Fabric Tightness - Designing the right fabric

Standardizing woven fabrics, for comparison, can be done, by using parameters like fabric degree of tightness. This facilitates the creation of similar fabrics with variable construction parameters while predicting beat-up resistance in weaving. Standard fabrics offer advantages like design flexibility, predicting fabric properties, and aiding in specific end-use constructions, ultimately impacting weaving efficiency and fabric quality.

Cover Factor

Peirce proposed employing the cover factor as the foundation for creating comparable fabrics. He asserted that fabrics with the same cover would share similar characteristics, including texture and the permeability of light, water, or air.

The definition of the cover factor does not consider the weave, and fabrics with different weaves exhibit distinct properties. Therefore, when utilizing a cover factor to create comparable cloth, it is essential for the weave of the new fabric to match that of the original fabric. Caution is advised when applying these formulas to fabrics made from fibers other than cotton and with different yarn types.

Love’s Tightness

Love, building upon his theoretical work and utilizing standard fabrics with maximum construction, established a definition for fabric tightness.

Fabric tightness = sum of actual sett (epi + ppi) / sum of maximum theoretical sett 

Although Love's tightness formulas incorporate weave considerations, it's important to note their limitation to cotton fabrics and the exclusion of different yarn types. When comparing fabrics crafted from diverse fibers and yarn types, adjustments for these variations must be made.

New Tightness

Here is the link to Fabric Tightness Calculator using the new tightness formulae

To enhance the versatility of the geometric basis for tightness, we suggest incorporating a combination of Love's racetrack shape for threads under the float and Ahenhurst's geometry of ends-plus-intersections. Through this geometry and employing mathematical deduction techniques, we can derive the maximum thread density for any weave.


In the formula provided, 'e' represents the number of threads in the weave repeat, 'i' represents the number of weave intersections per repeat and 'd' is the thread diameter in centimeter (cm)

Yarn diameter can be calculated used the below formulae. This resultant diameter is in inches (in)

The new tightness is defined as

where t(actual) is the sum of actual fabric EPI and PPI and t(new) is the calculated maximum thread density.

Innovate with Kamlatech

Prashant Verma

15 years of experience in Technical Textiles, Smart Textiles, and IoT, having worked with top multinational companies. I specialize in developing innovative products and solutions in these fields. With nine domestic and international patents, I’m passionate about pushing the boundaries of technology and sharing insights on the latest trends and innovations in the textile and IoT sectors. linkedin github external-link

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