Digital Pilling tester
Pilling is the formation on the surface of a fabric of small balls of entangled fiber. It is a fabric surface fault characterized by little pills of entangled fibers clinging to the surface. These are formed during wearing or washing by the entanglement of the loose fibers, which protrude from the fabric surface, and development of these into spherical bundle anchored to the fabric by a few unbroken fibers. These give a very unsightly look to the garments.
To determine the tendency to form pills, test specimen taken from the fabric sample is sewn, so as to be a firm fit, when placed round a moulded polyurethane tube. Four tubes are placed in each of the two Boxes provided in the Tester. The Boxes are set in motion for an agreed number of revolutions. After tumbling, the extent of Pilling is determined visually against photographic standards.