Motivated by the recent blockchain technology originally built for bitcoin transactions, various industries are exploring the opportunities to redefine their existing operational systems. In this study, an innovative environmentally sustainable solution is proposed for the fashion apparel manufacturing industry (FAMI), which is energized by blockchain. Incorporating the Emission Trading Scheme (ETS), and a novel "emission link" system, the proposed framework exposes carbon emission to the public and establishes a feature to reduce the emissions for all key steps of clothing making. Fully compatible with Industry 4.0, blockchain provides decentralization, transparency, automation, and immutability characteristics to the proposed framework. Specifically, the blockchain supported ETS framework, the carbon emissions of clothing manufacturing life cycle, and the emission link powered procedures are introduced in detail. A case study is provided to demonstrate the carbon emission evaluation procedure. Finally, a multi-criteria evaluation is performed to demonstrate the benefits and drawbacks of the proposed system.

AbstractWarp-knitted spacer fabrics are generally used for sportswear, functional clothing, protective clothing, and other applications. This article studied the heat and mass transfer properties of polyester warp-knitted spacer fabrics from low thickness (2 mm) to high thickness (20 mm), from low mass (247.34 g/m2) to high mass (1,585.9 g/m2), and surface structure in plain or mesh construction. Water vapor permeability, air permeability, water absorption, and thermal insulation property were conducted to evaluate the spacer fabrics. The results revealed that with increasing volume density the water vapor permeability of spacer fabrics decreased, but the water absorption ratio increased. The water vapor permeability of fabrics increased when thickness decreased and volume density increased. It was further found that spacer fabrics with mesh worn nearby the skin and plain structure worn far from the skin could facilitate water vapor and air transmission. The difference of 8.82% for water vapor permeability and 14.19% for air permeability were found between testing mesh side up and down for the spacers (2.56 and 3.37 mm), respectively. Thermal insulation ratio was highly and significantly correlated with heat transfer coefficient at −0.958 and with thickness at 0.917. Thermal insulation ratio is highly and significantly correlated with air permeability at 0.941.

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Skin wetness and body water loss are important indexes to reflect the heat strain of the human body. According to ISO 7933 2004, the skin wetness and sweat rate are calculated by the evaporative heat flow and the maximum evaporative heat flow in the skin surface, etc. This work proposes the soft textile-based sensor, which was knitted by stainless steel/polyester blended yarn on the flat knitting machine. It investigated the relationship between electrical resistance in the weft/warp directions and different water absorption ratio (0–70%), different sample size (2 cm × 2 cm, 2 cm × 4 cm, 2 cm × 6 cm and 2 cm × 8 cm). The hydrophilic treatment effectively improved the water absorption ratio increasing from 40% to 70%. The weft and warp direction exhibited different electrical behaviors when under dry and wet conditions. It suggested the weft direction of knitted fabrics was recommended for detecting the electrical resistance due to its stable sensitivity and linearity performance. It could be used as a flexible sensor integrated into a garment for measuring the skin wetness and sweat rate in the future instead of traditional measurements.

Warp knitted mesh fabric was usually applied to sportswear due to good air transmission, but without multilayer structure and one-way transport property. In order to solve this problem, the miss-lapping structure was applied to examine the possibility to fabricate multilayer and improve water transport in warp knitting structure. Besides, the effect of thread type and warp density on comfort properties were also exploited to enhance the moisture management. The moisture management test, water vapor permeability and air permeability were examined. Long float at the back side in structure I formed by miss-lapping could improve liquid transport and air permeability, but slightly reduce water vapor permeability. With proper density, there existed the optimal one-way transport capacity and overall moisture management. Warp density in 20 cpc was an optimal parameter of knitting process. Taking advantage of miss-lapping, sample 5 where polypropylene was partly threaded on GB1 provided best moisture management, water vapor permeability and air permeability.

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