2003 Volume 54 Issue 6 Pages 477-483
A convenient method for testing the mechanical action in machine washing developed by the Danish Technological Institute (D.T.I.) is now widely accepted to evaluate the mechanical action in household and commercial launderings. This method uses a plain weave cotton cloth having five holes 35 mm in diameter and determines the mechanical action as the total number of threads loosened and bridging at the hole edges. However, this D.T.I. method tends to underestimate when the mechanical action exceeds a certain limit, especially in heavy washing, since the method does not take into account the considerable number of broken and released threads at the hole edges, and the size of the test pieceused, which is always 40 cm × 40 cm, for household washing machines. In this paper, we proposed amodified method of improving the above testing procedure. In this method, we accounted for the total number of released and deformed threads in addition to the loosened threads. Using a small-sized MA test pieces having one circular hole 35 mm in diameter and fixed on a specified position on test cloths and washed in a standard Japanese washing machine. It became clear that the larger the model cloths, the larger the MA values. By fixing the small-sized MA test pieces with artificially soiled test cloths adjacently on the test cloths, the relationship between detergency and mechanical action was evaluated simultaneously.
