Investigation into the UV-protection of woven fabrics composed of metallic weft yarns

Abstract

The destructive effects of sun UV radiation on human skins are now very clear to everyone. Most of the present studies were focused on the fabrics’ structural parameters such as density, warp and weft yarns finenesses, fabric pattern and printing or finishing treatments applied to the fabrics. The aim of this work is achieving a technique through which the produced fabrics possess a higher UV-protection ability. For this purpose, two different metals including aluminium and copper yarns were employed in fabrics production process and their effects on UV-protection ability of the produced fabrics were investigated. Six different fabric samples comprised of either cotton/polyester, nylon yarns as the warp yarns as well as either aluminium or copper yarns as the weft yarns were produced. Using the spectrophotometer technique, which is known as one of the UPF measuring method, the absorbency and reflectivity of fabrics within the specified range of electromagnetic waves (specially the UV radiation) were determined. The results illustrated that the higher UV absorbency was related to the fabric possessing the copper yarns in their structures. It was concluded that the absorption ability of nylon fabrics is higher than that of the cotton/polyester samples.