The touch or comfort of a nonwoven or textile product becomes a more and more important quality parameter. Different expectations of different people, especially when they are coming from completely different parts in the world make it hard to create the right mix of soft and smooth and flexible or stiff. Additionally each type of nonwoven or textile product needs its own mix, a t-shirt needs to feel different compared to a pair of jeans, a wet wipe needs to feel different compared to a baby diaper. Humans can rank or rate different qualities of a nonwoven or textile product according to the overall haptic impression. But for a human it is hard to say, why one product is preferred over the other, is it because of a softer or smoother feel or is one a bit more flexible than the other one? Those questions cannot be answered by hand tests.
The emtec TSA Tactile Sensation Analyzer in comparison to this measures the three basic haptic parameters micro-surface variations (determine the feeling of softness), macro-surface variations (determine the feeling of smoothness) and the stiffness. Besides the three, plasticity and hysteresis, which determine the recovery, and the elasticity (elongation) are measured objectively and individually by the device. From all these parameters, a hand feel value (touch, comfort) can be calculated by algorithms. The algorithms need to be adapted to the market where the tested product is supposed to be sold and to its application. Hand feel values, calculated by adapted algorithms, often show a correlation of up to almost 100 percent to the human perception.
