Practical Considerations of the FTT Device for Fabric Comfort Evaluation

The Fabric Touch Tester (FTT) is a device used to measure fabric handle properties. Since the device is considerably new in the market, no standard is available for now and the only reference for users is the brief guidelines by the manufacturer. Having done the experiments for more than 100 types of samples on FTT, the gathered experiences are reported in this paper including the handling of the device, possible analysis to be performed with the FTT data and other possible tests on fabric comfort related matters. We found that extensive care is needed to verify the accuracy of the device sensors, reference samples must be acquired, and a different test setup is required. The default comfort models also must be controlled using panel testing when testing new types of fabrics, and replaced with own models if needed. Apart from these, the FTT is a very useful addition towards fast and reliable comfort testing.