HAIR RAISING TEST IN KOREA
21 August 2006 - Lloyd Instruments

As the ever-changing face of fashion surges ahead, the popularity of wigs and artificial hairdesigns has never been greater. The complexity of wig design is now being pushed and pulled to the limits by a leading manufacturer in Korea using the latest materials testing equipment from Lloyd Instruments.

Whether hand crafted or mass produced, artificial hair pieces typically consist of manythousands of individual hair filaments. A vast choice of materials is now available, including synthetic fibres and human hair. For wig manufacturers, quality control is vital to success,and now access to test equipment from Lloyd Instruments can help advances in productdevelopment programmes quicker than ever before.

Using a Lloyd Instruments LRXPlus 5 kN testing machine, fitted with a special TG12 BollardWire/Yarn/Thread grip, the physical and mechanical properties of individual pieces andbundles of pieces can be evaluated. Tests include measuring maximum load (up to apotential 30 kgf), extension at max load, and extension at half load on both real human hairand artificial hair. The force data can then be compared with the filament 'denier' weight in each design to achieve a final result in gf/denier. Wigs are designed and confirmed byexacting standards, and suppliers obtain all the necessary test data in a tailor-made reportusing Lloyd Instruments' NEXYGEN MT software that controls the testing machine.

The LRXPlus is extremely easy to set-up and operate and offers the added advantage of theflexibility to design special test programmes to suit individual needs using the Ondioapplication builder package. The entire test set-up can be transferred from the research lab tothe production line. The LRXPlus can also be used to test other factors (such as fabricstrength and adhesive peel) simply by changing over the sample grip and loadcell.

The work is currently being carried out in conjunction with a major university in Korea, whichpossesses two Lloyd Instruments testing machines: a 5 kN LR5KPlus twin column testing machine (in its Chemical Engineering Department) and a 5 kN single column LRXPlus (in its Polymer Engineering Department).

http://www.lloyd-instruments.co.uk

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