Burning behaviour and mechanical properties of fabrics woven with ring spun aramid and flame retardant polyester yarns

In recent years, demand for flame resistant fibres and fabrics has been growing rapidly in the market, especially for the manufacture of garments for protection in environments where there are hazards such as electric arc discharge, molten metal splashes and fire. In this study, para-aramid, meta-aramid and flame retardant polyester (FR PES) staple fibres were spun on the ring frame to produce the woven fabrics especially for the applications where protection against heat and flame is important. For the production of woven fabrics, three different yarn counts (10, 20, 30 Ne) of para-aramid, meta-aramid and FR PES yarns were spun as weft yarns and 2-ply spun paraaramid yarns (30/2 Ne) were used as warp yarns. The effect of yarn count and fibre type on the mechanical and flammability properties of the woven fabrics were investigated and evaluated statistically. Furthermore, to compare the carbonized areas on the flame spread test samples, binarization technique was employed by image analysis software