Quality assurance: choosing the right fabric

The Martindale abrasion tester simulates the daily wear and tear of covers. The material to be tested is rubbed against a standard material made of wool, depending on the use, given a certain weight load. This results in a wear number, from which point the fabric begins to wear out. As soon as two threads wear out. The test is aborted and the abrasion cycles are counted. The higher the number of tours, the more resistant the fabric. For private use, at least 10,000 abrasion cycles should be achieved with low consumption, and 15,000 for everyday use. In order to be able to withstand the heavy use in a public environment, it should be 20,000 to 30,000 rubs. The following applies: synthetic fibers are usually more abrasion-resistant than natural fibers and polyamides have the highest resistance.

In addition to abrasion cycles and pilling resistance, other decisive values are the rub and lightfastness of fabrics. Rubbing fastness describes the resistance of the color of furniture fabrics to being rubbed off or rubbed off on other textiles. Jeans and T-shirt fabrics, for example, can rub off on upholstered furniture. But that can also happen the other way around. In general, light shades are more resistant to rubbing than dark ones. The scale ranges from 1 to 5, where 5 means very high rub fastness - the test is carried out both dry and wet using a rubbing fabric. When it comes to lightfastness, the resistance of the fabric to the effects of light is tested. In general, every cover fades in direct sunlight, although synthetic fibers and dark colors are more permanent than natural fibers and light colors. For the measurement process, a material sample is exposed to light and then rated on a scale from 1 to 8, where 1 denotes very low light resistance. A lightfastness level of at least 4 to 5 is recommended for upholstery fabrics. At the same time, upholstered furniture should also be protected from direct sunlight - because not only high-quality fabrics are important, but also correct handling.