As part of an ongoing research programme at Bolton Institute the dimensional changes and distortion exhibited by some commercially available weft knitted cotton fabrics were systematically investigated during repeated laundering. It was determined, indirectly, that agitation during tumble drying caused 24% of the changes observed. It was also determined that the level of shrinkage increased significantly as the moisture content of the fabrics fell below 30% during tumble drying. Further work has established that the same pattern of sharply increasing levels of shrinkage occurred whether or not heat was applied during tumble drying. Drying the same fabrics in a heated environment without agitation failed to cause the same increase in shrinkage levels during drying. As part of this investigation it was also shown that over drying below the knitted fabrics' normal level of moisture content caused significant shrinkage.
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