A fascinating mix of important topics

Citation

Stylios, G.K. (2008), "A fascinating mix of important topics", International Journal of Clothing Science and Technology, Vol. 20 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijcst.2008.05820eaa.001

A fascinating mix of important topics

Article Type: Editorial From: International Journal of Clothing Science and Technology, Volume 20, Issue 5

Issue five, the last issue of this volume before the research register, consists of five papers of diverse interest. I will try to discuss these papers in order to see the enormous spread of interests in the science and technology of clothes.

Paper one deals with an ever difficult problem of garment manufacture; the optimum layout of the machines at the assembly line. This topic of course, has undergone investigation by other researchers in the past, the interesting treatment in this one is the use of genetic algorithms as a tool which is an interesting approach and powerful as a solution solver.

The paper is limited to a single row of sewing machines and the authors should be encouraged to apply more complex layouts in order to test their approach, if it is to be more applicable to industry.

Paper two deals with body scanning, an area of interest for size and shape, for CAD and for mass customisation. Again IJCST and other journals have been publishing papers in this area over the last few years; however, everybody accepts that data collection, normalisation and presentation, and the accuracy of these data are still areas of debate.

This paper, although limited in one example, has attempted, for the first time, to use a CT scanner for comparison. This approach needs to continue in a much more extensive study incorporating other body scanners and more data points of the body.

Paper three takes us to the effects of weave type on the dimensional stability of fabrics, which is certainly not new, but nevertheless important, especially for the increasing community of design students and researchers who sometimes forget the importance that the different weave types have on garment creation and quality.

The paper is restricted in using cotton fabrics only, desized and for one warp and weft sett. Expanding to other weave types and to dyeing and finishing will enable a more generic knowledge to be obtained, whilst making the results interesting to industrial product quality and performance.

Paper four deals with heat transfer investigations of a liquid cooling garment based on a novel thermal manikin. The paper is interesting because it covers two important areas; the area of liquid cooling of garments which is of immense interest for many applications; competition sports, special forces, etc. and the area of thermal manikin in which recently we have started seeing more realistic developments of human-like manikin bodies and skins. From the academic point of view the authors are showing an effective method to control heat-dissipating capacity of a liquid cooling garment by changing inlet temperature rather than by changing liquid velocity, an original conclusion.

The last paper is very interesting and describes an original investigation of the influence of garments on the corona discharge of humans. Iza Ciesielska and co-workers have shown that corona discharge from our fingers can be related to our comfort, in some degree, and have tried to relate it to our heart beat and blood pressure. The work is interesting and should be expanded with many more fabric groups. One should also ask the question whether or not this approach may also investigate fabric handle.

Again, well done to the authors, it is fascinating to have such a vast array of spread of important topics that make clothing science and technology such an interesting area of research and scholarship.

George K. Stylios