Sheepskin refers to the hide taken from a sheep and is composed of a layer of skin and the attached hair. It has unique fabric handle properties, and sheepskin quality assessments generally depend on a subjective hand evaluation via sensory test. Therefore, it is necessary to measure the fabric handle of sheepskin mechanically. For this study, we focused on KEGOMI-KAN (Feeling of Denseness, Richness, and Fullness of Hair) which is one of the evaluation terms for the fabric handle of sheepskins, and attempted to clarify the relationship between the tactile sensation and the mechanical properties of sheepskin. Also, a new three dimensional tactile sensation measurement system (3D-TSMS), which was composed of a capacitance three-axis force sensor and a three dimensional cartesian manipulator, was developed to measure the surface friction coefficient. For surface testing, the surface characteristic parameters were calculated as follows: mean of friction coefficient (MIU) and mean deviation of friction coefficient (MMD). As a result of the statistical comparison analysis, it was determined that MIU was an appropriate parameter for the quantitative evaluation of KEGOMI-KAN.

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We evaluated the performance of woven carpets made in Japan in accordance with European classification scheme of pile carpets defined by BS EN 1307. Sixty two commercial woven carpets having pile fiber content of 100% wool or 80% wool/20% nylon were used as the samples. These samples were manufactured for contract use. Among the samples, fifty seven samples were classified into category of “thick and heavy carpets (denoted L)” or category of “intermediate carpets (denoted M)”. The Use Class for each sample was determined from the wear index and appearance retention class which was applied to the samples belonged to categories “L” and “M”. 14.0% of the samples were categorized into use class 2 (Normal domestic use). The remaining 86.0% of the samples were classified into use class 3 (General contract use) or class 4 (Heavy contract use). Therefore, it was found that the almost of commercial woven carpets manufactured in Japan were suitable for the contract use in European region.

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