Wicking Test

During intense workouts, most clothing will keep the moisture trapped and prevent sweat from evaporating quickly. Mositure wicking fabric can help keep you comfortable to promote moisture transport away from your skin to help you stay cool and dry.

Moisture wicking is the ability of fabric to move liquid quickly to the outer layer for drying. Moisture is wicked and siphoned away from the body. It is determined by the capacity of vertically aligned fabric specimens to transport liquid along and/or through them.

Good moisture wicking properties can help maintain body temperature when exercising in cold weather as heat transfer from the body to a wet garment is much faster than to a dry garment. The wearer would feel comfortable after the skin temperature cools to a certain level and stops sweating. This ability ensures the absorption and release of moisture to the surface for quick evaporation.

For vertical wicking test, AATCC 197 is one of the standard methods. In this standard, the bottom of the specimen comes into contact with water. Then, the wicking distance by specified time intervals is recorded. The higher the wicking distance at the same interval, the better the fabric is in wicking.

For the horizontal wicking, AATCC 198 is one of the standard methods that we commonly use. A specific amount of water is given from specific height. The time of the water spreading out from center to the edge of circle (100mm in diameter) is recorded. In this method, the shorter the time, the better the wicking is.