Sensory evaluation of the touch of a great number of fabrics

Evaluating fabric touch can be a great interest for the industry in order to match the quality needs of the consumer and the parameters of the manufacturing process. The present paper reports the approach of a panel used to categorize the touch of 43 different fabrics obtained through a change of five parameters of fabrication. Incomplete block design was chosen by the panelists for the evaluation of the samples. Analyses of the differences among samples were carried out with ANOVA. The Newman–Keuls test was used to evaluate the influence of the process parameters on the values of four sensorial attributes. The average rating of the attributes evaluated by the panel varied significantly with modification of the yarn count, the yarn torsion or the fabric tightness. This variation follows the textile know how.