Science Fair Projects Research on Fabrics

Look at the rest of Tasmiha's science fair projects with fabrics.

Science Fair Projects Research on Fabrics Introduction

(webmaster's comment). This is not project research. Project research is reporting on original research that has been done by others that pertains to your hypothesis.

Fabrics are a great factor in life. They have numerous amount of uses. One of them is that they are used for clothes. We need clothes to survive. We use different types of clothes in different periods of time. When the sizzling sun comes out in the summer sky, we wear lightweight clothes. When the angry blizzards come in winter, we usually wear clothes that are thick enough to make ourselves feel warm. Have you ever paid attention to what clothes are made up of? They are made up of different types of yarns and strings, which give different textures.

Some fabrics may have blends of cotton and polyester. Others may have polyester and nylon. You know when to wear each type of clothing according to the weather. But what would you wear on a rainy day? You and your friends decide to go horseback riding. You looked outside your window this morning and watched the weatherman say, “Eighty degrees today, with clear skies.” You definitely wouldn’t take your jacket or wear something heavy. You enjoy your ride…. but all of a sudden it starts to rain. Being prepared for the weather of a certain day is definitely the right thing to do. I experienced this particular event many times. Therefore, I decided to do this experiment. I wanted to see which type of fabric dries the fastest. This way, I can always be ready on a rainy day.

Purpose - Science Fair Projects Research on Fabrics: Many people experienced times when they are unprepared for the climate. For example, it is a rainy day and they do not have suitable clothing for the weather. If they have a certain type of material for their clothing that will allow leakage of the rain into their clothes, that is not suitable their for them. The purpose of my experiment is to see which type of fabric can dry the fastest. This way I can always be ready on a rainy day.

• Polyester
  As I mentioned earlier, different cloths give different textures. I will give you some brief information about each type of cloth.

  Polyester is a form of plastic used in textiles and other objects. It is commonly used to make fabrics. When dihydric alcohol and terephalic acids combine, polyester forms.

  Polyester is classified into two groups of polymers, condensation and addition. A polymer is a chemical compound formed by union of small molecules and usually consisting of repeating structural units. Polymers are used for films, plastics and fabrics.

  Wallace Hume Carothers founded polyester in 1929. After World War II, which was from 1939-1945, British scientists Jon Whinfield and J.T. Dickson improved on Carothers’s experiments. Their tests made a stronger polyester, called Terylene, which produced usable fibers.

  Processing polyester takes a good amount of work. First, the heated polyester is passed through small holes in a metal plate. The fibers are then partially cooled to set the strands. Next, they are passed between two rollers that rotate at different speeds. The greater there is in difference in rotation speeds, the stronger the strength of the fiber.

  Polyester includes unsaturated, saturated, and aromatic thermoplastic polyesters. Thermoplastic means to be capable of softening when heated and of hardening again when cooled. Another substance, which is called p-phenylene, is added for stiffening and leads to polymers with a high temperature, which makes it softer and more useful.

  Different polyester fibers have different characteristics. Polyester normally absorbs little moisture and can be washed or dry-cleaned. This fabric melts at about 260° C, which is about 500°F.

  Polyester was very popular back in the 1970s. Their popularity probably decreased because polyester didn’t have the texture and feeling of natural fabrics such as cotton and wool. However, polyester is still a main fabric used.

  There is a polyester fiber called polyethylene terephthalate, or PET. This fiber is used in many items such as tire cords, shrink-wrap, and clothing. It resists a various number of chemicals.

• Nylon:
  On October 27,1938, the first synthetic fiber was invented by Charles Stine. Stine received a whole lot of money just because of his discovery. He also received $115,000 to build a new laboratory for a fundamental research. To do this, he needed lots of people to work. At first, he believed that he should hire people who had fine abilities and were well experienced. However, it ended up that he hired people who were pretty good at scientific research, but didn’t really have a high reputation. In this way, he and the other experienced people could determine the nature of the work of the men with a low reputation.

  By the beginning of 1928, Stine had hired a thirty-one year old instructor from Harvard University named Wallace Hume Carothers. Carothers made important discoveries that included nylon.

• Cotton:
  Cotton is a natural vegetable fiber that plays a major role in texturing. It is a raw material that people use because it’s so easy to use and spin into yarn.

  Small trees and shrubs of a class belonging to the mallow family produce cotton. The mallow family includes hibiscus, okra, and mallow, which are a type of herb that has round leaves, pale pink flowers, and disk-like fruit.

  There are different types of cotton produced from different places in the world. For example, there’s a certain species of cotton grown in Asia and another in the West Indies. There’s also Egyptian and Sea Island cotton. There’s American-Egyptian cotton that is known as Pima cotton.

  The original habitats of the different species of cotton are almost impossible to see. Cotton has been used for more than 7,000 years ago. It has been used by a variety amount of people, such as the Chinese, Egyptians, North and South Americans, and European settlers.

  Cotton is best produced in a place where there is plenty of water, sunshine, and dry weather for harvest. In the United States, cotton is commonly produced from northern Florida to North Carolina and westward to California. Obviously, cotton production appears nearly countrywide. Lots of machinery has been invented to help the cotton cause.

  On the underside of each leaf of the cotton plant, there is a small, cup-like structure. This structure holds nectar, which attracts several insect pests. The biggest part of all is the boll weevil. The boll weevil is parasitic on cotton all over the world. This really causes a problem because it leads to loss of cotton and loss of the money that could have been earned from the cotton. Some other examples of insect pests are armyworms, thrips, lygus, and the red spiders.

  Because of these insect pests, there have been serious diseases. For example, the cotton plant became a wilt. A fungus that enters the roots from the soil and manufactures a poison caused this. This disease is called the wilt-resistant strains. However, that is not the only disease. There are other diseases such as bolt tot and anthracnose, which are both caused by sac fungus. Therefore, the best control is to use seeds from fungus-free fields.

  Processing cotton takes hard work. When the cotton arrives at the cotton gin, it is sucked into the building through pipes placed in the trailers or the trucks that carry it. In many plants, the cotton first enters dryers that reduce the moisture of the cotton so that it can be easier to process. Then the cotton travels next to equipment that removes materials that will not help the processing, such as sticks and dirt. The cotton is then moved to the gin stand. Here, the lint, or the fibers of the cotton that isn’t ginned, is separated from the seeds. Then the lint is packed tightly into bales. Then the cotton fiber is processed to make yarn, cloth, etc.

  Cotton is the fourth-leading cash crop in the United States, ranking just behind corn, soybeans, wheat, and hay. The states of Texas, California, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Arizona produce the most cotton in this country.

  From 1973-1974, there was a world economic recession. During this period, the production and consumption of cotton dropped. However, production fell faster than consumption, which wasn't good because it meant that people would want cotton, but wouldn't receive it because of the decrease of production.

Source: Life Science by Prentice Hall and Google.com