Long-term exposure to UV light can result in acceleration of skin ageing, photo-dermatosis, erythemal, sunburn, increased risk of skin cancer, eye and DNA damage. Clothing can provide convenient personal protection. However not all fabrics offer sufficient UV protection. Ultraviolet Protection Factor (UPF) of fabrics depends on fabric materials, and fabric construction. Choosing suitable fabric type and construction are deemed to present the simplest and cheapest solution to achieve good personal UV protection without additional finishing processes. The present study aims at developing UV protective fabric based on polyester and metallic yarns. The effect of number of weft yarns thereof and fabric constructions on the ultimate UPF of the produced fabrics were investigated. For this regard, two kinds of yarn materials were chosen to construct fabrics, namely, polyester PES and metallic yarns. 100% PES yarns were used for warping, whereas weft yarn were verified with three different blending ratios namely, 100%, PES, 50/50 PES/metallic and 100% metallic. For each blending ratio three kind of construction and picks number were exploit. The fabrics were monitored for UPF, scanning electron microscopy and EDX. The results show that, highest UPF (93.3) was obtained with fabric made from: 100% PES warp yarn and metallic/polyester (50/50) weft yarn, constructed using satin weaving construction with picks number of 28 pick/cm.
Fabric construction, Metallic yarns, Polyester, UV Protective, UPF, Weaving,
