Textile Lab Testing
The objective of this particular lab experiment was to observe the varying lightfastness, or color fastness to light, of different fabrics.
Rationale: "Lightfastness is an important property of fabrics intended for certain end use products, such as home furnishings, particularly window treatments and other items that will receive heavy exposure to sunlight or artificial light" (ATEXINC, Corp).
Two types of fiber were tested and compared:
Natural:
Fabric Name: Cotton
Fiber Content: 100% Cotton
Stage of dyeing: Fiber dyed
Main color: Magenta, high intensity, and bright
Man-Made:
Fabric Name: Polyester Pongee
Fiber Content: 100% Polyester
Stage of dyeing: Solution-dyed
Main color: Pale pink - low intensity
Results:
The cotton fabric started to fade each week. The beginning didn't show much of a change, but by the 5th week, there was a noticeable change. At the 9th week, there was a significant change. During Week 15, there was an even more significant change, where the fabric was no longer an intense magenta color.
The polyester fabric actually didn't change much through out the weeks. Week 5 had a slight change, but it wasn't really too noticeable. By Week 15, there were no more changes; it remained the same pale pink.
This test showed that cotton has very poor colorfastness while polyester has very good colorfastness.
Please click on an image to enlarge.