Textile Surface Quality Finishes: Pilling
Fabrics, especially wool have a high tendency to pills, which could cause a large decline in share price of wool in the wool fibres market.
Pilling is caused by a natural fibre migration from the yarns to the fabric surface as the fabric rubs against itself, another fabric, or even the skin.
Many in the standards development process have come to realize that inter-lab variability is often not due to differences in the instruments but rather in the Pilling Evaluation and Grading.
Visual evaluation of pilled fabrics may be specified by the standard, that laboratory must meet. Photographs or control fabrics are often used for these evaluations, but in either case, standardized lighting and viewing conditions are critical to reproducible ratings
Examination of pilling on different types of fabrics
Different types of fabric are made up of different fibres.
Fibres such as wool, cotton, polyester, nylon and acrylic have a tendency to pill the most, but wool pilling diminishes over time as non-tenacious wool fibres work themselves free of the fabric and break away, whereas pilling of synthetic textiles is a more serious problem, because stronger fibres hold on to the pills and preventing them from falling off.
Fabrics with a large number of loose fibres have higher tendency to pill. Also, knitted fabrics tend to pill more than woven fabrics because of the greater distance between yarn crossing in knitted fabrics than in woven ones
METHODS OF MEASUREMENT
Evaluation should be made by taking into account the size, number and visibility of the pills as well as the types and degree of other surface change
ICI PILLING BOX
