Identifying the Shrinkage % of the Sample Fabric

Standard Shrinkage Measurement Cardboard

 

A weighting machine 

How much doe it Weigh!

A square cardboard of 50 square centimeter

A fabric sample for any particular style is brought. It is then kept on the table.

Fabric Sample

The shrinkage cardboard is brought and kept on the fabric sample.

Cardboard is placed somewhere away from the selvedge of the fabric.

According to the grain-line of the fabric that cardboard is diligently placed.

Then, it is marked at all 4 point by using permanent marker.

Washing Machine

Then the sample is washed, colloquially in industry we call this as CPL.

Tumble Dry

After drying the sample (Tumble Dry) the shrinkage % is calculated.

Then, the sample is re-measured to see if there is any decrease or increase in the dimension of the sample.

shrinkage% = (a-b) x 100/a

Where b is new dimension of fabric & a is the old dimension of fabric.

For instance, hypothetically let say a=50 cm and after washing and drying b=48 cm then

shrinkage%= (50-48) x 100 /50

= 4 %

+or -4% is acceptable in Industry.

This process is done in both length and width dimension.

If there are any discrepancies in measurement then it is notified to the Production Manager.

Sometime the fabric can also increase in dimension .

Based on the shrinkage or expansion of the fabric the pattern is re-adjusted, otherwise this will jeopardize whole production system.