Evaluation of the performance of elastic band used for ready made garment manufacturing

The ready made garment in Egypt is facing tremendous competition in the local and external markets. Most of the garment mills pay more attention to the quality export products and neglect the local market, so by the time they are losing the local market share which is gained by the Chinese and the Syrian products. One of the major problems found in many ready made garments is the degradation of the elastic band due to laundry. Therefore, the aim of the work is to study the methods of testing and factors affecting the performance of the elastic band due to successive washes, in order to insure good performance during usage. One of the large companies in knitting garment manufacturing received customer complains from stores that the elastic waste band used in the under wear is becoming lose and loses its elasticity after washing. Therefore, 15 samples from different types of elastic band were tested, using different materials, structure, finishing methods and widths. Results show that the type of the rubber band used and the way of storage before and after manufacture have a great influence on the performance of the elastic band in the garment. A testing technique is introduced to insure the performance of the rubber band is going to be reliable during its life time.