric is still today frequently described in terms of courses per inch. It is the use of this unreliable and inaccurate parameter for specifying the tightness of a knitted construction which is directly or indirectly responsible for many of the problems associated with the control of dimensions of knitted fabrics. This characteristics of a knitted fabric when strained in length or width is due to the fact that the loop shape is easily distorted under low strain conditions and is caused by a change in loop shape without any associated stretching the yarn forming the loop. Therefore the one parameter of the fabric which is not changed when the fabric is distorted is the length of the yarn knitted into the stitch. The use of this parameter offers a more exact method of specifying the fabric construction than a linear measurement such as courses per inch. In industrial setting, the techniques of counting the course per inch, wales per inch or unraveling the fabric to determine stitch length are subjected to human error. An Automatic structure analysis and objective evaluation of knit structures using image analysis techniques will determine fabric construction parameters and eliminate the subjectivity of the human element. Therefore, to gain control over the characteristics of the fabric performance, the single knitted loop must be controlled to meet certain performance criteria. The problem then arise of how to determine that a knitted loop is the correct size and shape for a given set of fabric properties. The answer lies in the ability to objectively measure the knitted loop size/shape during processing. Once the loop shape in a fabric is measured, then loops of that size/shape can be correlated with specific properties of that fabric. With the advent of computers, and more specifically image analysis and processing, this age old problem of measuring a knitted loop size / shape has been solved. Now and during fabric processing, a loop can characterized in a matter of seconds with great accuracy instead of the traditional inaccurate techniques of measuring the course spacing or courses per unit length. Computers have not only provided an accurate method for characterizing the loop shape but also provide a means for checking the loop shape to the required shape to achieve certain fabric properties.

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System Configuration and Image Analysis: The configuration of the image analyzer used in this study was a color CCD camera to capture the fabric images and a lighting device. Critical Evaluation of Software used in Image Recognition: A thorough investigation of software options were investigated to provide a scripting or programming language for image processing of knit structures, these options are: 1. Matlab: Elegant interface with many functions. It is easy to program and gives us a handle on the internal structure of an image as a 2D matrix 2. Custom made C/C ++ code, it has many functions and can accept processing kernel. The only problem is that it runs on UNIX machine due to a conflict in recognition of TIFE format between PCs and SUN machines which hard to fix. Scripting is fairly easy and can be done using a simple text file 3. IMAQ from Labview has excellent WYSIWYG image analysis and pattern recognition interface. It has also an image acquisition board that comes with it that can help automate the whole process (acquisition, processing and measurement). The mode of batch imaging processing in this software depends on easy to use scripting language with a graphical user interface. Samples Preparation: Plain knit (single jersey) is the most common form of knit structures, therefore, it was decided to use knit plain fabric in this initial experimental work. Knit samples were made from different yarn sizes and machine cuts, greige fabric and colored samples were used as well. Initial Image Capturing trials: The initial image capturing trials indicated that the specimen preparation and alignments are critical parameters in the clarity of the image, for example in the 10 cut sample images data coming out of them were difficult to interpret. The software dumps the x and y coordinates of each feature with no specific order. The problem can not be solved experimentally due to the inherent flexibility of the knit ( if the coursewise direction was aligned then the waleswise direction will be misaligned. Future Plans 1- A strategy will be developed to take images o knit structures with consistent light intensity

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2- Images of these data can will be obtained for loop and stitches location using IMAQ 3- A mathematical /statistical modeling procedures are required to analyze the data

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